Troian Bellisario is featured in the new issue of Seventeen. But this isn’t a cover story that touches on fashion or sex secrets or even reveals very much at all about Pretty Little Liars Season 4 , which gets back underway tomorrow night on ABC Family. Instead, Bellisario talks openly for the first time about a very challenging and difficult past. “I started self-harming when I was a junior,” the actress says simply. “I would withhold food or withhold going out with my friends, based on how well I did that day in school.” Following her stint in rehab, Demi Lovato also admitted that she was an avid cutter during her most troublesome days. Bellisario explains that she “didn’t know what was right and what was wrong” in high school, she “created this bizarre system of checks and balances to create order in my world. But it really backfired.” The young star said she had a compulsion to be “perfect” and feared her parents would “disown” her if she ever expressed any sort of sadness or anger. “I kept a lot of it bottled up inside, and it turned into self-destructive behavior,” she tells the magazine. Last month, meanwhile, Ashley Benson actually slammed her own show’s new promotional poster because it was clearly Photoshopped and she thought that sent a bad message to fans. It’s a sentiment shared by Bellisario. “I’ve heard fans say that I’m perfect on the show and I want to tell them I’ve been through two hours of hair and makeup. Don’t hold yourself up to that!” Through all her struggles, though, Troian knows how fortunate she now is. “Whenever I get down, when I want to crawl under a rock, I just look around at them and I see how rich my life is,” she says. “You have to remember what’s most important in life. I am loved by so many people and have a wonderful job. I know I’m incredibly blessed. I am a completely lucky human being.” Bravo, Bellisario. You can watch Pretty Little Liars online right now and spend some more time with this brave actress.
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Troian Bellisario Opens Up About Cutting, Past of "Self-Destructive Behavior"
