Cara Delevingne has written an essay for Motto, and in it she gets brutally honest about how she struggled through her younger years as a model, confessing that one of the hardest things she had to deal with was the constant need to be ‘accepted’ by everyone in the industry.

I felt like I needed validation from everyone. As a result, I lost sight of myself and what it meant to be happy, what it meant to be successful. I think it all stemmed from a deep-down feeling of wanting people to like me and love me.”

She also admits that during her time as a model she was never truly happy because of all the expectations she had put on herself.

Over time, I came to realize that work and getting others’ approval isn’t the most important thing. Yes, your career is very important—but it’s not the most important. Of course I was proud of my accomplishments, but I wasn’t genuinely happy.”

On top of the emotional struggles she faced, she also found that being overworked impacted her physical health, as she developed the painful skin condition, psoriasis.

Recently Cara has hung up her modelling shoes and left the runway, giving up her successful modelling career to focus more on acting and her relationship with girlfriend, singer St. Vincent.

She’s already landed some huge acting gigs – Paper Towns, Pan, Zoolander 2 andSuicide squad, just to name a few.

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