Tyler Oakley opens up about eating disorder

Tyler Oakley is one of the funniest guys on YouTube. Whether he’s joking about how to stalk One Direction or throwing the slumber party of our dreams, his humor is a big part of why he racks up millions of views. But now, he’s opening up for the first time about something serious: his struggles with an eating disorder.

“Talking about it is really hard because it’s something I suppress and work through every day,” he tells Seventeen magazine. “And I haven’t really talked about body image in videos. I assume when people read this, they’ll be like, ‘Oh, you’re not fat.’ That’s not what it’s about at all. Even when I was the skinniest I’d ever been, I was still not happy.”

Oakley is the cover star of the teen magazine’s October issue.”With videos, meet and greets, and a million pictures a day, it’s definitely a thing that I think about,” he says in the cover story. “It’s not about clothes fitting. It’s not about feeling chubbier than normal. I’d beat myself up over a day that I’m not active. If I’m lazy, then I feel grody.”

Oakley has a book coming out next month called “Binge,” and in it, he makes another startling confession: he was the victim of physical abuse at the hand of an ex-boyfriend, something he says even his mom didn’t know about.

Now, he admits to being in a much healthier relationship with someoneone else and is overall doing better physically and mentally. He hopes sharing his story will encourage others to get the help they need, too.

Follow Emily on Twitter: @EmLaurence