'Emily In Paris' Actress Ashley Park Opens Up About Battle With Cancer At 15

Ashley Park, of the “Emily in Paris” fame, is using her rough past to inspire millions out there. The 29-year-old actress opened up about her battle against Cancer at 15, after being diagnosed with leukemia.

Having come out stronger, Park maintained that the entire experience taught her empathy, as she works toward embracing her identity as a cancer survivor.

“Many times, people bring up my cancer experience,” said Park. In an impassioned recent interview with Cosmopolitan. “I totally don’t mind talking about it. I think it’s very important to talk about, but I also appreciate when I’m not asked to talk about the experience, or about how it’s informed how I’ve lived my life,” she added.

The candid chat saw Park discuss her fears while growing up and battling a life-threatening health condition. “I never wanted to be just the Asian girl, just the ‘whatever’ girl, and then I got to 16 and was the bald girl and the sick girl,” she said, as she enthused about her coping mechanisms while trying to overlook the side-effects of chemotherapy. Her focus has been acting since her recovery, and she believes her choice of career has been her therapy.

“I didn’t want to know that I might be infertile or that my heart might stop working or any of that stuff because once you say it, you’re thinking about it. Even though my body beat the disease, if I let it change anything, it’s won,” she added.

Park clearly seemed to have developed empathy, and reiterated that the last thing she’d want was to find someone else to go through what she did. “When you've been through a really hard time you don't want somebody else to go through it,” she averred.

The actress, who’s also known for roles in flicks like the “Broadway version of Mean Girls” made headlines after the protagonist, Lily Collins, and she instantly clicked during the filming of the Netflix Original. “We met at this part of our lives where we were ready to become the versions of ourselves we were always wanting to be,” said Park during the interview, upon being prodded about her real-life friendship with Collins.