Bella Thorne recently released a documentary with Vogue, and I’d recommend that you watch it before reading this even though I’m only going to talk about the last 30 seconds.
Everyone is going to have their opinions on the way in which she chooses to carry herself. Maybe you think that she curses too much or that her outfits are too revealing. Maybe you think her boyfriend is weird and don’t understand why she would release a song that is basically her name on a loop. Many go as far as to say that she doesn’t deserve her fame. I personally have yet to watch any of her newer films or listen to her music. But I do see her on the DailyMail Snapchat every single day with endlessly absurd headlines. And after weeks of being updated on her every movement, I became weirdly invested in her.
While her behavior might be controversial, nobody can deny the fact that she is unapologetic.
Unapologetic is one of my favorite adjectives, because it’s a word that encompasses a person’s entire being. When you say that someone is funny, you are only capturing them at the surface level. Describing someone as unapologetic is saying that the person is fully and unabashedly themselves - even in the face of adversity. It makes a statement towards their character and is a word to work towards.
At the very end of the video, the interviewer asks if there is anything she’d like to say to the audience, to which she stops, looks into the camera, and says, “If you’re sitting here judging me, which you are. Everyone is. For one moment, just try and stop. Maybe like close your eyes and open them again. What do you see now?”
It created this really powerful moment where she shut out everyone else and is just staring at whoever happens to be watching. She is looking at every person who has ever made a negative comment about her and is asking them to see her as she is. For someone who is always on camera, it’s surprisingly raw, and suddenly you realize that she is just a 20-year-old girl trying to figure out her life like everyone else.
I am not writing this to be an advocate for every decision that Bella Thorne makes. I am writing this because I think the concept of individuality has become increasingly more skewed. Celebrities are most often praised for saying what everyone else is already thinking. And while it is admirable that they are choosing to use their platform to speak their minds, it seems that their personalities are being put into a box. They have to be funny, inspiring, charismatic and worldly all at the same time.
We set these impossible standards which then filters out of Hollywood. It seems as though our differences are only accepted if they are liked by the majority, and that’s not only unfair, but also boring. The most interesting people are the ones who simply are. People might say that Bella Thorne doesn’t deserve her fame, but she is still here, because people continue to follow her. And they do this because her openness is contagious and she motivates others not to be like her, but to be themselves.
