Emma Watson recently spoke out about the damaging standards set by magazine photographs and her own struggles with self-esteem in Hollywood.
Watson has been making a name for herself as a powerful advocate for women’s rights with her position as a UN Women Global Goodwill Ambassador and leadership in initiating the HeForShe campaign, which urges more men to get involved with feminism.
In the Esquire interview, the actress criticizes the highly stylized photo-shoots she was involved in for promoting her own insecurities and advocates for more realistic portrayals of young actresses.
“I realized that I didn’t like friends taking photos of me when I wasn’t working and I actually got in a fight about this issue. And I wondered, why is this bothering me? Why does this make me so insecure? And I realized it’s because I can’t even reconcile myself with my own image on the front of these magazines,” Watson told the ESQ reporter.
The Harry Potter actress, who became internationally famous by age 11, is especially concerned with the impact that these beauty standards will have on her own fanbase since many young girls look up to her and the character of Hermione as a role model.
“All of that makeup and styling, in my normal life is… just… I can’t live up to it. I was like, ‘Holy shit! If that’s how I feel — and I get to be the person who’s on the cover of those magazines — how’s anyone else meant to cope?'” she said.
In continuing to bring awareness to these expectations of female beauty, Watson is using her public position to change the ways women are viewed in society in order to, as she says, “do something good” with all of the “crazy attention on me.”