If your New Year’s resolution is to spend less time checking your ‘likes’ and more time away from your iPhone screen, you’re in good company: Gigi Hadid (she of 26.4 million Instagram followers) will also be taking a break from social media in the first month of 2017.
Speaking at Reebok’s #PerfectNever panel discussion, the model explained why she would be following close friend Kendall Jenner’s example and embarking on a digital detox throughout January, revealing ‘I’m taking a month off [from social media] actually, during New Year’s. I’m not deleting my account, I’m just taking the apps off my phone.’
‘It’s empowering, not just for people in the spotlight, for everyone,’ she added. ‘At the end of the day I’m choosing what I show you. A lot of the world feels so entitled to other peoples’ lives, which is so crazy.’
‘I’m going to take a break when I feel like it, and when I come back and share it with you, if you want to be supportive and still follow me, that’s great. But if you’re going to be upset that I need to be human for a month, then maybe I don’t want your follow anyway.’ Hiatus or no hiatus, we’re willing to bet that a fair fraction of Gigi’s Instagram following will still be there come 1st February.
Gigi was joined at the panel discussion in New York by Lena Dunham, Ruby Rose, Zoe Kravitz and gymnast Aly Raisman to talk about everything from fitness to empowerment and how to challenge ideas of ‘perfection.’
The model, who was announced as a Reebok brand ambassador in October, also revealed that she relies upon a strong support network of friends during tough times (such as earlier this year, when she was assaulted by Vitalii Sediuk while leaving the Fendi show at Milan Fashion Week).
‘You find your family in other places. We have a great friend group where we can all come to each other all the time and just say, “Well, that was sh*t!”’ she laughed, with Dunham adding that ‘Gigi and I were on the phone for hours talking about a social media incident, and we were talking about the fact that sometimes you just have to shut the computer down.’
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