Supermodel and fashion icon Cara Delevingne spoke in an interview with Rupert Everett in London at the "woman in the world summit".

Cara spoke about her childhood, her experiences and struggles with depression and being suicidal, and then turning to modelling.

At the start of the interview Cara first explained "In our culture we are told that if we are beautiful, if we are skinny, if we are successful, famous, if we fit in, if everyone loves us, that we'll be happy. But that's not entirely true,"

She wrote a poem in 2014 about her depression due to her experiences in the fashion industry and in life.

Who am I?  Who am I trying to be? Not myself, anyone but myself. Living in a fantasy to bury the reality, Making myself the mystery, A strong facade disguising the misery. Empty, but beyond the point of emptiness, Full to brim with fake confidence, A guard that will never be broken, Because I broke a long time ago. I'm hurting but don't tell anyone. No one needs to know. Don't show or you've failed. Always okay, always fine, always on show. The show must go on. It will never stop. The show must not go on, But I know it will. I give up.  I give up giving up. I am lost. I don't need to be saved, I need to be found.​

Cara explains her learning problems at school as she knew she was never going to be good academically, and the feeling of letting her parents down led to her having a mental breakdown. She states her feelings at the age of 15 feeling depressed and suicidal, and the need to change her life. She turned to modelling at 17 and was unsuccessful in  her first year, until being used in a Burberry modelling shoot, which launched her career. She states that model's in the fashion industry are "used", and unappreciated with has a negative mental effect on them.

Cara speaks about the ways in which she dealt with her depression, in the forms of yoga and writing. She states that writing her emotions down "saved her life", and this was a way to released her emotions. Her support network was her family and friends, which included fellow supermodel Kate Moss.

She then goes onto speak about the stresses and strains within the fashion industry, which lead her to having psoriasis. As a top fashion model, cara explains the busy schedule lead to her to hating herself and her body. The stress lead to a medical condition called "psoriasis" which is a skin condition that causes red, flaky, crusty patches of skin covered with silvery scales. Cara explains this lead her to having injections into the breakout areas all over her body. She felt disgusting and disconnected from herself, and craved for someone to tell her to slow down with her career, but that no one did. She described that the medicine was masking her problems and issues, when she really wanted a break in order to deal and solve the causes mentally.

Eventually she was able to overcome her problems, by taking a break and saying no to people in the industry on the advice of Kate Moss.

Towards the end of the interview Cara speaks about becoming an actress and being a role model to young girls.

She ends the interview with her own quote; "be comfortable in your own shoes, as you'll be in them for a while".


My thoughts...


As a person that suffers from an anxiety condition called "Generalised anxiety disorder" (GAD), I could relate personally with Cara's words and emotions. It's refreshing to see someone as popular and beautiful as Cara speak out about her personal battles. From the outside, the fashion and modelling industry seems to be glamourous, but we don't realise the stresses and strains these individuals go through from busy work schedules to the pressures from managers and companies to look a certain way. The fact that Cara spoke out about her feelings on the subject can really help people that are experiencing the same feelings and emotions, whom feel alone, and now they can relate to someone that they may be inspired by.