Everyone’s favorite ’90s Nickelodeon It girl is back and ready to take on 2018. Amanda Bynes appears on the cover of Paper Magazine’s “Break The Internet” issue — her first magazine cover since Maxim in 2010. And the former actress looks healthy, happy, and is absolutely glowing.
In her cover interview, Bynes opens up about her childhood in the spotlight. She starred in several shows throughout her early teens and twenties, with the most memorable being The Amanda Show, All That, and What I Like About You. On top of countless teen romcoms including She’s The Man and Easy A, Bynes made herself an early-2000s mega celeb. But unfortunately, this also made Bynes an easy target for tabloids who loved dwelling on her party girl lifestyle.
“I started smoking marijuana when I was 16,” Bynes told Paper. “Even though everyone thought I was the ‘good girl,’ I did smoke marijuana from that point on. I didn’t get addicted [then] and I wasn’t abusing it. And I wasn’t going out and partying or making a fool of myself… yet.”
Bynes eventually got her hands on Adderall, which led to her downward spiral. The drug caused her to resent her body, and ultimately caused her to leave her 2010 project Hall Pass. Then, after seeing a screening of Easy A, Bynes hated her appearance so much so that she decided she had to stop acting.
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“I saw [Easy A] and I was convinced that I should never be on camera again and I officially retired on Twitter, which was, you know, also stupid,” Bynes said. Her retirement led her to rely on marijuana to get through the day. She began hanging out with a “seedier crowd,” and her drug use made her tweet some things she wish had stayed offline.
“I’m really ashamed and embarrassed with the things I said. I can’t turn back time but if I could, I would. And I’m so sorry to whoever I hurt and whoever I lied about because it truly eats away at me,” Bynes told Paper.
“Everything I worked my whole life to achieve, I kind of ruined it all through Twitter.” She clarified, “it’s definitely not Twitter’s fault — it’s my own fault.”
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However, the new decade brought change. In 2014, Bynes committed to sobriety and, with the help of her parents, has been sober since. Via Paper, Bynes warns others to not be tempted by drug use. “[Drugs] really made me a completely different person. I actually am a nice person. I would never feel, say, or do any of the things that I did and said to the people I hurt on Twitter,” Bynes said.
Now, Bynes is finishing up her classes at Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles. She’s a high-scoring student, earning her Associate’s of Art degree in Merchandise Product Development. From there, she’ll go for her bachelor’s in January. Alongside embarking in the fashion industry, Bynes also hopes to return to acting sometime soon.
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“I have no fear of the future,” Bynes said. “I’ve been through the worst and came out the other end and survived it so I just feel like it’s only up from here.”
We certainly can’t wait to see where Bynes goes from here.