Gigi Hadid talks street harassment with Lena Dunham: 'I had every right to react'

Gigi Hadid is fighting back.

The model, who was groped on the streets of Milan last week, reportedly by serial celebrity harasser Vitalii Sediuk, opened up in an essay in Lena Dunham's Lenny Letter about the media's response to the attack, and what she hopes young women can learn from it.

"Honestly, I felt I was in danger, and I had every right to react the way I did," she wrote. "If anything, I want girls to see the video and know that they have the right to fight back, too, if put in a similar situation."

In a world of crazy, Gigi Hadid has to defend herself after being manhandled by a stranger

"The first article that was posted about the incident was headlined: 'Not model behavior. Gigi aggressively lashes out and elbows fan in the face after he tries to pick her up. The supermodel angrily hit an unknown man before running to her car.' That's when I really got pissed," Hadid continued. "First of all, it was a woman who wrote the story with that headline. What would you tell your daughter to do? If my behavior isn't model behavior, then what is? What would you have told your daughter to do in that situation?"

"It sounds cliché to say it, but in the moment, it wasn't heroic to me," she added. "It was just what I had to do."

"The video is equal measures upsetting and empowering," Dunham wrote, introducing Hadid's remarks. "It is chilling to watch, in real time, the ownership a stranger seems to feel toward a body he considers public domain. But it's also stirring: in one swift movement, without the aid of her bodyguards, Gigi makes it clear that she will not be made to feel like anyone's property."

You can read Hadid's full essay and Dunham's introduction here.