Supermodel Sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid Share Battle Against Their Chronic Illnesses

Confidence is key, especially if you’re a model. People from all over the world sees models as an inspiration when it comes to style, people also admire their fitness and lifestyle because it seems like they are ‘perfect’. In this generation, models define the word beauty and fit, because they are on the skinny scale and if you don’t have a model-like body, then you wouldn’t be classified as one, which is of course very sad since beauty doesn’t always mean skinny, in fact it doesn’t even mean beauty at all. When you ask experts why models have to be so skinny, they would say that it is so that clothes would easily fit everyone.

However, what most people don’t know is that there are models who actually didn’t choose to be that skinny or that there are still models who aren’t skinny enough, but there are also those who most people would admire but turns out that they are struggling with something that nobody thought. Just like these two sister models who are both struggling with different chronic diseases.

BELLA HADID’S LYME DISEASE

Despite being young, this younger Hadid sister has managed to pull off and make her way into the runway. In fact, at the age of just 19-years-old, Bella Hadid had managed to snag an award from GQ’s Model of the Year in 2016. Bella described that night as so crazy and that it is one of her best wow moments, and that she has been working hard despite being exhausted all the time while dealing with her Lyme disease. “Even today I was struggling to get up and get here, even though I’m so excited it’s still that little bit of a struggle.”

She was definitely not alone though, because her mother, Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star, Yolanda Hadid, is also battling with Lyme and that she is actually determined to find a cure not just for herself or for her daughter and even Bella’s younger brother Anwar who has it, but for the people from all over the world who are also suffering from Lyme.

Bella loves horse riding and even wanted to be a professional but her disease stops her from pursuing that dream. However, she is still keeping her head up high and moving on living her life. When asked if she has any advice for those who are suffering like her, the model said, “Keep going. I, here winning model of the year which is so crazy, but I wouldn’t had been able to do it unless my mom and people around the world pushed me and said this okay,” Bella encouraged. “You know there are people with other diseases too, it’s not only Lyme’s. But everybody has to keep moving forward and stay confident – you’ll get there.”

There have been rumors that she and her mother are just faking the fact that they are sick, which is why she had to post an emotional tribute on her mother on Instagram after praising her book, Believe Me: My Battle With The Invisible Disability of Lyme Disease. Bella and her mother Yolanda are not the only public figures who are suffering from Lyme, singer Avril Lavigne, Ashley Olsen, and actor Richard Gere were also diagnosed. Lyme disease has got to be one of the fastest-growing infections in the Western world that has long-term effects according to experts.

GIGI HADID’S HASHIMOTO’S DISEASE

Bella Hadid along with her mother Yolanda and younger brother, Anwar, are all suffering from Lyme disease, which left out her older sister, Gigi. However, it turns out that the elder Hadid is battling her own disease. Before taking on Victoria’s Secret runway last year for the very first time along with her sister, Gigi was revealed to have been suffering from Hashimoto’s disease, which is actually the most common thyroid disorder.

According to experts, this is a condition wherein the immune system is basically attacking the thyroid gland, which then causes the thyroid to limit its ability to make enough hormones that the body needs and may form a lump on the throat once the glands get swollen and damaged.

The elder Hadid was supposed to be a part of this year’s Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show in Shanghai, China, but unfortunately, she announced on Twitter that she wouldn’t be coming. With no explanation on her part, people speculated that this is because of what she did earlier this year on a video where she was mocking Asian facial features.