Photo: camila_cabello/Instagram

camila cabello

Camila Cabellois expressing her thoughts on the culture of paparazzi.

On Saturday, the former member of Fifth Harmony shared her frustrations about how constantly being photographed without her consent hasnegatively impacted her self-esteem.

When the situationstarted to affect her personally, she said she would remind herself that it was 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 form, when we take deep breath, when we eat a meal, when we allow the waves to tussle around us.”

The “Havana” singer then admitted that she’s “a single woman in her 20s” who is going through “a s—t ton of promo” and wants to “feel like I look ‘good.’ "

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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 were the whole time,” she wrote. “I couldn’t let go and relax and do what we’re meant to do when we go out into nature.”

Though she knew she looked “good” in the pictures after putting in all the efforts to accomplish the goal, she revealed, “I’ve never had a worse time at the beach. I felt the emptiness and sadness of our culture’s thoughts that became my thoughts.”

Cabello stressed in the post that she wanted to discuss the subject due to society’s preference for focusing on appearanceover the state of one’s mental health.

“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?” she pondered. “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?”

After sharing that she is still “not at the point” in her journey to “not give a f—,” Cabello said she is aware that, “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,” she concluded. “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.”

source: people.com