Gigi Hadid

From the moment she entered the fashion world, Gigi Hadid’s body has been under a microscope. Early in her career, she was unfairly labeled “too big for the industry” - criticism that completely ignored the health challenges she was silently dealing with.

In a powerful Twitter post, Gigi opened up about her experience living with Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disorder that affects the thyroid.

She said: “For those of you so determined to come up with why my body has changed over the years, you may not know that when I started @ 17 I was not yet diagnosed w/Hashimoto’s disease; those of u who called me ‘too big for the industry’ were seeing inflammation and water retention due to that. Over the last few years I’ve been properly medicated to help symptoms including those, as well as extreme fatigue, metabolism issues, body’s ability to retain heat, etc … I was also part of a holistic medical trial that helped my thyroid levels balance out. Although stress and excessive travel can also affect the body, I have always eaten the same, my body just handles it differently now that my health is better. I may be ‘too skinny’ for u, honestly this skinny isn’t what I want to be, but I feel healthier internally and am still learning and growing with my body everyday, as everyone is.”