Bella Hadid: ‘It actually took me until probably this year to really understand my face’

Bella Hadid and Hailey Baldwin are bellissimo in the Big Apple

Did you guys know that CB is halfway obsessed with the Hadid sisters’ street style? It’s true! Personally, I’m more of a Bella Hadid, in that I don’t walk around smiling or looking happy. I also think I’m a “Bella” because she wears more black, almost like she’s an accidental goth, or she has goth influences (I too am an accidental goth). Anyway, here are some photos of Bella’s street style from the past month. She’s been leaning heavily on bad jeans and high-fashion sports bras. Bella has also been giving some interviews… about nothing in particular. Still, it’s worth discussing:

She’s going to win an Oscar: “I need to start taking acting classes and figure out a way to memorize things better because I have a really bad brain…But yes, the Oscar — one day.”

She wants to be a teenager again: When it comes to modeling, Hadid reveals she went from “just speaking to her horses and her mother [Yolanda],” to becoming a global superstar with about 14 million Instagram followers and walking on catwalks around the world. “I feel like I’ve rushed into becoming a woman, so now I just want to be a teenager again.”

She knows she’s lucky: “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 knows her naturally sunny disposition doesn’t always come across: “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.” This is more than a simple case of bitchy resting face: “I feel uncomfortable, sometimes, smiling in front of the camera. It actually took me until probably this year to really understand my face.”

Politics: When asked why she took part in the refugee-ban march, Hadid’s agent shuts down the conversation (“I think we are going to stay out of all that”). In an era in which protest is fashionable, when models with more niche online followings, such as Adwoa Aboah, use social media to promote feminism and activism, this is frustrating. Bella does talk about diversity in general, though, and about Halima Aden, who she says “changed fashion single-handedly” when she wore a hijab on the Max Mara catwalk in February. “It feels as though everything is finally coming together in the world of fashion; I feel like we are finally doing something for fashion that can make the world better.”

[From People, The Guardian]

“It actually took me until probably this year to really understand my face.” See, I have a problem with this. I like the Hadids and everything, but they literally became famous models before they actually learned how to BE models. Gigi Hadid couldn’t “walk” on a runway properly for years, and now Bella is admitting the obvious: she’s been a model for years and she’s never known what to do with her face. Thank god these girls are pretty, because they don’t have any other skills. And what skills they do have… it takes them years to learn. As for Bella winning an Oscar some day… that sounds Lohan-esque.

Bella Hadid poses for a fan as she carries a bouquet of roses after a photoshoot at MILK studios in New York City

Bella Hadid wears a white bustier and denim knee-length shorts while returning to her apartment after shopping at Chrome Hearts in New York

Photos courtesy of WENN, Pacific Coast News and Backgrid.

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50 Responses to “Bella Hadid: ‘It actually took me until probably this year to really understand my face’”

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  1. Lulu says:

    In her defense, this isn’t her original face so I’m sure it takes some getting used to.

  2. Nicole says:

    I like her street style as well. But yea she revealed herself here. Ie insta-models benefit from name only. And are really bad models. I don’t care how many Vogue covers they get it doesn’t change that.

  3. Neelyo says:

    It probably took her until this year to recognize her face after all the work.

  4. Enough Already says:

    It actually took me like two minutes to stop laughing :/

  5. HadleyB says:

    Does she mean it took a year for her face to settle after all the plastic surgery?

    Oh great, another “model” trying to be an actor and all the media push behind it.. I can’t wait.

  6. Skylark says:

    There is so much comically awful fashion victim in those pics.

  7. HK9 says:

    Vapid. Shallow. Talentless. Delusional.

    • Chetta B. says:

      Indeed, I nearly didn’t recognize her. What the hell has she done to her nose? And fillers at that age?? That one I’ll never understand.

  8. Merritt says:

    That weird inside out zipper is just awful. And anyone who had their face surgically altered beyond recognition is going to take time to adjust.

  9. FishBeard says:

    What is it with untalented wannabe actors thinking that they can win an Oscar by declaring it in a magazine? Obviously, they don’t realize that no one with legitimate credibility in the film industry will take then seriously, and certainly not the academy.

  10. Nancy says:

    I think she is pretty. Unlike our site regular Kylie, she listened to her mother when she basically said, girl you’re here because you’re lucky. Kylie thinks it has something to do with her, lol. In other words, if I had to have to lunch with the Kardashian sisters or the Hadids, I would be getting the 411 from Bella and Gigi!!

  11. Jamieee says:

    I actually really like her as a model. Gigi not so much (she’s gorgeous, but everything she does looks like it could be a Guess ad).

    I get that Insta-models bother people, but this is an industry that you learn while you’re in it. There’s no (legit) ‘modelling university’ where you go learn everything. You start as a teenager, if you’re lucky you get a break, and then you learn how to model as you get experience. Models like Kate and Natalia and so on have recently expressed the same ‘I didn’t know what I was meant to be doing’ sentiment. Lot’s of famous models have gotten their break before they knew how to move their face, their body, or even how to walk in heels.

    • Adrien says:

      Well, Gigi was a Guess model, Baby Guess, that is.

