The downsides of fame. Camila Cabello revealed in a new interview that she felt inappropriately sexualized when she was a member of Fifth Harmony.
“Especially with being in a girl group, there’s been a lot of times where people have tried to sexualize us to just get more attention,” the 19-year-old budding solo artist, who left Fifth Harmony last month, told Lena Dunham in Lenny Letter on Tuesday, January 10. “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 then noted that there’s “nothing wrong” with being sexy, and even gave a shout-out to one of her fellow pop stars. “Look at Rihanna. She’s so sexy. She comes from Planet Sexy. I worship her. I really, really do,” she gushed.
The “Bad Things” singer hinted that she and former bandmates Lauren Jauregui, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane and Ally Brooke were expected to have an adult image, even though they were still teenagers when Fifth Harmony was formed on season 2 of The X Factor in 2012.
“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,” she continued. “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.”
As previously reported, Fifth Harmony announced on social media on December 18 that Cabello had left the group. In an ice-cold statement, the girls alleged that they had been informed of the news “via her representatives.” The teen star responded to the group’s note with a post of her own, writing that she was “shocked” at their statement and saying the group had been aware of her solo plans. “I did not intend to end things with Fifth Harmony this way,” she wrote.
Jauregui, 20, Kordei, 20, Jane, 19, and Brooke, 23, are set to perform for the first time as a quartet at the 2017 People’s Choice Awards on January 18.
