Dove Cameron is getting deep on Instagram.
The Disney darling took to the social platform on Wednesday to open up with her fans like never before, revealing that she’s been struggling with her identity and image to the point where she feels “terrorized” — and is often in tears.
The candid admission came alongside a string of selfies that showed the Boyfriend songstress crying while looking in a mirror. In a note that was shared alongside the raw pics, the starlet said she’s “been struggling lately with the concept of self, my inner relationship to who I know myself to be and my outer perceivable self who I feel I have never known but other people seem to.” Whoa.
She added:
“I’ve been crying a lot lately, sometimes terrorized by my identity and image, sometimes in absolute flow with something new and peripheral and joyous to me.”
The Descendants star went on to reveal she’s lately been “covering mirrors” and “feeling wrong in clothing that used to make me feel beautiful,” confessing that “sexuality and performative gender norms, societal rewards and identity are really throwing me for a loop.”
The actress, who previously came out as queer, expressed her frustrations about how social media, mirrors, branding and other ways of “broadcasting” our lives for others to see is “not optimal for mental health, clarity of energy or relationship to our inner world.” She mused:
“This is a modern problem not designed with human health in mind.”
She’s right about that!
While she doesn’t “have answers from myself yet,” the 26-year-old said she wanted to speak out about this struggle as a way to “maintain a quiet non judgmental curiosity rather than punish myself for not knowing what I’m feeling or where I’m going.” She shared:
“We all deserve a life unburdened by the societally created identity, we all deserve to unlearn self abuse and hatred. I am on that journey now, and I’m sharing so that we may all feel more comfortable in a conversation that may be confusing, and we may navigate something that feels difficult to put to words, together.”
Cameron dove in deeper in the caption of her post, writing that “for me, identity and the self have always been diametrically opposed, and there has only ever been room for one at a time to occupy my life.”
The performer went on to note that she tends to feel “pulled towards no identity at all,” and realizes she’s not the only one who feels that way. She wrote:
“The longer i’m alive, the more i realize these inner dialogues are actually pretty universal.”
Dove ended her message on a positive note, revealing she’s starting to have “hope” that her huge platform “can actually be the conduit to gorgeous change and mutual support, exploration and safety.” She concluded:
“Maybe the spaces that are the least human can become the most human, if we want that, and maybe we can all take up a little more space.”
We love this so much! Big props to Dove for getting extremely candid in a space where people so seldom are — especially considering she doesn’t quite know the answer to her struggles yet.
Wherever this journey of exploration takes her, she has our support — not to mention, the support of her millions of fans.
Take a look at her full post (below).
[Image via Dove Cameron/Instagram/MEGA/WENN.]
The post Dove Cameron Gets Candid About Struggles With Her Identity: 'I've Been Crying A Lot Lately' appeared first on Perez Hilton.