Camila Cabello felt Fifth Harmony were too sexualised.
Camila Cabello
The 19-year-old singer quit the group - which also features Ally Brooke, Normani Kordei, Dinah Jane and Lauren Jauregui - last month and admitted she felt frustrated with efforts to make the 'Work From Home' hitmakers more raunchy in order to sell more records.
Speaking on Lena Dunham's 'Woman of the Hour podcast, she said: "Especially with being a girl group, there's been a lot of times where people have tried to sexualize us to just get more attention.
"Unfortunately, sex sells.
And Camila has advised other females who aren't "ready" to become sexualised to "put your foot down", which she has admitted she has had to do.
She said: "There's definitely been times where there's stuff that I have not been comfortable with and I've had to put my foot down.
"I think the thing that I would say to young women is, if you're not ready for it, put your foot down."
Camila believes being a musician and taking to stages to perform across the globe, and producing tracks with "sexual undertones", has been "tricky" for her.
She explained: "I feel like it's been tricky because we've had to grow into ourselves while being in front of the world and while making songs that did have a lot of sexual undertones."
However, the Cuban vocalist believes there is "nothing wrong" if you have purposefully decided to express your sexuality and are not acting provocatively because other people have demanded it.
She said: "There's nothing wrong with showing sexuality. If you have that inside, it's just an expression of who you are. If you want to share that with people, that's amazing."
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