Lily Collins Opens Up About Having An Eating Disorder As A Teen

Lily Collins has revealed that she suffered with an eating disorder as a teenager, making the filming for To The Bone - where she plays a woman battling anorexia, an intensely personal experience.

Having been drawn to the role due to her past experience with the disease, Lily explained why she decided to face her fears and channel her own struggle in the movie.

In an interview with IMDb Studio, she said: "This was definitely a more dramatic role for me, I suffered with eating disorders when I was a teenager as well."

Lily explained: "I wrote a book last year and I wrote my chapter on my experiences a week before I got [director] Marti [Noxon]'s script and it was like the universe putting these things in my sphere to help me face, kind of dead on, a fear that I used to have.

"And, a way to explain it as someone who's gone through it and to open up a topic that is considered quite taboo with young people nowadays, male, female, and to really start a conversation."

Adding that it's unlike anything she's done before, she said: "It did require a different set of emotional skills, to kind of go back in time for me, with you know, my experiences. So definitely a different type of film for me to do, very, very personal."

After the interview was conducted, Lily took to Instagram to announce that opening up about her history with eating disorders has been one of the most "fulfilling" and "freeing" experiences of her life, before sending her "love and support" to anybody out there going through the same situation.

Pretty powerful stuff, and a great statement of hope for anyone else struggling with the condition.

Want more from MTV News? Check out the update below...