She was born the daughter of rock n’ roll icon and sex symbol Lenny Kravitz and a teenage television star, Lisa Bonet and lived in the shadows of those two for her teenage years. Now she’s 26 years old, and ready to define her name on her own terms—in fashion, in film, in music—and to step from behind the shadows of her famous parents.
But those steps haven’t been without a stumble here and there. One of them being an eating disorder. Common for Hollywood celebrities.
“I had a really hard time when I was 16, 17, 18. I started with the eating disorder in high school,” Zoe explains. “She trails off at this, and puts her hand to the side of her face, rubbing her right ear, and then dials back to the beginning of that thought: “Just [a hard time] loving myself.”
In high school, she became anorexic and bulimic. She’d battle with the two at various degrees until the last two or so years. “I think it was part of being a woman, and being surrounded by [fame],” she explains. “I don’t think it was about the fame, but I think it was definitely about being around that world, seeing that world. I felt pressured.”
Zoe Kravitz also shares that her mom, Lisa Bonet, was worried she might slip into old habits while shooting The Road Within in which she played young woman battling anorexia:
“It was f****d up, man,” she sighs. “You could see my rib cage. I was just trying to lose more weight for the film but I couldn’t see: You’re there. Stop. It was scary.” She got sick after filming wrapped. She didn’t get her period regularly because she was too malnourished. Her immune system shut down, her thyroid was thrown off. Recovering from the brutal shoot, she wasn’t receptive to praises from friends who were happy she was gaining weight, either. “I was like, ‘I don’t want to gain weight,’ as opposed to being like…
Zoe Kravitz On Her Eating Disorder: “I Had A Hard Time Loving Myself” was originally published on blackdoctor.org
