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Cara Delevingne is having the time of her life, or at least it looks that way. She’s one of the world’s most talked about models, leading the social media charge of a new type of supermodel. She was even christened an ?Instagirl? on the September issue cover of Vogue alongside Karlie Kloss and Joan Smalls. Besides being at the top of the fashion game, Cara is on the road to conquering Hollywood, with a leading role in Paper Towns set to be a box office hit this summer.
And now the 22-year-old has landed her first solo US Vogue cover, wherein she talked about her struggle with depression and anxiety in her most honest interview ever with images shot by Patrick Demarchelier – The Devil Wears Prada anyone? She also opened up about her sexuality, a topic that has fuelled many a gossip column.
On depression, Cara talked about how during her teenage years she was??hit with a massive wave of depression and anxiety and self-hatred.? She said that this period of her life shaped her and was a ?huge part of who I am.? These dark feelings led to Cara self-harming, scratching herself to the point of bleeding. ?The feelings were so painful that I would slam my head against a tree to try to knock myself out,? she said. ?I just wanted to dematerialise and have someone sweep me away.? Even when her career started taking off, she wasn’t feeling good about life and contemplated suicide during a trip to New York. In fact, it was music that saved her from making such a drastic decision. A song came on her computer, it was on shuffle mode, that was played at the funeral of a friend who had died from a drug overdose. ?It felt like a warning from him. And it made me so furious with myself,? she said of the life-changing moment.
Cara isn’t the first young woman to use Vogue as a platform for taking about her mental health. Last month’s cover star, Amanda Seyfried was blisteringly upfront about how promoting her films and being in the public eye led her to therapy.
On her sexuality, Cara finally confirmed the rumours about her much speculated upon bisexuality, saying that she has known she was attracted to both genders for some time. “It took me a long time to accept the idea, until I first fell in love with a girl at 20 and recognised that I had to accept it,” she said. Now, Cara is in a relationship with the singer St. Vincent, and says that her current happiness is down to their being in love: “I think that being in love with my girlfriend is a big part of why I’m feeling so happy with who I am these days. And for those words to come out of my mouth is actually a miracle.”
While Cara’s honesty isn’t that big a shock – she’s totally herself across her social media accounts – one topic we were surprised to see her talk about is that of her relationship with her mother. Pandora Delevingne has battled a heroin addiction for the majority of Cara’s life and is rarely in the public eye. “Women are what completely inspire me, and they have also been my downfall. I have only been hurt by women, my mother first of all,” Cara told Vogue. Cara stresses that her mother is an ?amazingly strong person with a huge heart, and I adore her? but that the uncertainty of her mother’s problems has shaped her, leading her to ?grow up too quickly?. Her mother still struggles with addiction issues, a fact that has cast a shadow on Cara’s success but isn’t something she will ignore.
Have to say, we’re pretty impressed at Cara Delevingne after this interview. It takes a lot of courage to talk about such private matters, and hopefully Cara’s openness will help other young people facing similar struggles with their sexuality, happiness and family members.
Are you looking forward to seeing her act in Paper Towns, the new indie teen movie from the John Green, the writer behind last year’s teary smash The Fault in our Stars?