Golden-haired beauty of the late 2000s Blake Lively interviewed golden-haired beauty of today Gigi Hadid for Harper’s Bazaar this month. Lively is clearly a big fan of Hadid’s. She praised Hadid’s collection for Tommy Hilfiger, her “artistic” social-media presence, and her take-charge approach to her career. After they started talking about Gigi’s autoimmune disease, the conversation shifted to body positivity, and things got a little convoluted.
Hadid and Lively both agreed that they hope that people realize their magazine covers and ad campaigns don’t represent “real life.” But they also think you should remember that there’s beauty in everything, no matter what your body looks like. But also, thank goodness for retouching:
BL: It’s so important for young people not to compare themselves with what they see online. 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.” And you’re so relieved.
GH: It’s my experience that your body will grow and change, and there’s always beauty in it, no matter what.
BL: So true. It’s fun to try on the trends and enjoy the fantasy aspect of fashion and beauty. But my dream is for all images to have a little asterisk next to them with a caption that reads, this photo has been retouched. Just so there’s a gentle reminder that, hey, this isn’t real life. Think of editorials or ads as a painting, an art form. I mean, that’s definitely not how we wake up looking every single day of our lives.
Are we all on the same page? Good.