Model Bella Hadid says she wept "every day" and was stricken with eating disorders and chronic anxiety as a teen before she shot to fame as a model.
In an interview with an i-D magazine, the 25-year-old opened up about her youth as she said that she was smoking heavily from the age of 14 and suffered body dysmorphia after she found success, reports aceshowbiz.com.
"Growing up, I thought it was normal that I had this chronic anxiety and this disassociation, crying every day and not knowing who I was," she recalled.
"Whether it was eating disorders or smoking a pack of Marlboros since the age of 14, I'm like, 'Oh, this is what all of the kids are doing. I realized that maybe that was me trying to figure out why I felt that way. And in reality, all I needed was therapy."
Hadid went on to talk about struggling with body dysmorphia in her early days as a model. "During that part of my life, I was so out of the body, disassociating so much... I was so confused by what people saw of me," the younger sister of model Gigi Hadid added.
She is now getting ready to make her acting debut in the series 'Ramy', which tells of a first-generation American-Muslim is torn between his family's traditional and modern American culture.
Bella said about reveling in her Palestinian heritage during the shooting.
"To go onto a set and see multiple Palestinians, Arabs, and people that are cut from the same cloth as I was beautiful."
She added her belief in speaking out for Palestinians amid the ongoing conflict with Israel previously cost her work. "A few companies won't work with me anymore, and a few people may think I'm crazy. But that doesn't bother me and it doesn't compare to what Palestinians suffer daily." (AA/IANS)
