'Melrose Place' Star Has a Message About Hollywood's Dangerous Ultra-Skinny Trend

Notable ’90s television actress Courtney Thorne-Smith, 58—recognized for her roles on the TV shows Melrose Place, Ally McBeal, and According to Jim—knows a thing or two about navigating body image ups and downs and the pressure to be thin while working in Hollywood. Today, as the celebrity world descends into its latest bombardment of “ultra-skinny” messaging, particularly for women, Thorne-Smith is offering a message of hope and healing and an alternative for folks who feel shook by the latest obsession over thin bodies.

Celebrities have always been pressured to look a certain way—generally very pretty and very very thin—but the latest super-underweight trend being driven by GLP-1 use (or misuse) and extreme weight loss we’re seeing on social media and red carpets is scary and downright unhealthy for even non-celebrities.

Related: Oprah Winfrey Reveals Unexpected Effect of GLP-1 Medication on Her Health

Thorne-Smith has been open about her struggles with an eating disorder. In an December 2000 interview, she talked about the pressure she felt working on the Ally McBeal set. “I started under-eating, over-exercising, pushing myself too hard and brutalizing my immune system,” she said. “The amount of time I spent thinking about food and being upset and my body was insane.”

After learning she would have to do a nude scene on the hit TV show, she says, “I ate fruit all week just to try to be really lean by Friday.”

Today Thorne-Smith took to Instagram with some important counter-messaging and actual tools for managing the very real emotions that come from the pressure to be super thin.

In the new video clip, she relates to the common rush of disordered thinking, saying, “We’ve all been bombarded recently with images of celebrities getting smaller and smaller and smaller, and I’m not here to judge anybody’s path, but for those of us who have suffered with compulsive dieting or exercise or disordered eating or disordered thoughts about food, seeing those images can really light up the part of our brain that says, ‘Wait a minute! They’re getting smaller so I need to get smaller!'”

But then she offers a positive alternative. “The second I start to hear that, ‘Oh wait a minute, we’re all getting skinnier!’ I take a breath take a minute and I go right into gratitude. Instead of thinking of my body as an object to be controlled and managed, I remember how lucky I am to have a healthy body and I say directly to my body: Thank you for allowing me to walk my sweet dogs and go for hikes and hug my friends and cook for my loved ones. I am so lucky that I get to do yoga and go to the market and just move through the world with relative ease.”

“This shifts my thinking—from my body is an object of competition that needs to be molded and shifted to fit whatever’s in fashion to the very important reminder that I am so lucky to have a healthy body that works and my body is here to support me and I am here to feed and support and love my body.”

Watch Thorne-Smith’s entire message here:

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If you or someone you know is struggling, the following organizations provide information on eating and associated disorders:

• Eating Disorders Resource Center: edrcsv.org
• National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders: anad.org
• National Eating Disorders Association: nationaleatingdisorders.org
• National Institute of Mental Health: nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/eating-disorders
• Office on Women’s Health, US Department of Health and Human Services: womenshealth.gov/mental-health/body-image-and-mental-health
• Overeaters Anonymous: oa.org

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