Actress Lucy Hale struggled to find her identity after the successful drama series Pretty Little Liars ended in 2017.

When she stepped outside of the limelight of the hit Freeform teen drama, the 32-year-old Hale said that the reality hit her hard as she went through a ‘dark time’ before regaining her poise and confidence.

‘It was such a crazy experience to be a part of something that was massive on a global scale,’ Hale told People magazine in this week’s issue, on newsstands Friday.

‘The show changed our lives overnight. We were so young, so busy and over­worked,’ said Hale in the interview.

‘But you’re up on this mountain, and you’re like, “Every­ thing is so great! People love us!”‘ said Hale, whose breakthrough role was Aria Montgomery in Pretty Little Liars for which aired from 2010 to 2017.

‘When you step outside of that, you’re like, “That’s not normal,”‘ she said.

‘After the show ended, it was a dark time in my life. It made me realize, “Oh God, I actually don’t know what I like about myself,”‘ the actress added.

The busy actress, who had recently been filming the thriller series Ragdoll that AMC+ debuted last month, said she took a step back and looked inward to find the ‘small’ things that made her happy outside of her career.

‘I just really had to hang out with myself,’ she told the magazine. ‘I’m at a point now where I love what I do, but I also like who I am outside of that. That, to me, is a big accomplishment because I didn’t know if I’d ever be able to say that about myself.’

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