Courtney Miller: ‘Our looks don’t define us’
Even with a psychology degree under her belt, Home and Away actor Courtney Miller knows how close she’s become to letting body image control her.
Confidential
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Home and Away actor Courtney Miller has detailed her own issues of body insecurity in a bid to help other young women.
The 23-year-old actor, who plays Bella on the popular Channel 7 TV soap, has launched her Love Your Shape campaign that brings together women of different shapes and sizes to share their stories on social media.
“I think I am very close to the tipping point of it controlling my life,” Miller told The Saturday Telegraph. “It hasn’t yet so I have been holding myself back of going over the edge of mentally body image controlling me, my eating and what not.”
Miller suffers from allergies so has to be careful with what she eats regardless but admits she feels pressure to be thin.
“I am very healthy and that could also be a sign of caring too much,” she explained.
“I never eat cake. I don’t eat lollies. One (reason) is it makes me feel sick because my gut just can’t handle it and two is I just don’t know what it is going to do and being on TV does hone that in a bit more. I have issues. Even the girls I speak to who have the typical six or eight pack, they have issues. There is no line anymore.”
The actor has a psychology degree under her belt and has just completed post graduate studies in rehabilitation counselling.
Miller is putting her money where her mouth is by volunteering for Lifeline answering phones as a first port of call for the crisis support service.
“I am just an anonymous person, I can’t say my name,” she said. “It is very draining but also extremely rewarding.”
Miller’s first memory of body image being an issue was around the age of 10 when she compared herself to other kids in her class.
“I just remember thinking I was big compared to some of my friends,” she explained. “From then I always compared myself. It is looking in the mirror too much, honing in on my stomach area instead of the whole picture and letting my body impact who I am as a person, which is absolutely ridiculous.
“It is scary how bad it can get and the lesson I have learnt is that the way we look does not define who we are and shouldn’t determine our happiness.”
Originally published as Courtney Miller: ‘Our looks don’t define us’