Fun & Famous

LET'S TALK ABOUT YOLANDA HADID

I want to talk to you about Yolanda Hadid, the woman who until two weeks ago went through life as Yolanda Foster. And the woman with two million followers on Instagram, the woman who dedicated an Instagram account to her perfectly organized fridge and of course, above all, the mother of Anwar, Bella, and Gigi.

Anyway. I have some thoughts about her. If I ever meet her in real life, I will probably be sitting there with a clenched butt because of all the unkind things I have written, but so be it. No opinion is just so boring, so here I go.

“Sweetheart, you can be anything you want. Model, actress, it-girl: anything.”

Yolanda Hadid's real name is actually just Yolanda van den Herik, a Rotterdammer who made it to Hollywood as a model. First, she married Mohamed Hadid (and had her three children Anwar, Bella, and Gigi with him), in 2011 she did it again with music producer David Foster. Think rich, influential, and everything that comes with it. Look here at how her house looked.

Yolanda seems to be the type of mother who says: “Sweetheart, you can be anything you want. Model, actress, it-girl: anything.” As long as you become rich and famous, Yolanda is fine with it.

Just look at Yolanda's Instagram account and you only see photos of her daughters on covers and catwalks. Standard accompanied by a heart emoji and occasionally a spiritual phrase. Like with daughter Bella recently: “Your beauty began the moment you decided to be yourself, congratulations my love for opening the Fendi show today.”

Uh, sorry. Bella is really not booked because she is so incredibly herself, but because she trains hard and works on her body and also, undoubtedly with support from mom, has had some work done on her face here and there. I've only heard it, but just look at some old photos of Bella and now and you'll know enough.

Then her last name. Because Yolanda is divorced from David Foster, she has now renamed herself Yolanda Hadid. Indeed, the name of her first ex. Are they back together? you might think excitedly. No, but Yolanda finds it ‘so nice to have the same name as her children’. Funny, because a few years ago the children had the same last name and Yolanda still preferred Van den Herik. Hadid has just become a hard brand name and Yolanda has a nose for that.

“Your beauty began the moment you decided to be yourself, congratulations my love for opening the Fendi show today.”

Honestly, I think Yolanda is also a cool and brave person and I admire how she showed her real face when she fought against Lyme disease, but I would really become Team Yolanda if she embraced her Rotterdam roots even more and just went through life as Van den Herik. That sounds really chic; abroad, a ‘van den’ in front of your name gives an instant upgrade in chicness.

Don't get me wrong, I understand that you burst with pride when your children reach this level. They do it with their beautiful faces, but also with their discipline, dedication, character, and style. What Gigi and Bella have achieved is truly remarkable and I would probably also be sitting there with red cheeks from excitement and sore hands from clapping in the front row. But how nice would it be if Yolanda occasionally posted something on her timeline when one of her amazing children did something small? Made you a cup of coffee, wrote you a sweet note. Because Yolanda is experienced enough to know that in the end, that's what life is really about.