Star Slams Body Shamers After Beach Photos Land Online: "So Self-Conscious"
"I held my core so tight my abs hurt and didn’t breathe and barely smiled..."
Wearing a swimsuit in public can be a stressful enough experience for a regular person, but for a celebrity, with the addition of paparazzi, it can be even more daunting. This is something that singer Camila Cabello knows very well. In a post to her Instagram on April 2, Cabello complained that she is often photographed at the beach in Miami, which means that she is extremely conscious of the way that she looks and cannot relax. The pop star slammed photographers for intruding, especially because, when those photos show up online, she has to endure body-shaming comments. Read on to see what else she had to say.
RELATED: Jonah Hill Gets Real About Body Shaming After Tabloid Prints Beach Photos.
In the past, she felt "unprepared" around paparazzi.
In her Instagram post, 25-year-old Cabello said that she's been photographed by paparazzi at the same Miami beach club on multiple occasions.
"Every time I've felt super vulnerable and unprepared," she wrote. "I've worn bikinis that were too 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 [sic] that I was thinking the culture's thoughts and not my own."
She "barely breathed" this time.
Cabello shared that since she is in her 20s, is newly single (after recently breaking up with Shawn Mendes), and has been busy with promoting her upcoming album, that she wanted to "look 'good'" for the inevitable paparazzi photos. Now, it seems like she regrets being so aware of the cameras.
"Today I got a new bikini, a whole [expletive] cute outfit, put lip gloss on, and didn't eat anything too heavy before going in the OCEAN cause I knew it was gonna be basically a whole photoshoot," the former Fifth Harmony singer wrote. "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 I couldn't let go and relax and do what we're meant to do when we go out into nature." She added, "I've never had a worse time at the beach."
She's working on her self-image in therapy.
Throughout her post, Cabello noted that she is working to accept herself and not care about what paparazzi or body shamers think.
"Ironically, all the therapy, all the inner work is to try and get back to feeling like 7 year old me on the beach," she shared. "I'm mourning her today. Happy, silly, breathing, pretending to be a mermaid, FREE."
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She's opened up about her body in the past.
In a TikTok video in July 2021, Cabello told her followers she had been running in a park and not "tucking in" her belly, "because [she] was running and existing!"
She continued, "Being at war with your body is so last season. I am grateful for his body that lets me do what I need to do. We are real women with curves and cellulite and stretch marks and fat. And we gotta own that, baby."
Then, in an interview with Bustle not long after, she talked about the video, which now has 5 million likes.
"I actually felt so liberated when I posted that," she said. "After that, I went to the airport and so many women were coming up to me like, 'I saw that TikTok and it resonated with me so much.' I actually feel my body insecurities went down after I posted that because I was like, 'No matter what pictures come out or what people say, I'm now controlling the narrative.'"
Other celebrities supported her.
Some of Cabello's fellow celebrities left supportive comments on her recent Instagram post. "I feel you and am sending all the love and positive vibes your way," wrote Lily Collins. America Ferrera replied, "Beautiful honesty." Paris Hilton commented, "This made me cry. Thank you for writing this, so important for people to hear. You are beautiful inside and out." And Cabello's many fans appreciated the post, too: It now has over one million likes.
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