Bella Hadid Defends Sister Gigi and Kendall Jenner's Modeling Careers: They 'Work Their A**es Off'
Bella Hadid has been praised as the "model of the moment," but doesn't understand why her sister Gigi Hadid and pal Kendall Jenner have faced criticism about how they came up in the industry.
In June, Stephanie Seymour slammed Kendall and Gigi, telling Vanity Fair that they weren't real supermodels and deserved their own title. When asked what that title should be, Seymour responded, "B**ches of the moment!"
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"It's crazy. I've worked with Stephanie before and loved her; she was sweet to me. I don't know if she meant it in that mean way," Bella tells Glamour magazine. "But even so, it's still hurtful. My sister and Kendall work their a**es off. We're all working hard."
Further defending the work that goes into being a model, Bella adds, "You just have to let your success speak for itself…because at the end of the day, we're making our money.… 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."
Bella also gushes over her boyfriend, The Weeknd, and is adamant that their relationship is the real deal. "I'm dating Abel [Tesfaye]. I don't see him as The Weeknd," she insists. "I'm proud of The Weeknd and the music he makes, but I really love Abel."
While Gigi has been forced to defend her modeling career, Bella says people "are really mean" to her when it comes to her struggle with Lyme disease, an illness that her mother Yolanda and brother Anwar Hadid also battle. "They always say that I don't have what I have -- but it's taken a toll on my life since I was 15," she shares. "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."
The family's health struggles have only made them closer. Last October, Gigi teared up talking to ET about her mother and siblings' illness. "I'm the only one in, of my siblings, my mom and my family that hasn't been affected by Lyme disease," she said, getting choked up. "It's been really hard for me because I'm the only one that doesn't really understand it."
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The 21-year-old model added, "My sister is my best friend, my mom is my best friend, my brother is my best friend. And you know when we need each other we're always there and you know automatically no matter what we have."
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