It is no surprise that Gigi Hadid has class and dignity on top of her dazzling looks. On Monday, Gigi released a statement on Instagram that captured her raw emotions and feelings towards the negative comments she receives on social media about her looks and figure.
“These are obviously also people that don’t think of you as an actual human with actual feelings, which I think is a really big problem right now in social media,” Gigi told Vogue.com.
“There are people who feel like they’re able to hide behind their usernames and their private accounts, who feel like they can say whatever they want and it won’t affect anyone. I try not to pay attention to it that much, but it got to a point where I started to feel self-conscious about certain things — in the way that I felt that my walk, for example, is unique and I also felt like I needed to improve it. When you see that people are not only saying [negative things] but are saying them in a very, very hurtful way, you start to pay more attention to it.”
Gigi handled the hurtful comments and social media stabs with poise and elegance by standing up for not only herself, but all women struggling to find a voice in the modeling industry. Models such as Tyra Banks applauded Gigi for her compelling and honest words.
“I honestly broke down, I started crying at the multiple text messages I got today from everyone, from Victoria’s Secret models to plus-size models to people like Tyra Banks, who posted the Instagram letter and who is someone I’ve looked up to for my entire life. Those are the people who really touched me because I know those are the people who are the most emotionally affected within the fashion industry by this type of criticism,” Gigi told Vogue.com.
We hope more powerful women like Gigi come forward and end this type of hatred on all social media platforms. We applaud her and other models who are standing up for themselves and all women who are effected by hate comments every day.