Camila Cabello Critiques Society’s Distorted Views of a ‘Healthy’ Woman: ‘Completely Not Real’

Camila Cabello has been in the limelight for many years now. The Cuban American artist rose to success as a member of Fifth Harmony and then was further catapulted into fame after the debut of her 2018 solo album, “Camila.” 

She recently released her third album, “Familia,” which explores all the relationships in her life, romantic and otherwise, as Cabello is seen hugging her little cousin on the cover of the album.

In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Cabello opened up about her aspirations for the album. Born in Havana to a Cuban mother and Mexican father, the album employs Spanish throughout, and draws inspiration from mariachi, reggaeton and flamenco.

In “Familia,” Cabello also touches upon her split from Fifth Harmony and alludes to her struggles with mental health, referring to the feeling of finishing the album as having a “vulnerability hangover.” She admits that “anxiety was something [she] just lived with” and eventually got used to. 

Cabello is an advocate for therapy, and shared that her relationship with social media can verge on toxic, often causing her to “violently delete” the apps and then re-download them as part of a vicious cycle. Of course, seeing unwelcome paparazzi photos of herself certainly doesn’t help. 

As a young woman dealing with the pressures of celebrity, her privacy is constantly being breached. She confesses that there are “varying degrees of discomfort” in regard to fame. She recalls an incident in Miami when she was at the beach and six photographers were in the water with her, climbing over each other to get the shot. 

“It was so wrong and just weird,” she shared. Cabello has since made changes to protect herself and her private life. She tries not to put herself in “vulnerable situations” such as that one and hopes that people will eventually stop caring so much about her body. 

In an emotional tweet after the bikini photos of her were released, Cabello criticized our collective culture’s views on women’s bodies, calling their idea of what a “healthy” woman looks like “completely not real for a lot of women” — herself included.

In the post, she says that she has “never had a worse time at the beach” and is trying to get back to her 7-year-old self, who was “happy, silly […] pretending to be a mermaid” although she realizes she must also “mourn” her. 

No matter what, Cabello continues to promote positivity, which is imperative in a world where women are constantly expected to meet impossible beauty ideals. She adds, “I got a lot of texts being like, ‘Hey, I really relate to that, I’m glad you posted that.’”

So are we, Camila. So are we.