Cara Opens Up

With a society driven by the media, it’s easy to compare yourself with the people you see on your Instagram feed or on TV. It’s hard to imagine that people who have fame or beauty can be anything but happy. This is especially difficult with social media, where everyone is only portraying the very best aspects of their life. There’s so much more that people are dealing with beneath the surface, but they hide it under a mask of success so it’s impossible to see from the outside. Therefore, a false portrayal of happiness is created, and it promotes the feeling of isolation, that everyone is happy instead of you.

One celebrity who is currently trying to break down this concept is model and actress Cara Delevingne. She has talked openly about the severity of her depression and how it has impacted her life, saying "I was suicidal. I couldn't deal with it any more. I realized how lucky and privileged I was, but all I wanted to do was die. I felt so guilty because of that and hated myself because of that, and then it's a cycle. I didn't want to exist anymore. I wanted for each molecule of my body to disintegrate. I wanted to die." Cara was also honest on her social media, bravely tweeting “I suffer from depression and was a model during a particularly rough patch of self hatred”, showing that she wasn’t hiding who she was or the problems that she was facing.

The honest and open way Cara discusses her mental health helps the thousands who look up to her realize that every human experience has some adversities. How to accept yourself, especially your flaws, is a struggle that everyone has had at least once. Mental illnesses can impact anyone, no matter where someone is from or what they do. No one would say “why does she have cancer? She is so pretty!” So why should people treat mental illnesses any different? It’s not a choice, it’s not dependent on your life circumstances, it’s a real physical problem just like any other disease. Simply because the symptoms are inside the mind doesn’t mean they are not there.

In the words of Cara, “love yourself, embrace your flaws. The cracks within us are the beautiful parts that need to have light shone on them."