Gigi Hadid Covers “AdWeek”

It’s one thing for Vogue to put a few models on the cover and dub them the Insta-Girls; its audience already knew that Karlie Kloss was a different kind of famous. But Adweek, a trade magazine targeted to CMOs and advertising professionals, is an entirely different thing.  And yet, Real Housewife heiress and Tom Ford model Gigi Hadid covers the latest issue: Social Supermodels.

The cover’s thesis aims to prove that social media is responsible for the rise of models like Hadid (2.8 social followers), Kendall Jenner (whose Estee Lauder contract turned largely on social media), and Cara Delevingne (who won British Model of the Year thanks to her epic social following). Telling the corporate side of the industry—those actually shuffling the money around—that this group of jet-setting teens is worth real attention. “There are tons of examples of successful working models who don’t have a big Instagram following and aren’t interested in social media,” Teen Vogue’s editor-in-chief Amy Astley told Adweek, “but it’s becoming something more and more that the ad clients are looking for—and all the girls know it. The game is definitely changing.”

And it’s true: before social media, models had to work the runway for years before scoring a high-fashion editorial, let alone a magazine cover. Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat have made everything move exponentially faster. When it comes to modeling, social media might as well be another word for personality, which is what propelled the original supermodels into their unprecedented fame. Women like Naomi Campbell, Christy Turlington, and Cindy Crawford are as famous as they were twenty years ago, thanks to well-cultivated public images and strategic brand partnerships. The big difference between them and this generation, however, is accessibility. In the ‘90s, supermodels were glamazons who starred in George Michael videos and dated Johnny Depp. Now, they’re snapping selfies in sweatpants from bed. Target consumers think they really know these girls, that they could potentially even be them with the right mention or hashtag, and that’s what makes them so valuable to the brands they represent. Maybelline told Adweek it was Hadid’s engagement with millennials that made her such a good bet, while Estee Lauder said of Jenner, “people are fascinated by her life and the world in which she lives.” That they’re pretty is really just a tiny part of their success.

Instead of waiting until they hit their late 20s, when most modeling careers start to slow down, the social media superstars are thinking about what comes after runways and magazines long before their modeling career even begins to slow down. “It’s not just OK anymore to model until you’re 25 and then stop and be a housewife,” Hadid told the magazine. That might sound like a dig at her mom—but it’s smart.