Gigi Hadid has opened up about navigating her multiethnic identity and raising a mixed-race child with her multiracial boyfriend Zayn Malik.
Talking to the i-D magazine, the American supermodel whose father is Palestinian shed light on growing up with a multiethnic heritage and now navigating it with her boyfriend and the father of her daughter, British-Pakistani singer Zayn.
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“Zayn and I think about it and talk about it a lot as partners and it’s something that’s really important to us, but it’s also something that we first experienced ourselves,” Hadid told i-D. “We are that first generation of those mixed races, and then that comes with that first generational experience of being like, ‘Oh damn, I’m the bridge!’ That’s not something that my parents experienced or that they can really help me through. It’s something I’ve always thought about my whole life.”
Gigi also shared how, at times, she feels “too white” to stand up for part of her Arab heritage.
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“You go through life trying to figure out where you fit in racially. Is what I am, or what I have, enough to do what I feel is right? But then, also, is that taking advantage of the privilege of having the whiteness within me, right? Am I allowed to speak for this side of me, or is that speaking on something that I don’t experience enough to know?” she explained.
The 26-year-old supermodel, however, assured that her daughter Khai will grow up proud of her origins and that she plans to have organic discussions about this topic with her. “I think that Khai will grow up feeling out the way that she can or wants to be a bridge for her different ethnicities,” she said.
“I think that it will be nice to be able to have those conversations and see where she comes from with it, without us putting that onto her. What comes from her is what I’m most excited about, and being able to add to that or answer her questions, you know?”
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Gigi first confirmed her pregnancy in April 2020 and welcomed her first daughter in September 2020 with Zayn announcing the birth on Instagram with a sweet message. “The love I feel for this tiny human is beyond my understanding. Grateful to know her, proud to call her mine, and thankful for the life we will have together,” he had said.
