The Outer Banks star, 22, opened up about her struggles during an interview with Women’s Health on Thursday, December 3, and revealed that she developed an eating disorder when she was a teenager.

“I think I was around 16 when I started working out a lot,” she recalled. “I would wake up every morning at 5 a.m. and I would work out for 30 minutes. It was super rigorous cardio every day.”

Later, the actress began restricting her eating after her exercise regime didn’t give her the results she wanted. “I started cutting calories,” Cline said. “I would eat like six almonds for breakfast because I didn’t want to counteract the cardio that I just did.”

However, Cline’s diet and her intensive workouts — which included dancing and weight-lifting — began harming her body. “It turned into not feeding myself protein and not feeding my body what it needed when I was working out so much,” she said.

Cline continued, “I worked out multiple times during the day. All I knew was I wasn’t achieving a particular body image, and so I was angry. I was harming myself and starving myself in the process of trying to achieve that.”

The South Carolina native credited her mother, Pam Cline, for teaching her how to develop a more positive body image, adding that “self-love is a constant journey” for her.

“My mom was a wonderful help in that,” Madelyn said. “She would stand there in the mirror with me and we would list out things that I liked about my body. After that repetition, those things became solidified in my mind. I like my curves, I like my hips, and after a while I started to love my body. I became so much happier.”

Madelyn has also been in a good place in her love life. The actress is currently dating her Outer Banks costar Chase Stokes, whom she met on the set of the Netflix drama. Madelyn told Entertainment Tonight in November that she’s enjoying spending time with the actor, 28.

“It’s really cool. Love is tight,” she said at the time. “It’s cool to share this experience with your favorite people and also your favorite person. I feel very happy.”

The couple kept their romance under wraps for two months after the show premiered in April. Stokes made their relationship Instagram official when he posted a photo with Madelyn in June.

This story originally appeared on: US Magazine - Author:Mariah Cooper