Portraying Imogen in “Pretty Little Liars: Summer School,” and playing out the character’s struggles with her mental health, led Bailee Madison to take a hard look at her own. What she came to learn is that it’s ever-changing and constantly evolving, along with the circumstances that arise in her life. “My mental health is a work in progress, as I think all of ours is,” she told Wondermind.
That was a lesson that she learned while filming the series’ first season and brought with her when she returned for the second. “I was a lot more mindful this season of taking care of my mental health. Last season really put me through the ringer [sic],” she admitted, recalling that after she’d wrapped the first season, her sister observed that she still hadn’t let go of Imogen and was only about 20% herself.
Looking back on that first season, Madison recalled having an epiphany that resulted in some serious soul-searching. “I remember having this moment of: I’m doing a show that has always been a dream of mine, and I’m the happiest I’ve ever been. I’m also the lowest I’ve ever been,” she said. “I didn’t necessarily know what to do with that.” What she did was begin to build herself back up, to shift her focus to the positive and away from the negative. “From that point on, at my lowest, I was like, okay, we’ve got to start. And with that came a lot of reflection.”
