Was taking my body for granted, says actress Jameela Jamil

For Good Place actress Jameela Jamil, a lifethreatening event turned out to be a life-saving one too.

E! Online reports that just last month, Jamil sparred with model Sara Sampaio on Twitter over the fashion industry’s unrealistic standards of beauty. Sampaio, however, maintained that the star was attacking models and generalising about their behaviour. “She misunderstood my messaging. She thought I was attacking girls, whereas I was very clearly attacking the industry,” explains Jamil, who says she experienced the dangers of the industry first-hand as a teenage model with an eating disorder.

“I was encouraged to smoke by agents and peers. I was encouraged to only eat red peppers or take a small bag of sweetener around with me so that whenever I felt like I was gonna faint, I would just have a little bit of sugar rather than eat any full meals,” she describes. She recalls a car accident at 17 “destroyed” her back, rendering her bed-ridden for a year and in a wheelchair for six months. This resulted in a 70pound weight gain.