Gigi Hadid admits to suffering from ‘imposter syndrome all the time’

Gigi Hadid never fails to enthral every time she sashays down the ramp. But, despite her ever-surging popularity, Gigi, too, like many of us, ends up doubting her skills, especially as the founder of a fashion brand. In an interview with Vogue at the magazine’s Forces of Fashion event, she confessed, “I have imposter syndrome all the time”. For the unversed, imposter syndrome is a feeling of persent doubt about one’s abilities and accomplishments along with an internalised fear of being exposed as a fraud.
According to Aishwarya Raj, Clinical Psycholog, practising in Delhi NCR, “Imposter syndrome is also called perceived fraudulence. It involves feelings of self-doubt and personal incompetence that pers despite a person’s education, experience, and accomplishments.”
The expert highlighted that many people with imposter syndrome grew up in families that stressed success and achievements. “If a person’s parents went back and forth between overpraise and criticism, he/she may be more likely to have feelings of being a fraud later in life. Society’s pressures to achieve can also contribute,” she explained. To counter these feelings, they might end up working harder and holding themselves to ever higher standards.
“Initially, it was believed to only affect professional women but subsequent research have shown that ‘Impostorism’ affects a wide range of people. It has been observed to affect both genders and to occur in people with different occupations such as college students, academics, medical students, marketing managers, and physician assants (Sakullu & Alexander, 2011). It is estimated that 70% of people will experience at least one episode of this Impostor Phenomenon in their lives (Gravois, 2007),” Akanksha Pandey, Consultant Clinical Psychology, Fortis Hospital, Bannerghatta Road said.
To overcome this feeling, Raj suggested decreasing your inability to realically assess your competence and skills. “One can start attributing success to external factors and starts doubting oneself,” she said. Pandey suggested “seeking professional help from a mental health professional” if this doesn’t work.
Talking about her cashmere label ‘Guest in Residence’, the model also revealed that while launching a fast-fashion brand for instant gratification and revenue was tempting, she chose to go the sustainable route.

“And I thought that it was a bit not necessarily obvious, but expected for me to come out with something that was more a fast-fashion type situation. It just felt like the right material that I could play with in a lot of different ways that was true to me, true to my style,” she said.

While Gigi, who has a two-year-old daughter Khai, always had the idea to create her label, it wasn’t until she got pregnant that she decided to make it a reality. “You can’t model forever. I was creative and that is where I saw my life going,” she said.
She continued, “I already had been thinking about cashmere, but I think it [pregnancy] just made me think about how much more settled I would feel to have an office space job. I can take my daughter there with me.”
📣 For more lifestyle news, follow us on Instagram | Twitter | Facebook and don’t miss out on the latest updates!