Gigi Hadid Covers Adweek, the Face of Millennial Models

Adweek has just unveiled its millennial issue, and Gigi Hadid is its fitting cover girl. Following in the footsteps of Kim Kardashian, Hadid graces the cover in slicked back hair and a chunky silver choker adorned with needles. The cover reads, “Social Supermodels” and is captioned, “19-year-old Gigi Hadid is using Instagram and Twitter to create high-fashion celebrity––and brands are tapping in,” but it’s not just brands who are taking notice, it’s the whole world.

Hadid was always on the cusp of celebrity status, even before she became one of the industry’s favorite top models. Her mother, Yolanda Foster, was a star in The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, where Hadid also made a few cameos. The 19-year-old first got her start modeling for Guess in high school, and by the time she was in college she had already booked her first runway appearances for New York Fashion Week.

yesterday on set: eyebrows on fleeeeek bc @makeupvincent kills the game. also pinky up for da cutest mini coffee cup

A photo posted by Gigi Hadid (@gigihadid) on Mar 25, 2015 at 7:07am PDT

What separates Hadid and her peers––Kendall Jenner, Cara Delevingne, and Hailey Baldwin to name a few––from other models is their intuitive sense of social media and their ability to smartly market themselves to the world. Hadid explained to Adweek, “I think it's always come naturally to just be genuine on social media and to put things into words that people can relate to, rather than putting things in a way that makes them feel that they can't be a part of it.”

Give me and @kendalljenner a selfie stick on a @voguemagazine shoot and we'll be sure you don't miss a thing. Check out the full video ft. @mariotestino @anselelgort @codysimpson & @justinbieber on Vogue.com!

A video posted by Gigi Hadid (@gigihadid) on Mar 26, 2015 at 9:22am PDT

Despite Hadid’s obvious modeling talent, one can’t help but wonder if her tactical use of Twitter and Instagram has determined how successful she has become. Laura Brown, executive editor at Harper’s Bazaar, says of this question, “If a model happens to come with a few thousand or a few million followers, that's amazing for brands, especially if you're a brand that wants to target a new, younger demographic, you'd have to consider [hiring] those girls in a second."

Hadid and her friends are changing the game one selfie at a time, and the world is taking notice. It takes much more than a pretty face and a killer walk to be a top model in 2015. Now, number of followers is more important than number of campaigns and likes outweigh runways by a longshot. With 2.5 million followers on Instagram alone, we’d say that Hadid is definitely killing it.