The Insider.com

Thanks to stars like Demi Lovato opening up about the personal struggles they've gone through, there is an excellent public discourse going on right now in America regarding the pressures being placed upon teen girls by society, their peers and themselves.

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Now Pretty Little Liars star Lucy Hale is opening up about a particularly tough time in her life, and how she came out the other end smarter, stronger and more self-assured.

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"I've never really talked about this, but I would go days without eating," she reveals in the September issue of Cosmopolitan. "Or maybe I'd have some fruit and then go to the gym for three hours. I knew I had a problem. It was a gradual process but I changed myself."

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And through this journey of self-betterment, Lucy is not only the healthiest she's ever been, but also the happiest as she began dating Secret Circle star Chris Zylka in 2011. "I was like 'holy crap you're gorgeous,'" she says of their first meeting. "It was like no one else was there. We couldn't stop talking."

For more from Lucy's Cosmopolitan, you can pick up the issue on August 14.