American Idol’s Lauren Alaina Details Eating Disorder Battle

Lauren Alaina is opening up about a difficult time in her life. 

The American Idol alum recently revisited the criticism she received while in the public eye during her time on the competition show in 2011, and the years immediately after, and how it affected her struggle with eating disorders. 

“I started having problems with eating disorders in middle school and then in tenth grade, I go on American Idol,” Alaina told Hannah Brown while a guest on the Better Tomorrow podcast August 9. “And I was in my very awkward, chubby phase.”

 And while she describes that time in her life as a shift “between a teenager and a woman,” she noted that both viewers and the media were harsh. 

“People commented a lot on my weight. What kind of evil humans can comment on a 16-year-old child is beyond me now, but as that 16-year-old child, it got very bad for a while,” Alaina recalled. “I suffered with such a severe eating disorder in those years where nothing was connecting. It wasn’t only because of me needing to work hard, I lost who I was completely. Everything. My light, it was dimmed quite a bit because of the TV aspect.”