Camila Cabello Opens Up About ‘Falling in Love’ and How Much Shawn Mendes Means to Her

Camila Cabello is one of Variety‘s Power of Young Hollywood cover stars, and she gave the outlet her first big interview since her big public romance with Shawn Mendes started earlier this summer. Cabello did not talk about their romantic relationship, but she did talk about Mendes’ place in her life, and how she has recently fallen in love.

Cabello told the outlet that she was in a different place emotionally than she was when she released her first solo album, Camilla, last January. Then, she had “crushes from afar.” But she’s focusing on the present now as she song-writes, where she’s in love. “Falling in love is like an infinite amount of levels and layers and angles,” she said. “I fell in love and just opened up. Everything was written in present moment.” She did not name-drop Mendes there, Variety pointed out, but she did talk about him later and how their “Señorita” duet happened.

That were eight months of back and forth with the song, Cabello said. “I’ve known Shawn for such a long time, and it’s so much fun getting to work and do things with somebody who means a lot to you.”

Cabello also touched on how she feels about being such a public figure generally—the kind whose romance with someone would get tabloid attention. “Because I’ve been doing this for such a long time, I forget that I am quote-unquote famous or that people are looking at me,” she said. “It makes me insanely uncomfortable to see pictures of me that I didn’t know were taken. I honestly hate it. I don’t want to live like a celebrity and have to look perfect every time I step out of my house. I ignore it as much as possible. If I’m going to look like sh*t that day and cameras are in my face, I don’t care because I choose being human and normal.”