Gigi Hadid recalls being told she didn't have a 'runway body'

Gigi Hadid walked a runway in every city for their respective fashion weeks – Paris, New York, London and now Milan – but there was once a time where people didn't think she would succeed because of her body.

In an interview published Wednesday for i-D Magazine, the 24-year-old model opened up being told she didn't have a body for the runway.

"At the time I was still starting out in my career, I was coming out of high school, I still had my volleyball body. It was a body that I loved. I knew how hard I worked to have those muscles, to be curved in those places – I kind of miss it now," Hadid said. "At the time, people were hard on me and tried to say that I didn’t have a runway body."

Hadid shared that she was given her first chance to walk on a Paris runway by Jean Paul Gaultier in 2015.

"For Jean Paul to have me at his last ready-to-wear show in 2015 – not only to have me, but also to put me in an outfit that didn’t cover a lot… like, there were still stylists or designers at that time who were putting me in their shows, but putting me in something that really covered my body," Hadid said. "And so for him to make me feel like he wanted me to shine in that way, it really meant a lot to me as a young model. And I know that he has done that for a lot of people."

Given how busy her work schedule has been, the model shared that she deals with the pace of the industry by taking time away at the farm she shares with her mother, Yolanda Hadid, in Pennsylvania.

"I think that everyone needs a place, or a space or a moment to themselves where they are able to do what they love and find their thing. For me that’s the farm, and whether that’s doing a little oil painting in the morning and then doing a puzzle in the afternoon," she said.

Hadid added the farm's distance from New York helps her re-energize.

"A lot of the time, I’ll have friends and family at the farm, but there are a lot of days where I’m there just by myself, and I sit in my little cottage in silence and just doing these little things for myself," she said. "I think that also gives me the energy and the love for what I do. It recharges my batteries."

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Gigi Hadid reflects on modeling career, body image