Bella Hadid has reflected on feeling “ugly” next to her elder sister and fellow model Gigi growing up.
The supermodel, who is the cover star of American Vogue’s April issue, spoke candidly of feeling insecure about her body and the way she looked as a teenager.
“I was the uglier sister. I was the brunette. I wasn’t as cool as Gigi, not as outgoing,” she said. “That’s really what people said about me.”
Hadid – one of the most highly coveted models in the world, with an Instagram following of more than 50 million people – said the comments affected her self-esteem, and she came to believe it was true.
“Unfortunately, when you get told things so many times, you do just believe it,” she said.
Hadid also admitted to having a nose job at age 14, though she told the fashion magazine that she wishes she had “kept the nose of [her] ancestors”.
The 25-year-old is the daughter of Dutch model Yolanda Hadid and Palestinian-Jordanian real estate developer Mohamed Hadid.
“I think I would have grown into it,” she added.
Hadid has long been thought to have had cosmetic procedures on her face.
Social media users previously shared a photograph of her at an Agassi Foundation charity event in 2010 alongside a recent picture, claiming that she had changed some of her features.
Addressing any further plastic surgery rumours, Hadid told Vogue that she has never had filler.
“People think I fully f***ed with my face because of one picture of me as a teenager looking puffy,” she said.
“I’m pretty sure you don’t look the same now as you did at 13, right? I have never used filler. Let’s just put an end to that. I have no issue with it, but it’s not for me.”
She also asserted that she has had no cosmetic procedures on the rest of her face, such as her eyes and jaw.
“Whoever thinks I’ve gotten my eyes lifted or whatever it’s called—it’s face tape! The oldest trick in the book,” she said.
