Emma Stone wasn’t like most kids growing up in Arizona. At 7, she had her first of hundreds of panic attacks. By 8, she was in therapy. At 11, she made a presentation lobbying her parents to homeschool her so she could be in more productions at Phoenix’s Valley Youth Theatre. And at 15, she’s said, she made “a PowerPoint [convincing them to let me] move to LA…to try to be an actor professionally.” They supported her after watching Emma sacrifice her youth for her passion and turn her once crippling anxiety — which had formerly left their ambitious daughter feeling “very isolated and without a lot of friends,” a source exclusively tells Life & Style — into what the two-time Oscar winner, 35, now calls her “superpower.”

“Emma has overcome a lot of personal obstacles to get to where she is today in Hollywood,” confirms the source. “But Emma says her priority these days is really her family.”

Precious Private Life

After dating co-stars like Teddy Geiger, 35, Kieran Culkin, 41, Andrew Garfield, 40, she embraced a far quieter romance with former Saturday Night Live segment director Dave McCary, 38. She even chose to keep their 2020 wedding and the 2021 birth of daughter Louise a secret. “Her life revolves around them,” the source tells Life & Style of the “still down-to-earth” star. “They’ve given her a strong foundation so she can do what she does without fear.”

Megan Fox is pulling back the curtain on two hot-and-cold relationships that have fueled gossip about her in recent years: the first, with rapper Machine Gun Kelly, and the second, with plastic surgery.

Fox’s romance with MGK has been the subject of much speculation amid recent reports of growing conflict between the two. The “Jennifer’s Body” actor settled the matter on this week’s episode of Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy” podcast — confirming that the engagement is off but intimating there might still be something between them.

“What I’ve learned about being in this relationship is that it’s not for public consumption. So I think as of now, I don’t have a comment on the status of the relationship, per se,” Fox said, conceding that she still thinks of Kelly as her “twin soul,” and that “there will always be a tether to him no matter what.”

“I cannot say for sure what the capacity will be, but I will always be connected to him somehow. Beyond that, I’m not willing to explain,” she said.

Read more: Megan Fox says ‘no third party’ in Machine Gun Kelly drama — and media can pound sand

Fox and Kelly first went public as a couple in June 2020 after meeting — technically, for the second time — on the set of their movie “Midnight in the Switchgrass.”

“I looked into his eyes, and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, it’s you. I’ve known you for a thousand years,’” Fox recalled.

In January 2022, Fox announced that they were engaged and had celebrated the occasion by drinking each other’s blood — a gesture that drew much criticism.

“What is so gross about what I did with my soulmate?,” the actor half-joked to Cooper, likening the exchange to an innocent blood pact between schoolchildren.

Instead, the public read it as evidence to support ongoing theories of Fox’s association with the occult, the “Transformers” alum said.

“Just to squash that, I’m not a Satanist or any kind of, like, evil witch, light-worker,” she said, adding that she’s become well-practiced at avoiding unwanted identities the public thrusts upon her.

“You could swap the articles from this year with 2009 and 2010, and it’s the exact same thing,” she said, adding that the insults that used to appear on gossip sites like Perez Hilton’s — “slut,” “whore,” “fake” — now populate social media.

Read more: Megan Fox says she has body dysmorphia, points out her ‘tons of flaws’ and rainbow aura

Fox said she has been especially scrutinized for allegedly undergoing a laundry list of body-altering procedures. In the interest of transparency — and reducing the shame women feel for having such procedures — she inventoried for Cooper the procedures she has and hasn’t had.

On the “have” list were three breast augmentations, rhinoplasty, Botox and filler. The the “have not” list included a face-lift, lateral brow lift, regular brow lift, thread lift, buccal fat removal, liposuction, body-contouring and a Brazilian butt lift.

“In terms of surgery, it’s not that much,” Fox said, calling her fear of general anesthesia a disincentivizing “saving grace.”

“Now when it comes to lasers and stuff like that, I’ve done everything you could possibly think of doing, and I always will,” she said. “I don’t understand the point of shaming people for getting stuff done.”

Read more: Why Megan Fox couldn’t handle ‘Transformers,’ as told by Shia LaBeouf

If it’s about embracing what’s “natural,” she added, pointing to the ubiquity of gel nails and dyed hair, “Where does that logic stop? What’s natural enough for you, and what’s fake? What’s the barometer?”

Fox clarified that anyone opting into such procedures, which are always a risk, should be very careful and research thoroughly before committing.

Still, she said, “The more I’ve taken control of my body and done the things that I’ve always wanted to do, the more comfortable I am in my body.”

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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.