Bella Hadid

Bella Hadid (born October 9, 1996, Washington, D.C., U.S.) is an American model best known as the face of the fashion company Dior.

Early life, family, and education

Bella Hadid was born in Washington, D.C., and raised in Santa Barbara, California. She is the daughter of Mohamed Hadid, a Palestinian real estate developer, and Yolanda Hadid (née van den Herik), a former Dutch model. She has four siblings: Marielle, Alana, Gigi, and Anwar; the latter three also have careers in the fashion industry. They were raised Muslim, and, in a 2017 interview with Porter magazine, Hadid said she continued to be a proud Muslim.

Hadid began horseback riding at age 3, and she competed in horsemanship until she was 15. She was diagnosed in 2012 with chronic Lyme disease, which contributed to brain fog, anxiety, exhaustion, and joint pain, forcing her to give up her dream of competing in the Olympics. In 2014 she began attending Parsons School of Design in New York City to study photography, but she soon left to focus on modeling, which she had recently taken up, after signing with the agency IMG Models.

Modeling career

Hadid began modeling at age 16 with a commercial project for Flynn Skye, a women’s clothing line. But her career took off after she walked for Desigual, a Spanish fashion label, at the fall New York Fashion Week in 2014 and months later appeared on the runway for Tom Ford’s collection. She was soon walking at other major fashion events, including the fashion weeks in London and Paris. In late 2015, as she made the cover of magazines such as Seventeen and appeared in others, including Elle, she also made her debut with Chanel. In 2016 Hadid shared the runway with her sister Gigi for the first time, walking for Chanel Haute Couture. Hadid has indicated that she and Gigi have rarely had to compete with each other in the industry.

Hadid signed her first beauty campaign contract in 2016 as the brand ambassador for Dior Beauty. She became one of the most recognizable faces in modeling, as she walked in high-profile shows for numerous fashion houses and boosted their sales. In 2022 the brands she walked for averaged a nearly 30 percent boost in the attention they garnered on social media. Her accolades include several nominations for Model of the Year, a title she was awarded by GQ in 2016 and by the British Fashion Awards in 2022.