Laura Crane suffered from bulimia for five years.
The 23-year-old surfer has opened up about becoming bulimic aged 16, but she "got better" when she was 21, and admits appearing on ‘Love Island’ was a "massive test" to see how she would cope with being judged by others.
She said: "I went in to prove to myself that I’ve come a long way. Now that it’s over, I wanted to tell my journey before going on the show.
"That I had bulimia and an eating disorder since I was 16. That being a surfer and traveling the world and modelling put all these pressures on me as a girl growing up in that industry. Which, don’t get me wrong, it is an amazing way to grow up, but it does weigh on you.
"An eating disorder is a mental illness. It f**ks you up in the head and it shows. You can’t control things and when you feel that out of control, it becomes the only thing you have control over. So you just hang onto it.
"It’s hard to let go, but once you do you get your life back."
Laura used to feel "sick mentally" looking at her body during her younger years, but she put on a different appearance on social media to what she was really feeling.
She said: "I had such a negative view on my body for so long and it made me sick mentally. But on my Instagram, I was perceiving this best or ideal life and it wasn’t true at all.
"The whole time I was eating food and throwing it back up. I was really, really unhappy and that’s the thing I want to get across – that you can be living the most amazing life through Instagram but behind closed doors, people have no idea what you’re going through."
Since leaving the ‘Love Island’ villa, Laura has re-watched a few episodes, and was surprised that she cried on the ITV2 show, because she didn’t expect to be so "emotionally" involved in the programme.
She added to Stab magazine: "It was weird to see me cry. I definitely didn’t think I would go in there and get so emotionally into it, but it becomes your life and you can’t get away from it. You’re living it 24/7, so the friendships you have in there are real.
"The feelings you’re having for the other people are really real. It’s hard to switch off from it. You can’t get away from it, you really have to deal with everything right in front of you."
Laura Crane opens up about 5-year bulimia battle
