Gina Rodriguez Opens up About Her Anxiety During Makeup-Free Portrait Session: 'This Is Me'

Katherine Richter
Updated

Gina Rodriguez opened up on Instagram about anxiety she felt during a makeup-free portrait session she did with a friend in Los Angeles.

The video shows a bare-faced Rodriguez, wearing a Yankees cap, alternating between wide and shy smiles for the camera.

“My beautiful friend @antonsoggiu came to visit from Norway and he included me in his magical art. TEN SECOND PORTRAITS. It’s always great to be in front of his lens but this time it was just me. Bare and exposed in the streets of la. No makeup. No styling. Just me,” she began her Instagram caption, accompanying the clip she shared on Friday.

The Jane the Virgin star, 32, said she suffers from anxiety, and she reflected on the mixed emotions of discomfort and freedom the clip gave her.

“I suffer from anxiety. And watching this clip I could see how anxious I was but I empathize with myself. I wanted to protect her and tell her it’s ok to be anxious, there is nothing different or strange about having anxiety and I will prevail. I like watching this video. It makes me uncomfortable but there is a freedom I feel maybe even an acceptance. This is me. Puro Gina.”

My beautiful friend @antonsoggiu came to visit from Norway and he included me in his magical art. TEN SECOND PORTRAITS. It's always great to be in front of his lens but this time it was just me. Bare and exposed in the streets of la. No makeup. No styling. Just me. I suffer from anxiety. And watching this clip I could see how anxious I was but I empathize with myself. I wanted to protect her and tell her it's ok to be anxious, there is nothing different or strange about having anxiety and I will prevail. I like watching this video. It makes me uncomfortable but there is a freedom I feel maybe even an acceptance. This is me. Puro Gina.

A post shared by Gina Rodriguez (@hereisgina) on May 26, 2017 at 12:08pm PDT

Rodriguez has publicly reflected on body acceptance before.

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After posing for a Cosmo for Latinas photo shoot, she shared one of the images on Instagram, where she also recounted her battle with Hashimoto’s disease, an autoimmune disease that may result in weight gain, fatigue and muscle pain.

“My struggle with health and weight and body acceptance in this industry has been a loving, painful, growing, exposing, vulnerable and incredible journey,” she wrote on Instagram in 2o15. “And to come to a place where I love the skin I am in and it isn’t defined by anyone’s expectations or limitations is beyond freeing.”