This cover is beautiful, and very artistic, and almost feels like a subscribers’ cover, thanks to the lack of headlines. (Amy Odell said she felt like Bella looks like she got TP’d, although not exactly in a bad way, and I agree with that as well; it is a distracting top. Not everything needs to be aggressively arty, and this might have worked just as well with a plain white tee.) I do think she looks melancholy at best, and perhaps even sad —  which is apt because the profile is melancholy at best.

Vogue only allows folks to reproduce 100 words of their features — correctly, they want people to read the whole thing on their site, and so should they. I’d definitely go over there and read this piece in its entirety. It is very well done, and Bella is very honest and quite thoughtful. I’m sure you’ve seen a LOT extracted from this piece on the internet already, as she discusses her eating disorder, and her plastic surgery, but she also talks quite a bit about the fashion industry, and a mental health breakdown she suffered in 2021, as well as how much seeking treatment for that has helped her:

 Therapy, she says, is the biggest gift she has ever given herself. “For so long, I didn’t know what I was crying about. I always felt so lucky, and that would get me even more down on myself. There were people online saying, You live this amazing life. So then how can I complain? I always felt that I didn’t have the right to complain, which meant that I didn’t have the right to get help, which was my first problem.”

I sincerely think that her talking about this might help a lot of her younger fans. Overall, Bella comes across like a very thoughtful, smart woman, and also someone who might ultimately be happier behind the camera than in front of it. The kicker of the piece is a bit of a heartbreaker, and I think you can see the burnout on her her face in the photo on the cover. Which makes this a sort of savvy choice  — it would be weird to buy a very smiley chipper cover and then read this profile — in a way that I must admit, surprises me.

Vogue’s April 2022 issue is available on newsstands nationwide on March 29th.

[Vogue Credits: Writer: Rob Haskell/Vogue;  Photographer: Ethan James Green/Vogue; Fashion Editor: Gabriella Karefa-Johnson Hair: Jawara Makeup: Kanako Takase for Addiction Beauty and Yumi Lee]
Tags: Vogue
56