Camila Cabello reveals she felt sexualized at too young an age in Fifth Harmony
Obviously, it’s been a tough few weeks for Camila Cabello since Fifth Harmony announced her exit from the fan-favorite girl group right before the holidays.
We cannot pretend to know what she’s going through as she processes her next steps, but thanks to an interview she did with Lena Dunham for Lenny Letter — an interview that was finally released on Tuesday, January 10th — we’re beginning to get a slight idea of why she left the group in the first place.
“Especially with being a girl group, there’s been a lot of times where people have tried to sexualize us to just get more attention,” she told Dunham. “Unfortunately, sex sells. There’s definitely been times where there’s stuff that I have not been comfortable with and I’ve had to put my foot down.”
Cabello went on to say there’s “nothing wrong with showing sexuality” — listing Rihanna as a favorite “sexy” artist — but that for her, being forced to grow into her body and her sexuality in the public eye with 5H could be tremendously difficult. (She joined the group when she auditioned for the second season of The X Factor, eventually being rejected as a solo artist but placed in the band, at the age of 15.)
“I definitely think being a young girl, there’s a time where — like when you’re in middle school or when you first start liking boys — you don’t really feel comfortable. You remember that time when you first got your period, or when your boobs started coming in, that you were like, ‘This is weird.’ You have to grow into yourself. I feel like it’s been tricky because we’ve had to grow into ourselves while being in front of the world and while making songs that did have a lot of sexual undertones.”
Cabello also told Dunham that, in the midst of all of this sexualization and the rift in her band, staying off social media was “the best decision I’ve taken in my career.” She added that it’s kept her “grounded,” and able to focus on things that matters — like, for example, being an advocate for the Latinx community in Trump’s America.
“As far as the Latina thing, I feel like this has kind of been a crazy year for us because of everything that happened with the election. I didn’t even realize how much racism was still prominent in our country,” Cabello said, adding that growing up in a multicultural Miami shielded her from a lot of the racism Latinos are facing in other parts of the country.
Her eyes are open now, though — and she feels more politically motivated than ever to stop the hate.
“I saw so many videos and so many Latino anchors from news that I watch interviewing people that just hated us and thought that we were inferior. It made me realize, ‘Whoa, this is really still happening.’ I feel like in a way that’s just kind of made me prouder of my roots. To be honest with you, I didn’t think that I would be as politically outspoken as I was this year about the election. I know that it’s a really personal decision, voting …
… I just felt a responsibility to stick up for my people and my culture. Just seeing all of the debates and me and my family around talking. Seeing all of the passion in their eyes because they’re the people being spoken about. Now and forevermore, I’m going to stick up for immigrants and I’m going to stick up for Hispanic people and their rights. I feel like that’s just my job.
As sad as we are that Cabello is gone from Fifth Harmony, if learning about activism and speaking out for women and her community is her “job” now, we are totally, 100 percent on board — and excited to see what she’s going to do next.
