In Hollywood and in the media, actresses cannot sidestep one characteristic by which they are so easily defined, praised and criticized: their weight.

Asian American actresses in Hollywood today, though few, are no exception.  Hollywood typically portrays Asian women as petite and submissive, encouraging Asian American women to stray from the powerful punch that their cultural, social, and familial interiors offer.

What is strong in any Asian American community is the food.  Though stimulating to the palette, many of the dishes are about maintaining social interaction and tradition than hitting all the polygons on the food pyramid.  For the majority of the population, this is fine; a few boba teas here and slurps of greasy chow fun there only add lusciousness to the body.

But for those recovering from eating disorders, like actress Lynn Chen, food is not always about tradition or social interaction — it was about her job, her appearance, and her life.

“First of all, in the entertainment industry, women are too skinny. But then you have your Asian American actresses who are so incredibly tiny,” says Chen.

In Hollywood, Asian American stereotypes seem to portray woman as porcelain-skinned, fragile, and waifish, while at the same time, possessing the ability to hurl swords and jump from mountaintops.  These characteristics depict Asian American women as borderline superheroes.

“Asian American women don’t have a broad spectrum to emulate.  If they compare themselves to, for instance, the popular Zhang Ziyi, anyone standing next to her is huge!  She does martial arts everyday, which is why she can eat three bowls of noodles a day.  But that’s not your typical Asian American woman.”

Chen first went public about her eating disorder in 2009 while contributing to an anthology of Asian-American superheroes with New York Times best selling author Jeff Yang.  Coincidentally, her superhero character was that of a young Asian-American female possessing the ability to eat whatever her heart desires without gaining a pound as long as she wears her grandmother’s “magic belt.”

But as her career took off, Chen’s attempt to conform to the idealities of Hollywood only submerged her even deeper in her eating disorder.

“I’ve been a binge eater my entire life, and spent over six years balancing it out with anorexia,” says Chen.

Chen’s past disorder, however, is only detectable after deeper investigation.  Her initial appearance radiates a Hollywood glow of which only a situated actress is capable.  Her past credits include appearances on Law and Order, Numbers, All My Children, and films including Saving Face, White on Rice, and Lake Terrence alongside Samuel L. Jackson.  Her personality is upbeat, open and straightforward.  Perhaps being an actress is what kept Lynn’s eating disorder under wraps throughout most of her young adult life.

“I binged probably once a week for most of my late-twenties.  It started off as my ‘cheat day’ – I was in the midst of my trying-every-diet-under-the-sun phase, and I liked the idea of a full 16 hours of eating whatever I wanted. It soon became a habit I both dreaded and looked forward to,” says Chen.

“In an attempt to get my life under control in a healthful way, I tried to do what I thought other actors did.  I went on the zone, did cleanses, ate macrobiotic, got hypnosis, hired a personal trainer, had private Pilates sessions, ate specially delivered/overpriced meals, went vegetarian, all while seeing an eating disorders specialist,” Chen says.

“I would scour magazine interviews with actors, stopping when they described anything having to do with food.  I couldn’t figure out how other actors did it, why it was so difficult for me to stay as small as everyone else around me without counting every calorie.”

“I still can’t quite believe that that was my life for so many years, and that I have been able to shed this part of my life that I was convinced would never go away,” she says.

Although she grew up on authentic Taiwanese food prepared by her parents, after entering into the world of acting, Chen’s relationship with Asian cuisine took a more modern approach, especially with popular grocers and hip health-conscious chains catering to the healthier side of Asian cuisine – to which many in our image-obsessed generation now claim as a staple in their grocery experience.

Chen, too, has come to honor her body with a more modern source of Chinese fuel – the Trader Joe’s kind.  She swears by their stir-fried vegetable egg rolls and their portion-controlled servings of vermicelli noodles or char siu dumplings.

Chen’s blog, “TheActorsDiet.com,” chronicles her journey to maintain a healthy lifestyle in the midst of Hollywood pressures.  She usually blogs twice a day, dressing her words with delicious foodie pictures.

But don’t expect to come across much authentic Asian cuisine or any over-indulgences, as the bulk of Chen’s choices are health-conscious and often organic.  Most of her current food choices are about dealing with the day-to-day struggle of conquering her past eating disorder tendencies.

“My blog has been very helpful in that I don’t feel like I have to ‘justify’ to anyone that I’m eating balanced and intuitively now – I guess I feel like I have ‘proof’ or something,” Chen says.  “But to be honest, we really don’t need to ‘prove’ anything, as long as we know the truth, right?”

Most recently, in February of this year, Chen launched a new blog, “Thick Dumpling Skin,” alongside Hyphen magazine’s Lisa Lee.  “Thick Dumpling Skin” prides itself for being the first online community-focused website on eating disorders and body image for Asian Americans.  Since the site’s launch, however, Chen has experienced mixed feelings concerning its feedback.

“We have a steady stream of stories about body image and eating disorders coming into the site, which is good. But [it] also makes me really angry and sad,” says Chen. “I knew these problems existed, but I also wish that we had more of a platform to get people help.”

“I’m not an eating disorders specialist, and ‘Thick Dumpling Skin’ has yet to find resources specifically for Asians, which is frustrating because we clearly see there is a problem affecting our community,” she explains.

“I think there’s this myth that Asian women are just naturally tiny with super metabolisms.  The fact that I’ve heard from so many Asian women saying that they’ve had eating disorders makes me seriously question this,” says Chen.

“I’ve found that in Asian cultures, people are much more vocal about telling one another ‘You’ve lost weight’ or ‘You look chubby.’  It’s up to us to take that in and say, ‘So what?’ instead of seeing that as a sign that we need to change.”

With Chen’s stunning beauty, positive personality and rising acting career, that’s an attitude we wouldn’t change.