Camila Cabello Talks About Dating Shawn Mendes in Elle 2019

On keeping her romantic life private: "Love is the most sacred, precious thing to me. I want to always feel like my love is between me and that person, and never belonging to anyone else. As much as I love my fans, and as much as I love people, I like to live my life as normally as possible. In a relationship, it makes me feel uncomfortable to invite everyone in on that."
On rumours surrounding her relationship with Shawn Mendes: "I don't know; people can say whatever they want to say. They can speculate, but at the same time, we are going to live our own lives, enjoy it, and fall for each other like nobody is watching. That is how I want to live. I never want to open the door for people to feel like they are involved. Like I said, I want it to be mine and [his]. That's why I'm so tight-lipped about it: because I want to protect it."

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On becoming more confident: "I think I just know myself more. I'm more gentle with myself. I think I naturally have less anxiety now, because I realised that so many of the things that brought it on weren't so scary after all. No matter who the person is or how much I want to impress them, I'm not going to let that rule how I act, how open I am, or what my opinion is. I'm just going to be myself. I listen to my gut. That's all I can do."
On why her upcoming album is inspired by love: "Honestly, this past year and a half was the first time I really experienced falling in love with another person. I think there is so much more depth to love when you know you are in it with another person. You have so much more to say — I think that's what makes me emotional."

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On working with Shawn Mendes on "Señorita": "I mean, I love him. We have always connected; we have the best time together. Shawn texted me the idea for the chorus for 'Señorita.' He was like, 'Hey, what if we work on this and do it together?' I was on the Taylor Swift tour and hadn't been in the studio for a while. I didn't want to do it, and then a few months later, I couldn't get the song out of my head. I [finally] told him, 'I think we should do this.' He was like, 'I don't want to do it anymore.' It went back and forth for, like, eight months. Then we finally went into the studio and reworked it so we both felt good about it, without any pressure. I love working with him so much."
On working with Ed Sheeran for her upcoming album: "It's probably one of the most surreal things that's ever happened. I actually cried the first time I met him, when I was about 16. I just love his music; he's been the soundtrack for my life. By the time we worked together for this album, we were already friends, so we were just talking about my life, and we wrote a song that really captured it. I felt very vulnerable, but that's what writing sessions are all about."

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On advocating for women's equality and gay rights: "What is incredible is that people who are not affected are feeling empathy for other humans and being like, 'Hey, this is not right.' It's so obvious that it isn't right, and I'm so happy to be a part of my generation, which is so much more open about this stuff. I feel like minds are opening because of information."
On being misconceived in media: "Honestly, I'm, like, never on social media — I don't know what people think about me. There are probably a lot of misconceptions, but I don't care. I think I have a better, wiser perspective on things because I am older and I understand myself a lot more. I feel far more grown-up. Growing up! It's an adventure."

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Camila Cabello Dishes on Her Blossoming Relationship With Shawn Mendes: "I Love Him"