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It is Mental Health Awareness Month and many high profile people are coming out to share their struggles. Earlier this week Glenn Close spoke at length about her battle with low-grade depression. Prince Harry talked about his mental health struggles on Dax Shepard’s podcast The Armchair Expert. Now Tallulah Willis is speaking about her body dysmorphia. Tallulah, Demi Moore and Bruce Willis’s daughter, discussed how she was constantly comparing how her looks to her very famous mother. In an Instagram post, Tallulah explained how she copes when she finds herself spiraling such as taking a social media break and covering the mirrors in her home. Below are a few highlights via People:

Sharing a photograph of herself alongside a series of shots of Moore, 58, from various decades, Willis began her message with a trigger warning around body dysmorphic disorder.

“Took me way too long to realize that: A. Aging happens without your control, time passes and your face can change 🤷🏻‍♂️,” she said. “B. I punished myself for not looking like my mom, after being told I was [Bruce Willis’] twin since birth – I resented the resemblance as I believed wholly my ‘masculine’ face was the sole reason for my unlovability – FALSE!
I was/am inherently valuable and worthy, at any life stage, at any size, with anyhair do! (As are you).”

“C. You need to soothe the wound within your soul before trying to ‘fix’ the outsides,” Willis added.

Continuing her candid caption, Willis told her followers to “Be mindful of the special and impressionable minds around you and their access to social media and potential triggering imagery or the indicators that hyper-focusing on ones appearance goes deeper then just wanting to feel good in their own skin.”

“we all want to feel good, and confident but when it creeps into a deeper, spookier place where it begins to devour your essence bit by bit, ask for help,” she added. “Do not feel ashamed, this is not a ‘stupid, vain issue’ this is a genuine psychological pain and I see you so clearly and witness the validity in your struggle.”

Willis then shared a list of things she will do for herself when she’s in a “BDD spiral,” including going for a walk and listening to music, taking mirrors down, reading fantasy fiction books and taking a bath.

Similarly, Willis — who became engaged to Dillon Buss earlier this month — added that allowing herself a break from social media is also important, as well as writing her thoughts down before tearing them up and burning them.

[From People]

Reading this story made me a bit sad. Tallulah is lovely and I feel bad for her that she went through that. I am sure lots of daughters of famous mothers known to be beautiful suffer from a sort of “pretty inadequacy.” I am sure Demi and Bruce did everything they could to make sure their daughters felt beautiful but people are cruel. I remember how people were saying and writing mean things about the Willis girls. However, I am happy to see that Demi is supporting Tallulah in the comments by reaffirming her beauty. I also love how self-aware Tallulah is about her struggle. The fact that she has taken multiple steps to help her cope with her self-image is a beautiful thing. I hope that many others will begin to open up and seek the help that they need. Mental health should not still be a taboo topic. I wish Tallulah well and hope she knows how loved she is. It is a good thing that she is doing the work to take care of her mental health. It is definitely setting a good example for those who are paying attention.

Also, congratulations to Tallulah on her engagement!

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Photos credit: Avalon.red, Getty and via Instagram

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