Girls star opens up about extreme dieting that put her in hospital

Lena Dunham has amazing body confidence, as any fan of HBO’s Girls will know, but she wasn’t always so comfortable in her own skin.

In her autobiographical book Not That Kind of Girl, the actress reveals that she battled severe anxiety issues as a child – which still affect her today. “I really love my life, but I've kind of worn anxiety grooves into my brain,” she wrote. “It just doesn't always sound good in there." 

Despite her relaxed attitude to nudity on Girls, Lena admits she went through a period of being seriously unhappy with her body. “When I got out of college I thought, 'What am I gonna do? No one's gonna hire me, I'm a fat girl,'” she said.

The star also confesses that during the first season of the show, she took her dieting to extremes, keeping a detailed food journal and greatly restricting her eating. As a result, she ended up being hospitalised with “crazy stomach pains.”

Describing the incident, Lena said, “It was basically revealed that I'd been just drinking laxative tea and coffee and smoking cigarettes and then eating weird foods at weird hours. I really messed myself up.”

Since meeting her “incredibly supportive” boyfriend, Fun guitarist Jack Antonoff, Lena says her body hang-ups have eased.

“I really feel good with my size now," she said. "It used to be when I went into a room with all thin women I felt like, what's wrong with me? Now I just feel special." 

Now, that's an attitude we can get on board with!