Charli D'Amelio Gets Vulnerable About Her Mental Health On DWTS
TikTok star Charli D'Amelio has had anxiety from a very young age, and in 2020, she opened up about how it's impacted her throughout her life. "I used to have such bad panic attacks in the third grade," she said on Avani Gregg's Facebook Watch show "Here For It." "This is what happened and this is how it affected me up until literally three weeks ago. It hurt so bad I didn't want to talk about it."
D'Amelio's anxiety only heightened when her TikTok videos went viral and skyrocketed her into instant fame. Hulu's "The D'Amelio Show" further highlights her life as a social media influencer at a young age, as she's balancing being famous, receiving countless hate comments, and her daily life. She even mentioned that it has been difficult to find a therapist who truly understands what she's going through as one of the most popular teenagers in the world.
In a September interview with People, the TikTok star opened up about learning how to deal with her anxiety, specifically with blocking out the hate comments. "I don't know about everyone else, but I don't really look at that stuff anymore," she said. She mentioned she's starting to grasp the reality that the hate comments don't go away, so it's up to her to control what it does and how she feels. And now, D'Amelio has used dance to tell her story.
Charli D'Amelio tells an emotional life story through dance
When "Dancing with the Stars" showrunner Conrad Green asked Mark Ballas to come back after years of not being on the show, the executive producer had the professional dancer's creativity in mind, especially when it came to pairing him with Charli D'Amelio. "She's got a lot of dance background," Green told Entertainment Weekly. "So, we wanted to make sure that whoever worked with her was really pushing her and being imaginative."
And nothing has showcased D'Amelio's talent paired with Ballas' creative choreography better than the October 17 episode of the dance competition show. For the TikTok star's most memorable year, she opened up about how she's struggled with anxiety. "[I] got to my breaking point with social media," she said in her rehearsal package. "This is kind of the first time it doesn't control me."
D'Amelio danced her way to the top of the leaderboard, earning a near-perfect score from the judges and many tears of movement across the ballroom. The TikTok star portrayed herself while Ballas portrayed anxiety, and at the end of the dance, she broke away from her partner, indicating that she's in control of her emotions. "I just finally feel back in control of my life and that's been really great for me," D'Amelio said after her performance.