by While the fashion industry can’t get enough of Bella Hadid, some corners of TikTok seem a little more skeptical. Sometimes quite rudely. They might be inspired by her style, but Generation Z also likes to tease Bella, mostly because of her eating habits. A specific video interview with i_D last year created a lot of fodder for the app, and the ridicule got to the point where Hadid felt the need to respond and defend her love of pizza, of all things.
Chances are if you’ve spent any time on TikTok, specifically the side filled with fashion show and model videos, you’ve heard the sound of Hadid simply saying, “So my name, my name is Bella Hadid.” The audio has been used over 160,000 times on the app, often in videos of TikTokers sporting Hadid-inspired makeup, an outfit purchased by Depop, or giving their best runway walk. Some, however, have embraced it in a more toxic trend, using the sound after eating their “first salad in months,” like Sarah Hyland, or showing off their tall, thin Christmas tree.
Lately, there has been talk around the return of fashion’s idolization of the ultra-thin. After years of the industry trying to push for size inclusion, there’s a sense that efforts are waning. Much attention has been paid to the Kardashians’ seemingly slimmer silhouettes, and just this week, the New York Times’ Vanessa Friedman tweeted about the “extreme thinness” of the models in Jason Wu’s recent show. Hadid, who won both the British Fashion Council and Models.com Model of the Year awards in 2022, is affectionately the face of the industry right now. And while she can’t be described as “extremely skinny”, she is arguably very skinny.
This brings us to another moment from that i_D interview that has gained popularity in recent weeks, when Bella talks about her favorite foods. “My favorite snack, probably pizza at least once a day,” she says, awkwardly choosing her words and clearly wavering between having pizza is a weekly or a daily occurrence. It’s because of her lack of confidence in her response, the narrative about models’ bodies, and some dietary advice given by her mother (which Yolanda claimed was taken out of context) that TikTok decided not to believe Bella’s claim. “Bella Hadid is reaching out to her marketing manager for her most relatable response,” wrote one person on a TikTok using the sound. The video now has 1.4 million likes, with comments like “help, is she reading from a script?” and “LMAO, I know she has no idea what pizza tastes like.”
Clearly, though, Hadid is protective of her pizza. Because on Monday, about two weeks after the sound went viral, the model decided to respond. She posted two photos to her Instagram story, showcasing all the pizza pictures on her phone.
So yeah, she has a lot of pizza pics, though I say, as someone who likes food in the normal amount, if I search for “pizza” in my camera role (which is ostensibly what Hadid did for these screenshots ), a good amount of photos appear. This doesn’t prove that she eats a lot of pizza, but that she hangs around a lot and likes to take pictures. However, this is far from the first time Hadid has mentioned her love of food. In 2015, she said Seventeen about his pizza habit and other “really unhealthy foods”. In a 2018 interview with Go to Hollywood, she mentioned the food again, as well as her tendency to grab a quick slice during busy fashion weeks. That same year, she showed off the two pies she brought with her on a private jet. A scan of her Instagram will show the model enjoying a slice with Miley Cyrus and on a fire escape in New York. I could go on but you get the point. The model loves pizza. Most recently, Hadid was spotted munching on her food while walking around New York City with her boyfriend, Marc Kalman, and for her birthday this year, her friends surprised her by renting out Lucali, a highly acclaimed pizzeria in Brooklyn.
The point is that the model likes pizza. She’s not just saying this to be relatable. Chances are, she’s learned over her years in the spotlight that faking identification rarely pays off. She probably doesn’t eat it daily (it’s called overeating), and I’m sure weeks go by without her eating a slice. While the public shouldn’t have jumped down Hadid’s throat after that interview, I agree that her response is odd but feels like a case of taking out frustrations surrounding a bigger problem on the one person who happens to be in front of you. I’m also unhappy with what appears to be the growing lack of size diversity on the runways, but it’s not Bella’s fault. Let her eat the pizza in peace.
