Lily Collins has a message for her younger self.
On Wednesday, the Mirror Mirror star reflected on her past struggles with mental health in honor or Mental Health Awareness Week with a moving post on Instagram. Sharing a picture of herself from her 20s and addressing her younger self, Collins stressed the importance of practicing self-care and self-acceptance.
“On the surface, this was a happy, confident girl. On the inside, I was struggling with so much insecurity and doubt within myself,” her lengthy caption began. “At this age throughout my late teens and into my twenties, it felt really difficult to speak out about my internal struggles — with family, with relationships, eating disorders and overall uncertainty. But these are topics that should never be taboo, and we shouldn’t be afraid to speak to each other about them.”
She continued, “We’re here to get each other through these moments not judge one another for having them. So if I could remind that younger me of one thing it would be that I’m never alone. We’re never alone.”
Stressing the importance of having a support system, she added, “We need to lean on good friends and family, focus on the positives, and try our hardest not compare ourselves to others. I’m the only person who can be me. I should love myself as I am.”
To conclude her message, Collins reminded fans experiencing the same feelings that while facing “our darkest shadows” isn’t easy, it’s important to keep going.
“Believe me, I know this isn’t easy and right now it may be even harder as we’re forced to face even our darkest shadows,” she said. “But let’s give ourselves and each other a little boost of encouragement this week and everyday moving forward and try our hardest not to judge one another too harshly. Self care is not selfish. It’s self love.”
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Taking this theme in stride, the Love, Rosie star also shared a poem that read, “There is a greater happiness to be attained: the happiness of enjoying myself to the fullest during the one life I have and accepting myself for who I am.”
Back in 2017, Collins revealed that she had suffered from an eating disorder. Speaking with Shape, she said, “I used to see healthy as this image of what I thought perfect looked like—the perfect muscle definition, etc. But healthy now is how strong I feel. It’s a beautiful change, because if you’re strong and confident, it doesn’t matter what muscles are showing.”
She added, “Today I love my shape. My body is the shape it is because it holds my heart.”
Later that year, she portrayed a young woman battling anorexia in the film To The Bone, which she said acted as a “new form of recovery.”
“Although I was in recovery for several years before the movie, preparing for the film allowed me to gather facts about eating disorders from professionals,” she told the outlet. “It was a new form of recovery for me. I got to experience it as my character, Ellen, but also as Lily. I was terrified that doing the movie would take me backward, but I had to remind myself that they hired me to tell a story, not to be a certain weight. In the end, it was a gift to be able to step back into shoes I had once worn but from a more mature place.”
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