Camila Cabello Shared a Passionate Message About Body Image After an Upsetting Paparazzi Experience

Celebrity NewsCamila Cabello Shared a Passionate Message About Body Image After an Upsetting Paparazzi ExperienceYou need to read this.

By Emily Tannenbaum

April 4, 2022

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Camila Cabello is opening up about her ongoing struggles with body image following a painful experience with the paparazzi at a beach club in Miami. On April 2, the singer shared a lengthy message on Instagram about a recurring pattern of events involving paparazzi that culminated in her running away to hide from the cameras.

"Every time I've gone to this beach club in Miami, I get papped — somehow when I check in paps no and get me in my bikini, and every time I've felt super vulnerable and unprepared — I've worn bikinis that were so too small and paid no mind to how I looked, then saw pictures online and comments and been so upset," she began. "I reminded myself when it impacted my self-esteem, that I was thinking the culture's thoughts and not my own. A culture who has gotten so used to an image of what a 'healthy' woman's body looks like that is completely not real for a lot of women."

She continued, "Photoshop, restrictive eating, over-exercising, and choosing angles that make our bodies look different than how they are in the moment and in their natural form, when we take a deep breath, when we eat a meal, when we allow the waves to tussles around. I remind myself of this, listen to podcasts on intuitive eating, follow women who accepted their cellulite, stretch marks, bellies, bloating, and weight fluctuations… and still. I'm a single woman in her 20s In the middle of a shit ton of promo and I want to feel like I look good."

In the rest of the post, Camila Cabello explained that she returned to the club on April 2 with the intention of looking good in the paparazzi photos, but found that she's "never had a worst time at the beach" than when she spent the day fixating on her appearance.

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"Today I got a new bikini a whole fucking cute outfit, put lip gloss on, and didn't eat anything too heavy before going in the OCEAN cause I knew it was gonna be basically a whole photo shoot," she explained. "I held my core so tight my ribs hurt and didn't breathe and barely smiled and was so self-conscious of where the paps were the whole time I couldn't let go and relax and do what we're meant to do when we go into nature. I tried to pretend they weren't there, but I couldn't and I held my breath from my sun chair to the ocean. I looked at a group of toddlers giggling with excitement at waves knocking them over no sunglasses, no jewelry, no self-consciousness, just the innocence of children, which is the feeling I have always gone into nature for."

Cabello shared that she wanted to talk about the experience to combat the messaging women receive about their bodies and what is celebrated by society. "I knew I looked good in the pictures and thought I would feel accomplished and yet I've never had a worst time at the beach," she wrote. "I felt the emptiness and sadness of our culture's thoughts that became my thoughts. I wanted to talk about this because we see pictures of women and praise them for looking good for looking fit or 'healthy.' But what is health if you are so fixated on what your body looks like that your mental health suffers and you can't enjoy your life? Who am I trying to look attractive for and am I even attractive to myself if I can't let loose and relax and have fun and be playful on a beautiful day at the beach?"

She concluded, "I'm not yet at the point in my journey where I can not give a fuck. Intellectually, I know what I look like doesn't determine how healthy, happy, or sexy I am. Emotionally, the messaging I get from our world is loud in my own head. Ironically, all the therapy, all the inner work is to try and get back to feeling like seven-year-old me on the beach. I'm mourning her today. Happy, silly, breathing, pretending to be a mermaid, FREE. PS, I ran away to the pool area where hopefully they can't get me but they literally hide in the bushes sometimes. I'm exhausted lol."

More on body image:

• The Power of "Unflattering" Celebrity Photos
• Why Can't I Just Watch a Fat Girl Fall in Love?
• Why Pandemic Weight Gain Might Be the Best Thing That Ever Happened to Me

Now, see what's in this month's Allure Beauty Box:

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