Camila Cabello has been outspoken about her body insecurities in the past, publicly slamming body shamers for comments about her appearance.
The music star, 25, continued the conversation surrounding body insecurity with a touching post on Instagram. On Saturday, April 2, Cabello shared a screenshot of a lengthy message in a carousel post, pairing the essay with a selfie where the singer appeared frustrated and unamused. To begin the message, she said that every single time she goes to a particular, unnamed beach club in Miami, she gets photographed by the paparazzi.
“Somehow when I check in paps know and get me in my bikini and every time I’ve felt super vulnerable and unprepared,” she wrote. “I’ve worn bikinis that were to (sic) 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 myself 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.”
Cabello continued her statement by pointing out that harmful tactics like "Photoshop, restrictive eating, over exercising" and more make people's 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 tussle us around.”
“I remind myself of this, listen to podcasts on intuitive eating, follow women who accept their cellulite, stretch marks, bellies, bloating, and weight fluctuations.. and still,” Cabello said. “I’m a single woman in her 20s in the middle of a s—t ton of promo and i want to feel like I look ’good’.”
Cabello said that she took preventative measures and had gotten a new bikini, a “cute outfit,” put on lip gloss, and “didn’t eat anything too heavy” before she went into the water because she knew she was going to be photographed by paparazzi on the beach.
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“I held my core so tight my abs hurt and didn’t breathe and barely smiled and was so self conscious of where the paps we re the whole time i couldn’t let go and relax and do what we’re meant to do when we go out into nature,” she said. “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 the 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 said that she knew that she “looked good” in the pictures and thought that would make her feel a sense of accomplishment, but instead she said that she had “never had a worse time at the beach.”
“I felt the emptiness and sadness of our culture’s thoughts that became my thoughts,” she wrote. “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?”
“I’m not yet at the point in my journey where I can not give a f—k,” she candidly continued. “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 7 year old me on the beach . I’m mourning her today. Happy, silly, breathing, pretending to be a mermaid, FREE.”
Over the years, Cabello has been open about embracing her body the way that it is and blocking out her own invasive thoughts and the opinions of others about how she looks. In a TikTok video last summer, the singer talked about feeling uncertain about her physical appearance but came to the conclusion that “being at war with your body is so last season.”
“I am grateful for this body that lets me do what I need to do,” she said. “We are real women with curves and cellulite and stretch marks and fat. And we gotta own that, baby.”
Back in 2019, she also took a moment on her Instagram Stories to address body-shaming comments made about her, which she stumbled across trying to find a picture to post for the two-year-anniversary for her song “Havana.”
“Honestly, first thing I felt was super insecure just IMAGINING what these pictures must look like, oh no! My cellulite!” she wrote. “Oh no! I didn’t suck in my stomach! But then I was like…of course there are bad pictures, of course there are bad angles, my body’s not made of f—ing rock, or all muscle for that matter.”
She ended her message speaking directly to her young female audience, writing, “Girls, cellulite is normal. Fat is normal. It’s beautiful and natural. I won’t buy into the bull— today!!!! Not today satan. And I hope you don’t either.”
This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:
