Gigi Hadid has opened up about her and Zayn's approach to raising their daughter Khai.

In her new cover story for i-D, the model, 26, shared her take on what it means to educate her baby, who was born last September, on her multicultural background. "[Zayn and I] think about it and talk about it a lot as partners and it’s something that’s really important to us, but it’s also something that we first experienced ourselves," she said in the new interview. "Because both of our parents are their own heritage. We are that first generation of those mixed races, and then that comes with that first generational experience of being like, 'Oh damn, I’m the bridge!' That’s not something that my parents experienced or that they can really help me through. It’s something I’ve always thought about my whole life."

While Hadid is the eldest daughter of her Palestinian father Mohamed Hadid and Dutch mother Yolanda Hadid, Zayn was born and raised by his British Pakistani father Yaser Malik and his English and Irish mother Trisha Malik. "I think that Khai will grow up feeling out the way that she can or wants to be a bridge for her different ethnicities," Hadid continued. "But I think that it will be nice to be able to have those conversations, and see where she comes from [with] it, without us putting that onto her. What comes from her is what I’m most excited about, and being able to add to that or answer her questions, you know?"

Hadid also said that she wants to let Khai decide on how she wants to rep her cultures. "In certain situations, I feel – or I’m made to feel – that I’m too white to stand up for part of my Arab heritage," she continued. "You go through life trying to figure out where you fit in racially. Is what I am, or what I have, enough to do what I feel is right? But then, also, is that taking advantage of the privilege of having the whiteness within me, right? Am I allowed to speak for this side of me, or is that speaking on something that I don’t experience enough to know?"

Anne Hudson

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