"It’s so important for young people not to compare themselves with what they see online"
Model Gigi Hadid is the Harper’s Bazaar cover star for May, and in a candid interview with fellow celebrity and actor Blake Lively, the two women got to chatting about how their pictures — ubiquitous in advertising and magazines as they’ve fronted beauty, fashion, and jewelry campaigns — are often manipulated to appear more perfect. Lively even admitted that she’s felt “relieved” about retouching.
“It’s so important for young people not to compare themselves with what they see online,” she said to Hadid. “It’s our job as actors and/or models to be in shape. We have access to gyms and trainers and healthy food. And then on top of that, 99.9 percent of the time the images are Photoshopped. I’m guilty myself of being at a photo shoot and saying, ‘That looks terrible on me.’ And they’re like, ‘We’ll fix it.’”
Hadid, for her part, has been the subject of much speculation about her body’s evolution over her years in front of the camera. she started modeling when she was just a teen, and is now only 22. “If I could choose, I would have my ass back and I would have the tits I had a few years ago,” she told Lively. “But, honestly, we can’t look back with regret. I loved my body then, and I love my body now.”
Both Hadid and Lively have made a practice of speaking out against body shaming and of being open about their hard work to stay fit. Hadid has the thyroid condition Hashimoto’s disease, and Lively — mother of two daughters — is no stranger to a gym selfie.