11 things you probably didn't know about Gigi Hadid
- Gigi Hadid comes from a family of supermodels.
- Her real name is Jelena — Gigi is a nickname.
- She's a skilled equestrian who loves to cook.
- Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.
Gigi is a Taurus.
She was born on April 23, 1995.
Her real name isn't Gigi.
Gigi's real name is Jelena Noura Hadid. According to Vogue Paris, Gigi's mother gave her the nickname, which stuck over the years.
Her mother is a famous model too.
Her siblings Bella and Anwar are also successful models — and their mother actually started the business.
Gigi's mom is Yolanda Hadid, a successful Dutch-American model and former star on "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills."
Her modeling career began when she was a toddler.
Hadid told Vanity Fair in 2014 that she was discovered by Paul Marciano when she was 2 years old. This lead to one of her first modeling gigs in a Baby Guess campaign.
She wanted to pursue a career in criminal psychology.
According to Elle, Hadid revealed in her Instagram story that if she never became a supermodel, she would've stuck to her college studies in criminal psychology.
But she also stated that she somehow would've found another path in a creative industry.
"I studied criminal psychology in college, and although I'm so intrigued by that field of work, I think that if I would have had a career in that, I would've still ended up working in something creative instead," she said in a 2018 Instagram story Q&A. "Even after I'm done modeling I think I'll always be a part of a creative process somehow."
She loves to cook.
The supermodel loves to cook and frequently posts her creations on social media.
She even impressed Gordon Ramsay with her cooking skills and won an episode of "Celebrity MasterChef."
She's a skilled equestrian and volleyball player.
According to a 2015 Vogue interview, Hadid was a very ambitious athlete when she was in high school.
"I stopped because I was a really competitive horseback rider and a club volleyball player," she said. "I went to Junior Olympic qualifiers for volleyball. So, I kind of stopped modeling. I just wanted to have a normal childhood and go to high school."
She also noted that she stopped playing sports competitively, but gets her exercise in through boxing.
Gigi has a few half siblings.
While she's known to be the oldest sibling of Bella and Anwar Hadid, she actually has two older half-sisters — personal shopper and stylist, Alana Hadid, and owner of Hadid Eyewear, Marielle Hadid.
Gigi has been the cover star of over 20 issues of Vogue.
This includes covering the front pages of Vogue, British Vogue, Vogue Paris, and Vogue Australia.
She believes in aliens.
She said that she and boyfriend Zayn Malik believe in the existence of aliens.
She's also a photographer.
The model stepped behind the camera to shoot her boyfriend Malik and supermodel Adwoa Aboah for Versus Versace.
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