Demi Lovato Talks Breakdown: "I Was Dealing With the Pressures to Be Thin"

Recovering starlet sits down with Ellen DeGeneres, opening up about the issues that sent her to seek treatment earlier this year; Lovato says she wants to serve as a role model for young girls

By Brandi Fowler Sep 17, 2011 3:42 PMTags
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Demi Lovato has made it no secret she feels "unbroken" following her breakdown earlier this year, but now the Skyscraper starlet is taking to the airwaves, sending a message to young girls facing issues similar to her own.

In a sitdown with Ellen DeGeneres set to air Tuesday, Lovato told the talk show host she wants to make sure young girls don't succumb to the same societal pressures she did—destructive tendencies, she said, that came as a result of idolizing "skinny girls" she saw on the cover of magazines.  

"One of the reasons why I became so outspoken when I decided to come out of treatment and talk about my issues was because when I grew up I was dealing with the pressures to be thin," Lovato said. "It was the time in the tabloids when very, very skinny girls were on the cover of every magazine and that's what I was looking up to. That's what I had to idolize.  I don¹t want that for young girls to idolize."

Following on from that frank admission, the actress and singer also opened up about the eating disorder she has battled with.

"It¹s very unhealthy," Lovato went on. "There was nobody out there for me to look at and say, maybe this is unhealthy.  Maybe starving myself isn't the answer. So I want to be that for a 13-year-old girl at home deciding whether or not to eat dinner, or an 18-year-old deciding whether or not to keep her breakfast down.  There needs to be a role model out there, and for the first time in my life, I actually feel like one."

And sounds like one!

The former Sonny With a Chance star emphasized how important it was for her to seek treatment in order to move forward with her life.

"I went from being at the highlight of my career," Lovato said. "So many things were going great in my life and then all of the sudden my personal life just went down at crazy speeds.  I had a negative breakdown and it changed my life forever, but I'm glad that it did, because if I had never gone into the treatment...I don't know if, one, I'd even be sitting here today. Two, if I'd be alive today."

Keep up the great work, Demi!