Bella Hadid turns 20th today! So to celebrate we’ve pulled together all the hilarious, incredibly honest and down-to-earth quotes from the stunner herself.
On becoming an adult…
Her honestly about her battle with Lyme disease…
“People are really mean about it. They always say that I don’t have what I have—but it’s taken a toll on my life since I was 15. I’ll occasionally get comments now like, “How do you have this disease if you’re working every day?” But I didn’t want it to hold me back anymore. I’m still 19; I still have a life and things to do.”
“It starts with brain fog; for a while I couldn’t put sentences together. I’m really tired a lot. A few weeks ago I had a big campaign shoot that I had to reschedule. It’s hard, but I push through, because at the end of the day, if you’re not working, somebody else is.”
On the free the nipple movement…
“I mean, my mom is European. My whole family is European. We were always very comfortable with our bodies. It’s fine if you don’t want to show your body like that. But if a woman wants to show her body, I’m all for it. Everybody loves a little nip.”
“I’m really proud to be a woman. I love that women can be feminine but also powerful. You know, free the nipple!”
On her style…
“I always love to dress up, but I usually end up in a leather jacket and boots!”
“My whole life I’ve been pretty independent with my style, and my mum has been really giving when it comes to that. When I was super young I would paint my nails black and wear eyeliner and she let me do what I wanted to, which really shaped my style.”
One the pieces she buys over and over… #feels
“Leather jackets. I just feel like I can’t get enough”
“I have literally 200 pairs of jeans. Every time I’m like, ‘I don’t have any jeans,’ and my mum says, ‘You’re crazy.'”
On her special sisterly bond with Gigi…
“I don’t know about twins, but we’re definitely a lot more similar than people think. We have the same voice, the same mannerisms. Sometimes we’ll finish each other’s sentences, or we’ll be the only people laughing. We’ve always been close.”
“Honestly, I’m her biggest fan. Every morning I’ll text her—just today, I was like, ‘I’m so proud of you! You’re doing so well.’ She just booked the Vogue Spain cover, and I was like, ‘You’re my inspiration.’”
On her career…
“I just aspire to be the best I can be. I want to work hard and set one goal at a time for myself.”
“If I don’t book a job, I like to see it not as a rejection but as a redirection to something different.”
“I want to keep modelling. I want to give back to the world. In five years I would love to be just really happy.”
On competition in the modelling industry…
“I don’t want anybody to fail. Why would you wish that upon somebody? If you’re a powerful woman and you’re confident in yourself, you want other people to succeed.”
On her night routine…
“I literally order sushi, watch ‘Law & Order,’ and go to sleep at 9 o’clock every night. I’m a grandmother.”
On her love for horses and equestrian…
“My devotion stemmed from my mom’s love of horses. I have been riding since I could walk and the fact that my mom knew everything about horses really helped my passion grow.”
“It taught me a lot about responsibility. You’re up at 5:30 a.m. caring for and riding a huge animal. I would be at horse shows by myself for weeks, and I had to make sure I was on my game at all times.”
On being yourself…
“I’m not trying to be this cool girl. If you’re trying to be something you’re not, it’s slowly going to bite you in the butt.”
On being a celebrity…
“I don’t walk down the street like, “I’m famous.” It’s still weird to me when people ask for pictures. My close friends from high school keep me grounded—they don’t care about what I do. I’m still the same person I was, and I try hard not to change.”
On travelling alone…
“Even though you’re in Paris and London, at the end of the day, you come home and you’re by yourself. Sometimes I break down and cry. But once I am done with a full month in Europe, I step back and think, I’m so lucky.”
