Tallulah Willis, daughter of Demi Moore and Bruce Willis, opened up about her struggles with body dysmorphia and revealed that she once starved herself to weigh 95 pounds.
Willis, 20, a writer and fashion blogger with The Clothing Coven, participated in a video style project from the fashion site StyleLikeU (SLU) called the What’s Underneath Project. In the video series, each episode focuses on one person, male and female, who answer questions about their relationship with their bodies and their pasts with fashion and style. For each question answered, the subject must take off one item of clothing, to prove that “style…is what’s underneath.”
In the video, Willis said that when she was a teenager, she was overwhelmed by the tabloids, which, due to her famous parents, took it upon themselves to judge her looks, and was diagnosed with body dysmorphia.
“I struggled a lot when I was younger. Like I’m diagnosed with body dysmorphia with reading those stupid f—king tabloids when I was like 13 and feeling like I was ugly, like always,” Willis admitted.
Willis recounted that her body dysmorphia was particularly focused on her face, not her figure.
“My face, and that’s where my diagnosis kind of came into play… I would read things on the internet, and I was like, ‘well, why would someone write that if there wasn’t some basis for truth there?’
Willis’ self-hatred grew to include her entire body, as she internalized reports that her body was her only asset:
“I believed the strangers more than the people that loved me because why would the people who loved me be honest? I would sit there and I – it was just a conviction; like it’s just reality…That made me start to dress, really showing off my boobs and my butt and showing off those things that I was getting attention for.”
Willis went on to say that she tried to rebel against the outside world by losing weight and, eventually, starving herself.
“I started starving myself and losing a bunch of weight and I got down to like 95 pounds. When I lost my curves and when my boobs shriveled up into like nothing and I had no shape… I viewed super skinny me as smart, intelligent…but it actually was the reverse …It put me in even more of a cage,” Willis said.
Though Willis did not expand specifically on how her famous parents affected her self-confidence and body acceptance, she did say that she continues to get better, admitting that she finally likes herself.
Willis’ sister Scout Willis supported her sister’s brave video on Twitter, writing, “Each and every day I wake up unbelievably proud to have this bad, brave, incredible woman for a sister.”
Each and every day I wake up unbelievably proud to have this bad, brave, incredible woman for a sister. https://t.co/U9h7Rt9Hez
— Scout LaRue Willis (@Scout_Willis) August 7, 2014
Scout Willis is also an advocate for self-acceptance, and is particularly vocal in the Free the Nipple movement.
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