via evamendes/Instagram

For anyone with eyes, Cuban-American actress Eva Mendes looks like one of the most beautiful women in the world. After all, she built her career on playing bombshells, seductresses, and love interests. But even a sex symbol like Eva Mendes struggles with body image and insecurity.

Last week, Eva Mendes took to Instagram to share a powerful message about insecurity, body image, and how your thoughts about yourself change over time.

Mendes posted a picture of her face, albeit 20 years younger, with the caption: “Just came across this picture from a movie that was almost 20 years ago. I remember seeing this photo back then and thinking my face looked “weird “ and that my bone structure was odd …yadda yadda ..you know all those insecurities that a 26 year old can have.”

She continued: “Meanwhile 20 years later and now I wish I still had that ‘weird’ face and odd ‘bone structure.’ Why’s my point? I’m not sure. Maybe it’s if you hate a photo of yourself wait 20 years then you’ll love it.” She concluded the caption with a quote from the famous Oscar Wilde: “Youth is wasted on the young.”

Mendes’s fans, young and old, took to her comments section to express their gratitude at her transparency.

“Feel the same way all the time!” wrote one Instagram user. Another wrote: “That’s literally what I’m going through now as I am 25 years old. Thank you for sharing this. [heart emoji]”.

Mendes’s post is a perfect illustration of how negative thoughts, insecurity and self-consciousness affect everyone–including beautiful celebrities. Not to mention, her post perfectly coincides with Mental Health Awareness month, a time when the entire nation bands together to bring awareness to mental health issues which affect millions of Americans.

Later in the comments, Mendes explained that she doesn’t want to be young again, she just wishes she had had the wisdom she has now when she was younger.

In response to a friend who wrote, “The growth and wisdom chica…I can fully relate!”, Mendes wrote, “Verdad?! And it’s not like I want to be young again, it’s just like I didn’t realize certain things at the time! And as young chicas we can be so hard in ourselves.” She finished that comment with “Besitos reina.”

After one commenter wrote, “Oh to be in your 20s and have the wisdom of your 40s! If only,” Mendes responded. “And yes, agreed,” she said. “That’s why I love this quote so much! But let’s think of it this way…we’re in our 40’s and it can feel daunting but think when we’re 60 and we look back to today we’ll think ‘we were babies in our 40’s!'”. She qualified, “Ok maybe not babies but still young is what I mean. It’s all relative”.

We love hearing Eva Mendes publicly share her thoughts and life, beauty, and aging. We hope she continues to be so transparent on social media!