


“People meet me sometimes and say: ‘You’re so different to what I expected.’ People always tell me I seem mean or intimidating on social media. If I look cute then my friends are going to take a photo, but it’s not contrivedīella suggests that her sunny nature does not always come across in photographs. if you can’t be nice and work hard, somebody else will.” My Instagram is like your Instagram. And later: “My mom always said there’s prettier girls in the world, there’s harder working girls in the world. You know, I think about this every day: I feel so genuinely lucky to have the family I do”. It is a sign of how obsessed the fashion industry has become with the Hadids that Bella’s new Max Mara Accessories campaign sees her replace last season’s face, Gigi. Her parents, she says, “started from nothing and worked to give us the life that we have, and now I guess all we can try to do is repay them”.

Her speech is peppered with giggles and gracious expressions of “thank you”. When we talk on the phone, she conveys a mix of Miss-World-contestant bubbliness and Thatcherite gusto. Bella is brunette and looks more aloof, her face habitually arranged into a cheekbone-enhancing “fish gape”. Gigi is blond haired, blue eyed and smiley. Much has been written about Bella being “cooler” than Gigi, a conclusion that is seemingly based on the visuals.
