AceShowbiz -

Gigi Hadid speaks out after the Milan incident where she was manhandled by a crazed fan. In Lena Dunham's newsletter, the runway beauty remembers wrestling her way out the man's grip, "It all felt slo-mo, to look at him, a stranger, and my first reaction was: 'Get me out of this situation.' "

"I played volleyball, and my coaches talked about muscle memory. I started boxing two years ago and I always remembered that. Since then, 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."

"Honestly, I felt I was in danger," she continues, "and I had every right to react the way I did. 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. Practicing self-defense is important so that when you're in the moment, reacting from muscle memory comes more naturally to you than freezing up. 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 then addresses an article that painted her as the villain in the situation. "I really got pissed," she says. "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 cliche to say it, but in the moment, it wasn't heroic to me. It was just what I had to do. It's very touching to me that people see it that way. I know people are put in much worse situations every day and don't have the cameras around that provoke 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."