Cara Delevingne, to use her own words, has “word vomited” all over Twitter, setting the record straight for everyone raising eyebrows at her so-called ‘return to modelling’ because they were operating under the misguided belief that it triggered her depression.
These shots sent a powerful ripple across the internet, with everyone madly celebrating her return to modelling in light of the fact that she (apparently) quit last year because it made her hate herself.
“It didn’t make me grow at all as a human being. And I kind of forgot how young I was. I felt so old,” she said to Times while doing the press circuit for her film ‘Paper Towns‘.
“I was, like, fight and flight for months. Just constantly on edge. It is a mental thing as well because if you hate yourself and your body and the way you look, it just gets worse and worse.”
She also wrote an essay for Time in March this year, she elaborated on why she was moving away from modelling (*not* quitting) and focusing on acting instead:
“I was nearly 20 and had been modelling for several years. My vantage point had changed… and I had changed. I knew I had to reevaluate my life and my goals for my future. I didn’t want to resent fashion or my success. The process happen overnight, but it was imperative for me to preserve my integrity.
“It’s taken time, but now I realise that work isn’t everything and success comes in many forms. I’ve opened my mind, and now I embrace new things with a childlike curiosity. I’m spending more time doing the stuff I love. And I’ve been doing better work because of it.”
Given the context, it’s not difficult to see how the dots were connected re: quitting modelling, but now she’s come to clear things up:
Can we just set the record straight…
— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) April 1, 2016
I never said I was quitting modeling
— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) April 1, 2016
I do not blame the fashion industry for anything
— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) April 1, 2016
I suffer from depression and was a model during a particularly rough patch of self hatred
— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) April 1, 2016
I am so lucky for the work I get to do but I used to work to try and escape and just ended up completely exhausting myself.
— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) April 1, 2016
I am focusing on filming and trying to learn how to not pick apart my every flaw. I am really good at that
— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) April 1, 2016
Okay…. Rant over. Just wanted to clarify and word vomit a little
— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) April 1, 2016
Cara has been very open about her depression in the past, telling the Women in the World summit last year that she’d been dealing it since she was a 15-year-old teenager at school.
One more confession…
— Cara Delevingne (@Caradelevingne) April 1, 2016
Photo: Anthony Harvey / Getty.
Hey mates, if you want to talk to anyone about mental illness, call BeyondBlue on 1300 22 4636, or if you’re feeling distressed call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
