Gigi Hadid, Zayn Malik hope their daughter embraces her multiethnic identity

Gigi Hadid is wearing her heart on her sleeve regarding the multiethnic identity she shares with her boyfriend and singer Zayn Malik and how they are raising their daughter Khai to embrace that same identity. 

While in conversation with i-D, the fashionista, 26, who was born to Dutch-American mother Yolanda Hadid and Palestinian father Mohamed Hadid, spoke about how she and her British-Pakistani boyfriend and singer Zayn Malik deal with the idea of being mixed race.

"We 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, because both of our parents are their own heritage," she shared.

"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,” she went on to say.

"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. 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?" she shared.

Hadid said further that it would “be nice” to have conversations around this topic one day with her and Malik’s daughter Khai, who was born last fall.

Hadid said she would want to “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."