She’s forged herself a successful modelling and acting career at the age of just 25.
But life hasn’t been easy for Cara Delevingne, who has opened up about her difficult teenage years in a new magazine interview.
Speaking to Net-a-Porter’s The Edit, the actress reveals how she was mistaken for a boy while growing up.
Discussing her struggle with mental health issues, she describes there being ‘something dark within me I cannot seem to shake’ – despite being the ‘luckiest girl in the world’.
Candid: Cara Delevingne has opened up about her difficult teenage years and struggle with mental health issues in an interview with Net-a-Porter’s The Edit magazine
Cara stunned in a futuristic fashion shoot, showing off a sequin one shoulder dress teamed with metallic boots.
She also displayed her incredible figure in a velvet maxi dress, flashing her pins through the gown’s thigh-high split.
In the interview with the magazine, she opens up about her hellish teenage years, describing how she was a late bloomer.
‘Teenagers can be very, very cruel. I wasn’t into the same things that all my popular friends were. I was a very late developer. I didn’t have boobs or start my period till very late,’ she said.
Stunning: The 25-year-old looked sensational in a black velvet maxi dress in the futuristic-themed shoot
‘And that whole thing of being called frigid, and being flat-chested… I felt alienated and alone, because I was like: What’s wrong with me? I always wanted people to love me, so I never got angry with them; I turned my anger on to myself.’
‘Instead of using [my] sword and shield [to protect myself], I just put my shield up and stabbed myself.’
She describes how she was often mistaken for a boy as a teenager, explaining: ‘If I wore the clothes that I liked, with my short hair, everyone would think that I was a boy. I hated it.
‘Even though I looked like a boy and acted like a boy, I wasn’t a boy.’
Describing her battle with depression, Cara said: ‘I hated myself for being depressed, I hated feeling depressed, I hated feeling. I was very good at disassociating from emotion completely.’
Growing up: The model says she ‘hated’ being mistaken for a boy when she was a teenager
She added: ‘I didn’t understand what was happening apart from the fact that I didn’t want to be alive anymore.’
Speaking about the advice she would have given herself, she added: ‘I wish I could have given myself a hug. I wish I’d known that I was still in there somewhere, that I wasn’t my own worst enemy, that I wasn’t trapped.
‘That if you can hold on for dear life – because being a teenager can feel like you’re on a rollercoaster to hell, that’s what it honestly felt like to me – you can get through it.’
Describing how hard it can be to discuss mental health issues, she added: ‘When I tried to talk to people about it, they wouldn’t want to understand. So many of my friends would say: “How can you feel like that?” and, “But you’re so lucky,” and I’d be like: I know, trust me, I know.
‘I know I’m the luckiest girl in the world, I understand all of these things, and I wish I could appreciate it. There is just something dark within me I cannot seem to shake.’
Abuse: Cara, who split from girlfriend St Vincent a year ago, also discussed facing homophobia during the interview
Cara, who has written her first novel Mirror, Mirror, also described growing up with her mother Pandora’s heroin addiction during the interview.
‘Of course, when you grow up with any alcoholic or depressive there is going to be darkness, but I wanted [the book] to show the inner workings of it,’ she said.
‘The thing about alcoholism, addiction and depression is, you can’t hate the person for being who they are, you can hate the disease behind it.’
Cara, who split from girlfriend St Vincent a year ago, also discussed facing homophobia during the interview.
The subject is touched upon in her new book, which is a coming-of-age story about friendship and betrayal centered around four teenage misfits.
‘I’m the luckiest girl in the world’: The Paper Towns star’s acting career has been going from strength to strength
Away from her writing, Cara’s acting career has been going from strength to strength.
The Paper Towns star is set to star in two films due to be released next year: Life in a Year, alongside Jaden Smith, and Fever Heart, which also stars Alexander Skarsgård.
She will soon join Orlando Bloom to co-star in Amazon’s eight-episode series Carnival Row streaming in 2019.
Read the full interview with Cara in this week’s The Edit.