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Melanie Lynskey says miscarriage made her reconsider her relationship with her body

Melanie Lynskey is reflecting on her experience of gaining body acceptance, sharing that suffering a miscarriage played a role in the process.

The 45-year-old actress has been open about struggling with body image issues in the past, but in a recent interview with theSkimm, she shared a pivotal moment in her recovery.

Melanie Lynskey on a pivotal moment in her body acceptance journey. (Photo: Getty Images)
Melanie Lynskey on a pivotal moment in her body acceptance journey. (Photo: Getty Images)

"It’s been a very long journey," the Yellowjackets star said of her embracing her body. "I fought against it for a very long time, the shape that my body's supposed to be. It's hard to be a size 10 next to a size 0. I've spent many years not really eating and being very worried about what I look like."

Back in 2016, the Togetherness alum opened up to People magazine about what that struggle really looked like. "I was very unwell for a long time. I had eating issues and at a certain point I was like, 'I'm not going to survive' – not like I was on death's door or anything, but I was so unhappy and my hair was falling out," she said at the time. And although she's spoken about finding acceptance, she's now shedding light on an experience that led her there.

"A couple of years ago, I had a miscarriage and I just didn't really recover from it physically," she told theSkimm. "And having a very young daughter made me really think about, OK, I need to be kinder to myself and accepting and saying sorry to my body for what it just went through, and giving my daughter a positive example of what it looks like to have a mother who just is accepting of her body."

As an actress, Lynskey also wanted to provide that positive representation for other women watching her.

"I think it's just good for women to get to see different shapes and sizes," she said. "I want to be representative of what a lot of women in the world look like."

While she previously worried about being cast in roles without extreme dieting to change her body, Lynskey has said she's proud of the way that she's able to show up as herself in her latest role.

"It was really important to me for [Shauna] to not ever comment on my body, to not have me putting a dress on and being like, 'I wish I looked a bit better,'" she told Rolling Stone of her Yellowjackets character. "I did find it important that this character is just comfortable and sexual and not thinking or talking about it, because I want women to be able to watch it and be like, 'Wow, she looks like me and nobody's saying she's the fat one.' That representation is important."

If you or someone you know is struggling with an eating disorder, call the National Eating Disorders Association hotline at 1-800-931-2237.

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