Bella Hadid (/həˈdiːd/; born October 9, 1996) is an American fashion model, signed to IMG Models in 2014. In December 2016, the Industry voted her “Model of the Year” for Model.com’s Model of the Year 2016 Awards.
Hadid was born and raised in Los Angeles to real-estate developer Mohamed Hadid and former model Yolanda Hadid. Her mother is a Dutch-born American, and her father is Palestinian American. Hadid has two siblings, an older sister named Gigi, who is also a model, and a younger brother, Anwar. She has two older half-sisters, Marielle and Alana, on her father’s side.
Hadid and her siblings were originally raised on a ranch in Santa Barbara and then moved out to Malibu while she was still in elementary school.
As a teenager, Hadid was an equestrian player and had dreams to attend the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro but had to give up competing in 2013 due to her suffering from Lyme disease. It was not announced that she suffered from Lyme until October 2015. She was diagnosed with the disease in 2012.
In Fall of 2014, Hadid moved to New York City and began studying photography at the Parsons School of Design, signing to IMG shortly before. She has since dropped out of school due to the success of her modeling career. She has expressed interest in wanting to go back to school and take on Fashion Photography as a career once she is done modeling. Hadid has also expressed interest in writing and acting once she is done with her modeling.