In the latest Lenny Letter, Gigi Hadid opens up about the shocking moment a man attacked out her outside of the Max Mara show during Milan Fashion Week and what went through her mind during and after the incident.

Gigi, a former volleyball player who took up boxing two years ago, recalls how coaches would talk about muscle memory. 'I hadn't been in a situation that forced me to fight back, but it just came out when he grabbed me — it wasn't a choice. I do have that fighter in me,' she says, adding, 'I felt I was in danger and I had every right to react the way I did.'

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She hopes that girls will watch the video and realize the importance of self-defense. 'I want girls to see the video and know that they have the right to fight back, too, if put in a similar situation,' she says, 'Confidence in your own ability to defend yourself comes with educating yourself about it, and is a massive advantage when in an unsafe situation.'

Gigi also calls out the skewed reporting that initially came out after the video surfaced. Writers claimed she 'lashed out' and attacked a 'fan.' 'That's when I really got pissed,' she elaborates, '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?'

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The model claims what she did "wasn't heroic" and calls to mind the dangerous situations that happen everyday without cameras watching and throngs of social media support, 'I just want to use what happened to me to show that it's everyone's right, and it can be empowering, to be able to defend yourself.'

Read her full account on Lenny Letter.

From: ELLE US