LILY COLLINS BARES ALL

FIT FASHION

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To celebrate her debut on the cover of Shape, she went to dinner with two elementary school friends after the shoot and reminisced about how awkward they all felt about  their bodies as teens. “We wore boys’ board shorts over our swimsuits!” she says. The irony that Lily, 28, was unwaveringly confi dent and at ease on set all day in one revealing swimsuit after another was not lost on her. “I never dreamed I’d be posing in a bikini on the cover of Shape. It’s a complete 180 for me. It’s a magazine about what it means to be healthy,” she says. 

You see, for Lily, the struggle to get healthy was, and still is, real. And she’s refreshingly candid about it. Although she’s fit and radiant now, for more than half a decade she suffered in silence from an eating disorder that had her restricting her intake of food, bingeing and purging, abusing laxatives and diet pills, and perhaps more significantly, hiding it all from her friends and family.

But after years of destructive behaviour, Lily, who is very close to her mum  (her dad is musician Phil Collins), realised she needed to be held accountable. So she came out about her disorder. “My perspective on other people’s view of me was based on this disorder being a secret. But the more open I became about it, the more I was able to be myself,” she says.

Speaking her truth to her inner circle eventually set Lily free to share her story with the world – and because of her journalism background, she had the chops to do it.

At 15, she became a correspondent for Elle Girl UK (she spent a lot of her childhood in England), and in 2008, she reported on the US presidential election for Nickelodeon. She was later a contributing editor for CosmoGirl  and the Los Angeles Times magazine.

Her recently published book,  Unfiltered, details her experience with her disease and is “even more honest than I was intending,” she says. “I didn’t realise I’d covered so much.” But she was ready to talk. And that’s a good thing, because Lily Collins has a lot to say. Here are the chapters on her recovery.

TEXT DIDI GLUCK PHOTOS ADAM FRANZINO STYLING JILL LINCOLN & JORDAN JOHNSON/THE WALL GROUP HAIR GREGORY RUSSELL/THE WALL GROUP FOR R+CO MAKEUP MATTHEW VANLEEUWEN/ STARWORKS ARTISTS MANICURE TOM BACHIK FOR LANCÔME

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“In October 2015, when I got the book deal, I wasn’t filming anything. Then I got flooded with work [including getting a leading role in an Amazon TV show called The Last Tycoon, and the movie Okja  with Jake Gyllenhaal for Netflix].

“People told me to put the book on hold, but I knew it would be worth it to keep going. And, as luck would have it, the movie To the Bone came up [playing a woman sent to a rehab centre for her eating disorder].

“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. It was a new form of recovery for me. I got to experience it as my character, Ellen, and as Lily.

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“I’m a clean eater. I love chicken, fish, vegetables, and grains like quinoa. I don’t eat red meat. I steer clear of processed foods. I’m very farm-to-table; growing up in the English countryside, it was a way of life, not a trend.

“I also treat myself to the occasional dessert when I’m out with friends. But on the daily, I want to give my body what it needs to be the best version of myself. When I splurge, it’s usually on things that I’ve baked because it’s physically and emotionally satisfying.

“I’m not glutenfree or vegan, but I love baking things because of the sense of accomplishment I get from creating something yummy and healthy. I make everything from doughnuts to birthday cakes and bananawalnut bread.

“There was a time when I wouldn’t let myself taste those kinds of foods, let alone make them. I bake from the heart. I put love out there, and it goes right back in.”

" I'm reading quite lowmaintenance. I stay hydrated, and I always remove my makeup at the end of the day, and slather on sunscreen at the beginning of it. I always carry lip balm, too.

“When I get on a long flight, I take off my makeup and let a hydrating cream sit on my skin through the whole trip. I swear by Lancome’s Genefi que mask [Lily is a Lancome ambassador]. When you take it off , your complexion is super radiant. I’m very aware of how important skincare is, but I try not to overdo it.” 

“I did consider that talking about my struggles with an eating disorder would over shadow my accomplishments as an actor, but I also knew this was something I needed to do to move forward as a human being and an actress. I needed to let go. I’ve always strived to start conversations about taboo subjects with young women. Sharing my story in Unfiltered happened to coincide – not strategically! – with To the Bone, but I’ve always admired people who are relatable and honest. Having suffered from an eating disorder doesn’t define me; I’m not ashamed of my past.”