Camila Mendes spent years battling an eating disorder.
Camila Mendes has opened up about her battle with disordered eating
The 28-year-old 'Riverdale' star opened up about her personal struggles in a candid new interview explaining she struggled with body image issues since childhood and she found her problems got worse when she was filming the first season of the hit TV show.
Speaking on the 'Going Mental' podcast, Camila told host Eileen Kelly: "I would watch every episode and be like, 'Oh my God, my stomach there …' I was, like, so insecure, and it really fuelled my eating disorder ...
"When you're in your early 20s, like, your body is fluctuating ...my body hadn't settled into itself yet. I was looking at myself, taking myself apart. My stomach, you know, my arms, my chin, anything - I would obsess over."
Camila - who played Veronica Lodge in 'Riverdale' - said her personal struggles off-camera interfered with her acting work, adding it "really f**** with your process."
However, she sought help and was able to work with a nutritionist to conquer her fears - which included an aversion to carbohydrates.
The actress went on: "I was really afraid of eating carbs, and what would happen is I would avoid it for a long period of time, and then I would binge and eat a bunch and then purge.
"So it was this, like, terrible cycle. She [the nutritionist] helped me overcome that by reintroducing bread into my life to be like, 'See, it's not going to kill you'."
Camila has now learned to love her body and previously shared an inspirational Instagram post in which she declared she was "#donewithdieting".
She wrote: "My passion for education, cinema, music, etc. - all the interests that used to occupy my mind- had been eaten away by my desire to be thin, and it made me miserable. I'm done believing in the idea that there's a thinner, happier version of me on the other side of all the tireless effort."