‘The most important journey all of us will go through is the journey within ourselves’: Cara Delevingne

Cara Delevingne, 29, is an English model, actor, and singer who has often spoken up about mental health issues, the impossible demands of the fashion industry, body image, and more. And in an interview for Women in the World dating back to 2018, she elaborately spoke about dealing with anxiety and depression.
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She starts saying that “through growing up, what I’ve discovered is that this world is a very vast, a very wonderful beautiful one, and there are so many things to discover. But the most important journey, I think, all of us will go through is the journey within ourselves to find our truth to find who we are and what makes us happy.”

Cara then goes on to talk about imposed societal beliefs: “In our culture, we are told that if we’re beautiful, if we’re skinny, if we’re successful, famous, if we fit in, if everyone loves us then we’ll be happy, but that’s not entirely true.”
She then shares a poem she wrote when she “wasn’t very happy”, and is quick to note that “depression is a recurring thing, and it doesn’t really sort away”. After the poem, Cara shares that she had a mental breakdown at school — when she was 15 — while pushing herself “really hard” to do well to please her parents and family.
Talking about the fashion industry and her experience as a young model Cara says that she was constantly being told that “you’re not pretty enough and not tall enough and not skinny enough, and people are better. And when you’re young, you think that means ‘I’m not good enough as a person, like that means ‘I’m not living up to who I should be’ and you kind of get battered and bruised a lot.”
Cara then says that she found writing and yoga which helped her express her suppressed emotions, saying about her yoga guru: “it’s about finding people who care about you and support.”
Towards the end of the video, the supermodel says people shouldn’t be ashamed of depression and mental illness: “I have so many messages in terms of just young girls and how mental illness and depression is not something to be ashamed of, and I wish at that time I had realized that other people go through it, that I can talk to other people, that you’re not alone, you’re not an alien. And, you know, my message has always been to accept yourself no matter what, to love yourself, to embrace your flaws; I think flaws are the things that make us special, the cracks within us are the beautiful parts that need to have light shed on them otherwise they’re just left.”
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