    • magnoliarose says:

      This is true. In their cases, my issue is that they aren’t even basic naturals at it. Going back to Kate Moss when she first started it was there instantly. She got better but she popped immediately. When you see their Polaroids it is there. It takes longer to get usable shots with the Insta girls because they don’t emote. It is a trick with the eyes but it only works if there is something behind them. In candid shots they shouldn’t look as vacant as they do. They look like someone clocked them on the back of the head and stunned them.
      What I don’t like and I will never like is the idea that enough plastic surgery can make a model. I don’t think it is a good message to young girls who are already insecure about their looks. It is a dangerous message. I know there will be a backlash since we are overrun with plastic models but until then, I don’t support them.

      • Fleur says:

        I would argue Natalia Vodianova also had a natural “it” when it came to modeling. When she broke onto the scene and the stayed mega popular with fashion houses for a solid five years after that (despite intermittent breaks due to pregnancy), you could see why they all wanted her. There was just something indescribably fascinating about her face in photographs. She was beautiful of course, but there was something so captivating about her. When she was in a frame, you couldn’t look elsewhere. I would say the same was true of Iman, Linda Evangelista, Christy Turlington, and definitely Kate Moss.

  12. Alleycat says:

    Of course she thinks she’ll win an oscar. All she had to do to be a model was tell her parents. I’m sure she thinks that’s how everything works.

  13. Tim H says:

    I love her look in the top photo. She’s always stunning!

    • Snowflake says:

      Yeah, i think she looks great in these pictures. Hair and makeup, and outfit are all flattering

  14. Henny in my Hand says:

    I must admit, her makeup in the photo where she’s holding the bouquet of flowers looks fantastic! She’s shining. Despite the nepotism I think she’s a great model.

  15. ZsaZsa Fierce says:

    Ever since Trump became the US President, I no longer doubt anyone’s ambitions.

  16. MiaSophia says:

    “It actually took me until probably this year to really understand my face.”

    Don’t know about Oscar, but she definitely has the award for “Most Inane Comment of 2017” in the bag.

    Enjoy your dubious, yet well-deserved honor.

  17. JA says:

    God life is unfair isn’t it? I’m sure even when this idiot’s career crashes and burns, she will still be fine and continue living a comfortable and leisurely life that she did not earn. Siiiiigh… and if she wins an Oscar, it will be a sad day for the whole world.

  18. Harryg says:

    Changing one’s face that much to get ahead in modeling is like doping.

    • Ksenia says:

      I agree. She used to look SO different; it’s true her whole face/look has changed. And imo she’s still fairly unattractive…but even if she *were* pretty, I’d feel like she was cheating at modeling, by transforming her natural born features so incredibly dramatically. Just can’t take this vapid nepotism “model” seriously.

    • magnoliarose says:

      Absolutely! I hate that with a passion and will never support it. I will admit that many get a little after they have made it but not a whole new face.

  19. Miss b says:

    Let me help you understand your face: you’re boring af and don’t understand how facial expressions work.

  20. krAkken says:

    Lol. Aspirations!! I too hope to one day understand my face🤔

  21. Electric Tuba says:

    That’s cool because my ears don’t understand the words coming out of your word hole in your face either. And I still can’t tell the difference between my ass and my elbow. Body parts are like, literally sooo confusing.

  22. Pumpkin (formally soup, pie) says:

    Acting *period* is not all about memorizing. It’s about presence, emotions, body language, visual expressions as well. It can happen that an actor will improvise in the moment and the ability to do so without having the director scream “cut” makes can her or him a great actor.

  23. Pumpkin (formally soup, pie) says:

    I saw her in a commercial a few months ago, for Dior or Channel, don’t remember which one. I had no idea it was her, but I recall thinking that the model absolutely stunning and that she was maybe European. I think she looks better in motion than in pictures. I do not hate her or hold anything against her except the way her family connections helped her career.
    Yes, I am not surprised she could not understand her face. Plastic surgeries should not be taken lightly, I watched this documentary once about people who regretted their surgeries. It can take a lot of getting used to the new face, and since her aspiration was modeling, all that focus on her face must have taken a toll.

  24. Bobafelty says:

    I’ll never get used to that terrible nose job!

  25. Zondie says:

    Vapid

  26. Olive says:

    Most of us grow up understanding our faces, but I guess if you chop it up as a teenager it will take time to understand your NEW face!

  27. Applepie says:

    Hummmm. Hope she is trying to be funny. I think she is the prettiest Hadid. Her street style is a mix of decades, but not my taste although not surprising as I am 20yrs older! What bugs my a**e the most is that these girls are so vapid. As @hk said. There are no role models here for environmental, social, ethical or political issues. They could raise so much awareness for so many causes. *sigh*

  28. Clairej says:

    Love how many people thought the same thing with her face comment. I am usually a bigger fan of Gigi, but more so a year or two ago (so stunning in that Calvin Harris video ‘How Deep Is Your Love’). I look at Bella and she does one look well, that seems to be it. But in no way is she a supermodel. But wll take her anyday over Kendall’s career and her new ridiculous lips

  29. perplexed says:

    I think her street style is weird for a model’s. Granted, I’m comparing her to someone like Kate Moss/Cindy Crawford/Gisele Bundchen.

  30. Julia says:

    She probably didn’t recognize herself after the massive amounts of plastic surgery she’s had.

  31. Laura says:

    It’s ok hon, we don’t understand your face either.