‘Yes, I have thighs’: Gigi hits back at body shamers in the BEST way
With her lean figure, perfect curves and flowing blonde hair, Gigi Hadid seems like perfect model material to us, but not everyone agrees.
The 20-year-old model took to Instagram yesterday to hit back at critics of her body shape, saying she refused to take cruel comments to heart any longer.
"I'm human, I'm not going to lie, I did let the negativity get to me a little," she admitted in the post, which she wrote over several days before posting online.
While Gigi's athletic body is a change from the boyish, super-skinny models so often seen on the catwalks, she says the progression should be seen as a good thing.
"I represent a body image that wasn't accepted in high fashion before," wrote the LA native, who has walked for Tommy Hilfiger, Diane von Furstenberg and Versace over the last fortnight alone.
"Yes I have boobs, I have abs, I have a butt, I have thighs, but I'm not asking for special treatment. I'm fitting into the sample sizes."
With a 64cm waist and 89cm hips, Gigi is just a few centimetres bigger than fellow model and BFF Kendall Jenner, but it seems that size difference has made her a target for some.
"I went to almost all of the agencies in New York when I first visited. A lot of them wanted to sign me but also kind of indirectly were telling me that I needed to change in some way," the model told Vogue.com yesterday.
"I signed with IMG because of how they supported me, who I am and who I already was. I always said I’m not going to change for anyone because I was really proud of who I was."
As a former volleyball champ, Gigi favoured a more muscular look in her teens, and says being skinny was never something she aspired to.
"I had crazy muscles and I [ate] like a man – more than the man that I eat like now, like a bigger man – and it was crazy but at the time I didn't care what my body looked like," she told Daily Mail last month.
"I just wanted to be the best volleyball player I could be so it didn't really matter to me."
We're loving Gigi's positive body image attitude.
