Camila Cabello opened up about the effects of paparazzi photos on her mental health in a post shared to Instagram on Saturday.
The ‘Bam Bam’ singer shared the anxiety she faces when she goes to the beach in a bikini knowing her photo will be taken by paparazzi.
“Every time I’ve gone to this beach club in Miami I get papped — somehow when I check in paps know and get me in my bikini and every time I’ve felt super vulnerable and unprepared,” Cabello wrote. “I’ve worn bikinis that were to[o] small and paid no mind to how I looked, then saw pictures online and comments and been so upset.”
“I reminded myself when it impacted my self esteem that I was thinking the culture’s thoughts and not my own,” she continued. “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 shared that when she went to the beach she “held my core so tight my abs hurt” and was “self conscious of where the paps were the whole time.”
“I knew I looked ‘good’ in the pictures and thought I would feel accomplished and yet I’ve never had a worse time at the beach,” she admitted.
She told fans she wants “get back to feeling like 7 year old me on the beach” who was “happy, silly, breathing, pretending to be a mermaid, FREE.”
Cabello said she wanted to share her experience “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?”
Read the full post below.
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