Camila Cabello on how beauty standards affect mental health

What is health if you are so obsessed with the way your body looks? Camila Cabello constantly questions what role society plays in setting standards of beauty and mental health.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Camila Cabello has decided to speak publicly about imposed stereotypes and her internal struggle to control her body image and mental health. Through this text she explains that, every time she goes to the beach, she is overcome with a sense of worry because she is aware that the paparazzi will catch her unawares and photograph her. An issue that, inevitably, directly affects her self-esteem.

The singer says that “we have become so accustomed to an image of what a ‘healthy’ woman’s body looks like that it is not at all real for many women”. And there are several factors that affect this concept of “perfection”: Photoshop, dietary restrictions, excessive exercise or even the choice of angles that create false illusions about the body.

“I wanted to talk about this because we see pictures of women and we praise them for looking good, for being fit or ‘healthy’, but what is health if you are so obsessed with how your body looks that your mental health suffers and you can’t enjoy your life?”