A Look Back at Bella Hadid's Career

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As hard as it is to believe, the path Bella Hadid initially envisioned herself walking did not involve runways. But when the bright-eyed child matured into a stunningly beautiful adult, the fashion world quickly came calling and the rest is history.

Hadid, however, considers herself much more than a model and rejects the stereotypes often associated with her chosen profession. As passionate about the arts as she is about her privacy when she’s not working Hadid prefers to spend her time far away from the flashing lights that have made her one of the most photographed faces on the planet.

The second child of Yolanda, a Dutch model and television personality, and Mohamed, a Palestinian real estate developer, Isabella Khair Hadid was born on October 9th, 1996, in Washington, D.C.. As a young child, her parents divorced and Hadid, along with her old sister, Gigi, and younger brother, Anwar, moved to a ranch in Santa Barbara, California with her mother. It was there that Hadid discovered her love of 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.” Practicing on a daily basis, Hadid dreamed of competing in the Olympics. But when she was diagnosed with Lyme disease, Hadid had to give up competing owing to the physical toll it took on her body.

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The second child of Yolanda, a Dutch model and television personality, and Mohamed, a Palestinian real estate developer, Isabella Khair Hadid was born on October 9th, 1996, in Washington, D.C.. As a young child, her parents divorced and Hadid, along with her old sister, Gigi, and younger brother, Anwar, moved to a ranch in Santa Barbara, California with her mother. It was there that Hadid discovered her love of 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.” Practicing on a daily basis, Hadid dreamed of competing in the Olympics. But when she was diagnosed with Lyme disease, Hadid had to give up competing owing to the physical toll it took on her body.

Wikimedia | https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bella_Hadid_as_Black_Widow.jpg

Upon graduating from Malibu High in the spring of 2014, Hadid signed with IMG models and moved to New York City to study fashion photography at the famed Parsons School of Design. Considered a hallowed training ground for creativity, its alumni consist of such notable names as designers Donna Karan, Marc Jacobs and Tom Ford and artists Jasper Johns, Norman Rockwell and Jacqueline Humphries. Months after starting at Parsons, Hadid made her New York Fashion Week debut for Desigual and appeared on her first cover for Jalouse magazine. By the spring of 2015 her modeling career was in full-swing, prompting Hadid to step away from her studies in order to take full advantage of her rapidly rising star.

Over the course of the next year, she walked the runway in shows for Tom Ford, Diane von Furstenberg, Balmain, Marc Jacobs and Chanel. Additionally, she appeared on the covers of Seventeen, Unconditional, Grey, S Moda, Teen Vogue, Editorialist and Evening Standard magazines, not to mention several featured editorials for publications like GQ, Harper’s Bazaar, Girl Japan and W. Demand for Hadid’s services skyrocketed the following year, during which she was named as the new ambassador for Dior makeup, Bulgari’s accessory lines and TAG Heuer. To cap it all off, Hadid was voted Model of the Year by fellow industry professionals at the Model.com awards and won Model of the Year at the annual GQ Men of the Year awards.

Hadid has also appeared in music videos for several prominent artists such as Jessie Jo Stark, Belly and The Weeknd, whom Hadid began dating in 2015. The couple made their first public appearance together at the Coachella Music Festival that same year, and in December she starred in his music video In the Night. But their demanding schedules took a toll on the relationship and they went their separate ways in the winter of 2016. Briefly reconciling in 2018, the couple again parted company in 2019.

A proud Muslim, Hadid is an ardent advocate for human and religious rights and often attends rallies and protests in support of those causes. As popular on social media, as she is on the runway, Hadid has 26.4 million followers on Instagram and well over a million followers on Twitter. And while she has expressed an interest in acting, Hadid’s first love is fashion photography and she plans on returning to Parsons and finishing what she started once her modeling career comes to a close.