When she’s not on the runway, Gigi Hadid has been steadily committing herself to UNICEF.
She’s served as an ambassador for the organization for the past two years, efforts
Variety recognized in New York City on Friday, April 5, by honoring her at its Power of Women event.
In her speech, the 23-year-old model shared her takeaways from a recent trip to meet
Rohingya refugees living in a camp in Bangladesh. “Even with their lives in limbo,
these women and girls had such desire to do more, to be more, and to get educated to
better their lives,” she told the audience “When we asked them how UNICEF
could help in different ways, and most importantly, what they wanted us to
tell the world about them, what it really boiled down to was that they want an identity.”
She went on to discuss the “gift of identity” so many of take for granted.
“What they would do for a citizenship, for an identity, to be able to scroll and type and have a voice in that sense,”
she said, choking up with tears.
“We can get so stuck in our own heads, and our own worlds can feel very overwhelming at times,
but most of us have the true gift of identity, and the power to express ourselves,
the power to speak out for those who cannot for themselves, and the power to uplift one another,”
Gigi continued. “I feel resentment towards social media at times, but as I documented my trip with UNICEF,
I understood the true value — someone is listening,” she said.
“Be a voice for someone, support someone, encourage someone, tell someone how they inspire you.
We cannot let the negative comments, the bad energy, and false
assumptions of us keep us from doing the good we know we can do with our platforms.”.
