Most people say that it’s ridiculous to say that the Harry Potter books saved lives, but read this and you’ll change your perspective. Evanna Lynch, who plays Luna Lovegood in Harry Potter, once wrote to J.K. Rowling begging for at least a tiny role in one of the films. At the time she was young and was dying due to her anorexia. She mentioned it to J.K. and begged to have one part in the film before it was too late. J.K. Rowling responded with a deal: she’d give her a part if she got better. Evanna got better and never returned to her anorexia.
Reblog every time because 1. It’s fucking awesome. 2. She’s fucking gorgeous. and 3. Books save lives.
NO NO NO NO NO NO WRONG.
I always see this post and it always irritates the shit out of me.
JK Rowling did not offer Evanna the part if she got better. And Evanna CERTAINLY didn’t beg for it.That’s not what happened at all. While Evanna was doing inpatient therapy for her disorder she wrote to JK Rowling expressing her admiration for the author. She continued to write back and forth with JK Rowling from the age of eleven onward. That much is true. And JK Rowling did encourage and help her to fight the disease.
But Evanna stood in line with all of the REST of those FIFTEEN THOUSAND hopeful girls and won the part based on her TALENT ALONE. JK Rowling wasn’t even aware that Evanna was the girl she’d been exchanging letters with until AFTER she was already cast! Here’s a quote from a Q&A with Evanna about this very subject
I wrote to her when I was 11, and I was sick at the time. I had an eating disorder. I wrote to her because Harry Potter was the only other thing I really cared about and that helped me take my mind off it, and I just wanted to thank her for that and say how much it helped me. Especially how much Luna helped me. It was basically just a big fat, “thank you, I love you” letter.
I kept expecting her not to write back, but she’s just such a caring person that she really wants to help with whatever wisdom she has. We wrote for years, and she helped me through recovery and everything.
I was still writing to her when I got the part of Luna. But it happened in such a short space of time that I didn’t get to tell her. The producers told her because they just mentioned the names of people. She was really shocked. We still keep in touch.
So please for the love of god, stop reducing this fantastic actress and woman and human being to her disease. She didn’t get better so she could play Luna. She got better just to get better. To have a wonderful life. And she probably worked incredibly fucking hard to do so. It was because she got better that she got the opportunity to play Luna and played her so beautifully, that JK Rowling wrote the character to be more like Evanna. Not the other way around.
Evanna Lynch’s story holds an incredible message for those fighting their respective eating disorders: 1. You don’t have to starve yourself to be successful or even considered beautiful and 2. The only way to discover your potential, to fully live your life, is if you’re healthy and around to live it.
JK Rowling is a wonderful woman and she supported Evanna with her words and her stories. She’s done much the same for many of us. But Evanna Lynch’s recovery is not about JK Rowling.
Evanna is strong and capable and talented on her own. Everybody needs support now and again. But please, please, please DON’T praise JK Rowling for Evanna Lynch’s recovery. That’s not how it works. And the idea that you need someone else to come and fix you, to bribe you into recovering is dangerous and wrong. Recovery comes from within. It’s about changing the way you think about yourself and food. The only way to recover is to make those difficult choices inside your own head, your own body. Nothing can change that.
This woman is proof that all of us, nerdy or bullied or odd like Luna, have the power to take control of our lives and conquer our demons. This woman is proof that hope is not silly. Finding solace in fiction is not frivolous.
Evanna Lynch is the hero of this story.
Not Harry Potter.
Not JK Rowling.
Evanna.
(Source: bookshelpmescape, via lupinatic)
