I didn't even have a career before 'Stranger Things' - it was my first acting job, my first time on a professional set, and my character wasn't even supposed to be a big deal - it all just exploded.
— Shannon Purser
There's such a stigma around mental illness, and this idea that you're going to come off as disturbed or weak somehow by being open about these things. I've never felt embarrassed or shy talking about it; it's such an integral part of my life.
The most evil and insidious thing about mental illness is that it isolates us and makes us feel so different that we think no one can possibly relate.
Mental health affects every aspect of your life. It's not just this neat little issue you can put into a box.
With 'Stranger Things' especially, I couldn't expect the show to become what it was, and I definitely didn't expect the whole Barb thing to become what it was.
I've been singing since I was a little kid, but 'Sierra' was my first time singing on camera, which was definitely intimidating at first.
I was diagnosed with OCD and depression, and that was a huge relief, because now my struggles had a name and could be reckoned with. With a combination of therapy and medication, I got better. I learned to love life again. My problems didn't go away, but they became much easier to face.
I don't know why, but I'm more intimidated by sharing my singing than just performing as an actress.
Everybody has had that experience where your friend drags you to a party because the person they're crushing on is there, and you don't really want to be there but you go there with them anyway.
I didn't get recognized a whole lot at first, but all of a sudden it just started happening. People would look at me out of the corner of their eye, deciding whether or not they were going to come up to me!
You never think about someone dressing up as you for Halloween.
People will send me pictures of T-shirts with my face on it and it's nothing that I ever would've imagined in a million years as a kid.
I was always taller than every other boy my age. So, whenever there was one boy who was taller than me I was like, 'Yes. He's the one.' Even if he definitely wasn't.
My existence in Hollywood is a political statement, because there are so few women who are plus-sized or above a size 6.
Acting isn't always about the amount of talent you have, or your ability to cry on command. The point is, how well can you take direction? How well can you put aside your own ideas or ego and listen to the ideas of the director and the people above you, while not giving up the passion and drive of that character?
I was about 15 when I decided that acting was what I wanted to pursue professionally.
I didn't really have a normal high school experience. I was home-schooled and went to a co-op, so basically a school with about maybe 200 other home-schooled kids that would come together for classes.
As an actor, your life is filled with so much uncertainty.
I did have an emo phase. It was sort of like armor for me.
It's very important to me that people know that depression doesn't discriminate. A lot of people look at people who have depression and think that it's not legitimate because they're wealthy or it looks like everything seems to be doing fine. But it doesn't pick and choose. It can affect anybody in the brain, no matter how perfect your life seems.
I think there were so many times that I just felt so overwhelmed by school and by my relationships with my friends and I felt like I was going to be stuck in high school forever and I was never going to achieve my dreams.
I think the media in general hasn't been very kind to fat women or fat people. We see so many insensitive portrayals of plus-sized people. That kind of stuff really affected me - not even necessarily the portrayal of fat people, but the absence of fat people.
Technology is a double-edged sword for sure. You can use it to get in touch with somebody, to get to know somebody, to have really meaningful conversations, or you can use it to hurt and bully people.
At some point, I stumbled across an article about OCD. As I read, I was blown away by how identical the writer's description was to what I was experiencing. It was overwhelmingly comforting to finally realize that I wasn't alone and that nothing was wrong with me. It was a treatable disorder.
I do think technology really has changed the way that we communicate with each other and texting can be the way to communicate and to kind of get up the nerve to say things that maybe you wouldn't say in real life, but that also comes with a price.
Being on set is just a unique and surreal experience, and it's one I always dreamed about having. And then I had it.
I totally am dorky and weird, and that's fine with me.
There's this book that I love called 'Eleanor & Park.' It's an incredible story about these two misfit kids who fall in love. I've loved that book for years and I'd be so thrilled if I got to be in an adaptation of that.
I think we take our friends for granted a lot in high school. We're so busy worrying about our own problems that we ignore the fact that we have these people who are supporting us and taking care of us like all the time.
The idea that I get to kind of redefine what is beautiful and whose story deserves to be told and showcase that you know, big women have love lives and complex colorful lives like everybody else, that's really important to me.
As I got into high school I sort of came into my own and gained some confidence and, luckily, wasn't really bullied by others.
It's just as important to be a good human being as it is to be a good actor.
A lot of times, gay characters are represented in unrealistic or stereotypical ways.
I grew up in a house with all girls, so I'm used to having a lot of hormones around that can create craziness.
I'm seeing a lot of roles written explicitly for plus-size women, which is so cool.
I feel that responsibility to really be authentic with people because I think that's what they deserve, especially in a time when it's very easy for people in the public eye to sort of cultivate an image.
I'm pretty introverted and I spend a lot of time in books, a lot of time thinking and by myself, because that's what I enjoy to recharge.
I think people find it so easy to write off teenagers and millennials as just being like these shallow, self-centered people who don't have anything real going on and who are always just on their cell phones. But being a teenager is really hard.
I love to sing.
Specifically, my time in therapy has changed my life. It was such a relief to have a trained professional listen to my thoughts and help me positively restructure my thinking.
When I was a little kid, I used to get in trouble a lot for lying. Being raised religious, I believed that lying was sinful, so I felt guilty.
Such a big part of acting is getting your face out there and getting recognized.
As I got older, I fell more in love with movies and thought it would be incredible to someday be in one.
I've been a huge Winona Ryder fan for a while. I'm one of four girls, so there are four sisters, so we used to watch 'Little Women' seriously, maybe once a month.
It's always been important to me to do work that I'm proud of and be part of stories that I'm proud of, so being on a popular show was never really the goal.
I feel like, especially in Hollywood, you meet people with ulterior motives, who are trying to get something from you.
I just think about little me - what it would have meant to me to see a chubby girl in movies and a big girl get the guy and be the princess, be the hero. I think that would've really changed a lot for me.
I was definitely always the bigger girl and kind of weird. I didn't make friends very easily and I was a big reader, so I was very antisocial, and I knew that people were judging me.
When you're on stage, you're playing to whoever is in the back of the room, and TV and film is so much more detailed and nuanced, but I think that's what I always wanted to do. As much as I love theater and musical theater and would love to do it again, I really love the subtleties of film and theater acting.
That's what I love about movies and TV: You can go anywhere any time and be whoever you want.
