lucy hale on cover of cosmo september 2012Lucy Hale -- best known for her role on Pretty Little Liars and a fan favorite for the role of Anastasia Steele in the Fifty Shades of Grey movie -- appears in the September issue of Cosmo, and clearly, the women's monthly is over-the-moon the actress chose to reveal a deep dark secret during their Q&A ...

Surprise, surprise: Once upon a time, the 23-year-old suffered from disordered eating! A beautiful young woman in Hollywood starving (literally) to be famous? Never! Heh.

Now, just because we've heard this song and dance before doesn't make it any less disturbing. And the way Lucy's story is being presented is even more problematic ...

Of her past disordered behavior, the actress told Cosmo:

I've never really talked about this, but I would go days without eating. Or maybe I'd have some fruit and then go to the gym for three hours. I knew I had a problem. It was a gradual process but I changed myself.

Wow, scary. Thank goodness she's better now and being so open about her past struggle ... But wait, I feel like there's something missing here, right? Where are the details about how she "changed" herself? What made her realize she had to do something about her problem? So, it's not like Cosmo is The Nation, but this sure is one schlocky reporting job if I've ever seen one! Not to mention that glossing over Lucy's recovery is just plain irresponsible. A serious disservice to the many young women who look up to Lucy and -- let's be honest -- are the meat and potatoes of the mag's readership. 

Without detailing what her current, hopefully much healthier routine entails, Cosmo's doing nothing more than feeding us sensationalist scoop. Worse yet, because they're failing to treat the subject matter with the seriousness it deserves, some readers might read this and walk away thinking, "Yeah, I could totally get away with doing the same thing Lucy did for a little while before "changing myself!" Whatever that means ...

Anyway, way to prioritize shocking sound bytes over solid service journalism, Cosmo! We can only hope that down the road, Lucy opts to offer what we could actually stand to know about her troubling past.

Do you feel like Cosmo's reporting of Lucy's problem falls short?


Image via Cosmopolitan