Camila Cabello took to Instagram on Sunday to share a heartfelt message with fans about living with social anxiety.
“I went from never wanting to sing in front of my family to being addicted to performing,” she explained.
The 22-year-old pop star recalled that she shunned the spotlight when she was younger. “I was generally incredibly nervous and socially anxious when I was little,” she wrote, “and people always have this look of disbelief when I tell them that.”
Cabello said she was uncomfortable when loved ones sang “Happy Birthday” to her and she never wanted to sing in front of her parents Sinuhe and Alejandro or her friends.
“I sang in my room when my parents left for Walmart and cried when one day I saw them filming me through the crack of the door,” she recalled.
Cabello said she believes there are two versions of her – “little Camila that is terrified of the unknown [and] is aware of all the ways everything can go wrong” and the one who knows what she wants from life.
She encouraged her fans to find themselves. “If you haven’t been very brave, or very social, or wild, or an adventure seeker, if you describe yourself as the opposite of those things... it doesn’t mean you can’t be,” wrote Cabello. “The other you needs to grab little you by the hand, yank you by the hairs and tell you, ‘Let’s go.’
“You choose who you’re going to be. Force yourself to do what you’re afraid of, always – and go after what you want and who you want to be, because you’re worth that. You’re worth the fight.”
Read her full message below: