Evanna Lynch is famously known for her reel life and spellbinding portrayal of Luna Lovegood from the Harry Potter series. In real life she is known as vegan activist, voice actress and narrator. Rise to fame and voicing out didn’t come to her so easily though.
Her childhood, was particularly a tough one due to her experiences with Anorexia Nervosa. It is a form of an eating disorder that results in unhealthy, often dangerous weight loss. While it is most common among adolescent women, anorexia can affect women and men of all ages and is characterized by a refusal to maintain a healthy body weight, an intense fear of gaining weight, and a distorted body image. From the age of 11, Evanna was in and out of rehabilitation clinics for two years. Stating that the disorder “consumed” her, she explained that it was a way of getting attention that she could control. To her, she felt as though the punishment of being hungry and cold all day made her feel worthy.
She was able to overcome her disorder after finally finding a connection with the character she would later play; she was inspired by how Luna’s character embraced her own oddities. Becoming pen pals with JK Rowling in between her hospital visits, Evanna shared that her (Rowling’s) books and kindness made her want to live again. “I loved the feeling of creating and acting, more than I loved the feeling of being skinny or of being perfect.”
Evanna penned an essay in which she described her emotional struggle with her appearance and how she managed to overcome this struggle. She argued that while the mind is where ideas are made, it is the body that is the means of making those ideas a reality.
“Serve your body well, and it will serve you well” has been her motto ever since.
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