Bella Hadid Admits She's Only Just Learned To 'Understand' Her Face (2024)

With 14 million Instagram followers, a new Max Mara Accessories campaign under her belt, and becoming the face of Dior Make-up earlier this year, you might be surprised to hear modelling doesn't come naturally to Bella Hadid.

However, in one of her most honest interviews to date, the 20-year-old Californian beauty has opened up about the gnawing insecurities she feels when it comes to her work and social media presence.

With piercing blue eyes and a strong pout, Bella admits people are often surprised when they meet her and realise she's not as cold as she may appear on the catwalk.

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'People meet me sometimes and say:"'You're so different to what I expected". People always tell me I seem mean or intimidating on social media. But I really love engaging with new people,' she admitted to the Guardian.

'I feel uncomfortable, sometimes, smiling in front of the camera. It actually took me until probably this year to really understand my face,' she added, days after posting a bathroom selfie of her bare-skinned face.

Discussing her social media presence, which has seen her most recently calling out the paparazzi for taking private photographs of her inside her New York City apartment, and enjoying some down-time with her model BFF Kendal Jenner in Europe, Bella says she often struggles with how much to reveal to the public about her private life.

'In the beginning, I was very trusting,' she says. 'Now I have taken a step back. So, I post things that are personal, but not too personal, things that still have that kind of look into my life ... but I guess I should hold off.

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'I don't know. It's a very weird subject. You kind of feel it's over-exposing sometimes. I guess there shouldn't be that many people looking at one person constantly,' she added.

The former Olympic horse riding hopeful also revealed the worst part of social media is when she sees her photographs or messages mentioned in the news. 'That is not a place I like to be,' she admitted.

However, from the sounds of it, the model won't be permanently coming off Instagram anytime soon.

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'My Instagram is just like your Instagram. If I look cute then my friends are going to take a photo, but it's not contrived or planned,' she revealed.

Opening up about her close relationship with her parents (The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star and former Dutch-American model Yolanda Hadid and millionaire real-estate developer Mohamed Hadid), the model said her work ethnic comes from a place of gratitude and love for her parents.

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'[They] started from nothing and worked to give us the life that we have, and now I guess all we can try to do is repay them,' she said, referring to both her and her sister Gigi's successful modelling careers.

'I feel so genuinely lucky to have the family I do.

'My mom always said there's prettier girls in the world, there's harder working girls in the world ... if you can't be nice and work hard, somebody else will,' she admitted, echoing a line frequently used by Gigi when discussing the importance of being kind in the fashion industry.

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However, amid the fame and fortune, Bella admitted she's not naïve to the underlying injustices, poverty and hardships suffered around the world, months after participating in the 'No Ban No Wall' march in New York where she opened up about being 'proud to be Muslim' for the first time.

'It's just devastating: you see completely emaciated children and I'm supposed to go eat these incredible dinners when there are children who don't even have water. Those are the things I want to help with,' she said.

You have our backing, Bella.