Hailey Bieber Opened To Glamour About the Pressure of Having a ‘Perfect Lifestyle’
Laura Lee - April 24, 2019

Glamour magazine writer Lindsay Schallon sat down with Hailey Bieber recently. The newly married celebrity has had a whirlwind of a year. At just 22 years old she has already landed major partnerships with BareMinersl and Adidas, a Vogue cover, and married one of the most famous musical artists of our time. While all of this is exciting and amazing, Hailey expressed the immense pressure she faces daily. She takes her platform in the spotlight seriously and recognizes the significant role she plays for her 19.2 million fans following her on Instagram. She said, “I just wish we all embraced the truth behind social media more.”

The interview extended beyond the allotted time to discuss more Hailey’s anxieties, life, worries, thoughts, and growth. At the end of the interview, Hailey said, “Wow, we took a bit of a deep emotional dive there, didn’t we?” Read a condensed version of the interview between Schallon and Bieber:

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What’s your favorite way to take a moment for yourself?

HB: I like to nap. Honestly, I understand little kids when I nap. I’m like, Oh, I get it. This is really helpful and it feels good. I also like to take a moment and listen to some music and chill.

It’s so important, in my opinion, to find those moments for yourself. Especially when you’re around people all the time. Not only for work, but when you’re in a relationship too, and you’re with another person all the time. I think it’s important for both parties to be able to be, like, “Hey, I need an hour to myself.” For me, I actually enjoy running errands. I like having to go to the grocery store or the drugstore. It’s a weird therapeutic thing for me—[it helps me] to feel normal.

You recently wrote on Instagram that “every single day is a confidence battle.” What do you do in those moments whenever confidence is tough for you?

HB: I’m somebody who is very rooted in Christianity and faith. And for me the root of confidence comes through that. It comes through God and comes through who I believe I was created by. So, you know, to each their own. I know not everybody believes in what I believe in. But aside from that, I think we need to cheer ourselves on more.

How do you personally cheer yourself on?

HB: I look at the people in my life. I look at the relationships I have. I look at, like, the things that are positive and try to remind myself of them. Like, I love my parents. I have great friends. I have an amazing husband. Everybody has things that are going bad in their life—no matter who you are or what is going on. There are always going to be things that bother you, or that you struggle with, that are never going to go away. And instead of focusing on those things, I try to flip the thought and focus on the other stuff. Like, I know I’m in a good spot in life. My family loves me. You’ve just got to flip the thought.

How do you push yourself to make that flip?

HB: I like to meditate. I read a book a year and a half ago when I was struggling horribly with anxiety—really, really bad. I couldn’t sleep. I was just going through a time, and I read a book called Mindsight. It’s written by this doctor named Daniel Siegel, and he teaches this kind of meditation. It’s not spiritual; it doesn’t have to be religious. It’s not religious at all, actually. It’s more like a body-function meditation. It’s all about knowing that you don’t have to be ruled by your thoughts. You can take control and flip the thought around.

You have to ask yourself questions like, Is that what’s really true? or Do I really believe that is the absolute truth? and counter what you think. I’ve found that you can solve a lot of things through self-help meditation and therapy. I’m so open about it. I believe so strongly in therapy, meditation, and faith—believing in something. That’s always the answer to me before anything else.

That’s great advice.

HB: I admire people coming forward and talking about [anxiety]. We all struggle with it. I think there’s been this stigma around it for so long. People look at celebrities who are famous or successful and think they have it all together. Like, they have such an insane career, or they make so much money, that they should be happy. But it’s really kind of the opposite.

There was a time in the industry when it was negative to talk about that kind of stuff. Nobody wanted to talk about what was really happening, and everybody felt like there was this pressure to keep up a facade—or pressure to keep up this perfect lifestyle and make everything look really good from the outside. [Everyone would say,] “Oh, we’re really happy. I’m really happy. I’m doing fine,” when really it was like you’re kind of crumbling on the inside.

And I think I used to do that a little bit. People would ask me, “How are you?” and I’d be like, “I’m fine; I’m good.” But really I’d be crying in my hotel room all night. You just have to be honest that life sucks sometimes. It’s hard. Things are difficult. I just think the more we are open about it, the more we can help people find solutions.

So many young men and women have their anxiety peak between 18 and 25, and then you place social media, work pressure, and school pressure on top of that, you know, it’s hard.

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stepping into 2019 I want to be more open, I want to be more open about the things I struggle with, and be able to be more vulnerable. I’m a 22 years old, and the truth is no matter how amazing life may look from the outside I struggle… I’m insecure, I’m fragile, I’m hurting, I have fears, I have doubts, I have anxiety, I get sad, I get angry. I have had more days than I can count where I’ve found myself scrolling through Instagram comparing myself, comparing my looks, feeling like I’m not good enough feeling like I lack so many things and really struggling to be confident in who I am because I constantly feel like I’m just not good enough. Every single day is a confidence battle for me. I’m not writing this for a pity party or for sympathy but just to simply say, I’m a human.. I’m a young woman, I’m learning who I am and, it’s REALLY FREAKING HARD. It’s hard finding who you are, but what’s even harder is being picked apart and compared to other women while trying to do that. There are days that I’m simply broken because of it. It would be incredible if other young girls and women could find it in themselves to lift each other up, to stop making other women who are struggling JUST LIKE THEM, feel incompetent and less than. We ALL have flaws, and that will never change. What I do know is, God made us individuals for a reason, with our own beauty, our own personalities, and our own story because there’s a specific plan and purpose for each and every human created and he makes no mistakes!! So this year I’m gonna do my very best to just be ME and be confident with who I am. Cause I am enough, and I’m loved, and you are enough and you’re loved.

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Your point about social media is so true, especially as it relates to self-image. If you could change one thing about beauty perceptions on social media, what would it be?

HB: First of all, I would tell everyone that lots of people don’t really look like what they do on social media. Because you’ll see so many people and be like, You’re so pretty, oh my God. But then you see them in person, and it’s like, You’re still really pretty; it’s just not what you look like online. People are out there catfishing for sure. It’s just the truth. Social media is so “Show your best, hide the rest.”

But it’s not to say it’s all that way. There are a lot of people who do embrace their natural beauty, and they’re not afraid to show their bodies or freckles or bags under their eyes, whatever it is. And I think that that’s real. I think that it’s OK to want to look good. It’s OK to want to feel sexy in a photo or to post the photo that you feel like you look really beautiful in. But then I also think it’s OK to be like, I don’t look this good all the time. Like, catch me at the grocery store—when my hair is in a messy bun and I’m wearing sweatpants. I’m not going to look like how I do on my Instagram, because that’s just the fact.

It’s nice to see that celebrities are now clapping back at this idea of, like, needing to look perfect all the time.

HB: It’s just not possible. It’s not attainable even for the most drop-dead gorgeous human being on the planet. I wish more young people understood that on photo shoots, that’s us doing our job. It’s like a movie, it’s not real—it’s a set with lighting, and cameras, and production. It’s created. I hope nobody looks at a photo of a model where they have like all this hair and makeup, and think that that’s what they’re supposed to look like all the time. People need to understand the contrast.

You can read the full interview on Glamour magazine here: https://www.glamour.com/story/hailey-bieber-pressure-perfect-lifestyle

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