Anya Taylor-Joy has gained sympathy from fans after a resurfaced interview revealed she stopped looking in mirrors due to online comments making fun of her appearance.
In 2015, the model-turned-actor rose to prominence when she starred in the horror film, The Witch. Since then, Taylor-Joy has gone on to star in a number of widely-acclaimed movies and television, most notably in Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit.
Last week, the 27-year-old actor went viral online after her past comments about feeling insecure about her “far apart” eyes resurfaced on Twitter. On Friday 14 April, celebrity gossip account Pop Tingz tweeted: “Anya Taylor-Joy reveals she stopped looking in mirrors after seeing memes making fun of her appearance online.”
In 2016, Taylor-Joy sat down withW Magazine to discuss her early career and newfound fame. During the interview, the Menu star was asked whether she feels “self-conscious” about her “far apart” eyes. In response, Taylor-Joy revealed that negative Facebook comments about her eyes made her stay away from mirrors.
“I can definitely remember when Facebook was a thing and I was never aware that my eyes were far apart and then someone tagged me in a picture with a fish and they were like, ‘This is you ’cause your eyes are like here,’” recalled Taylor-Joy, who was just 20 years old at the time.
“And I was really upset about it and I didn’t enjoy it and I kind of stopped looking in mirrors for a very long time,” she explained. “I still don’t really spend a lot of time in front of mirrors because I don’t really have to deal with my face. Unfortunately, y’all do.”
The Emma star added that she became aware of her appearance while playing sports, saying that her friends would throw a ball at the side of her head because “my eyes really were on both sides of my face”.
“It became common knowledge in the playground that if you wanted me to catch a ball, you had to throw it at the side of my head ‘cause if you just threw it straight here, I’d just be like, ‘Oh, my God. What? What happened? What’s going on?’” she recalled.
Taylor-Joy went on to say that she’s now “growing into” herself and felt “a bit less awkward” as a result. “And now it’s like my face has grown a bit more. I’m kind of growing into myself. I’m a bit less awkward,” she shared. “Though I’m still growing a lot. I’m still getting taller – I grew like two inches last year. I don’t really know what to do with all of my limbs.”
The tweet instantly received more than 56,000 likes and 14.8m views as fans rushed to show their support for Anya Taylor-Joy. “what is wrong with people she is literally stunning,” read one response.
“This is so sad, we live in a evil society. ppl need to stop talking about other ppl appearance,” another fan wrote.
“This woman is gorgeous! DONT LISTEN TO THEM ANYA,” a third user said.
Meanwhile, one person wrote that “like Ariana said, we need to stop being so comfortable with commenting on others bodies and appearances”. The tweet was referencing a recent candid video from singer Ariana Grande, who made a rare statement about body-shaming and negative effects such comments can have on a person’s mental health.
Last week, the “Thank U, Next” singer took to TikTok to acknowledge fan concerns over her weight and appearance. In the video, Grande reminded viewers that “there are many different ways to look healthy and beautiful” and urged her fans to be gentle with themselves and each other.
“I think we could be, I think we should be, gentler and less comfortable commenting on people’s bodies, no matter what,” Grande said in the clip. “If you think you’re saying something good or well-intentioned, whatever it is — healthy, unhealthy, big, small, this, that, sexy, not sexy — we just shouldn’t. We should really work towards not doing that as much.”
The Victorious star also asked people to stop comparing her current body to her younger one, which fans assumed was her most healthy. “Personally for me, the body that you’ve been comparing my current body to was the unhealthiest version of my body,” she said. “I was on a lot of antidepressants, and drinking on them, and eating poorly, and at the lowest points of my life when I looked the way you consider ‘my healthy,’ but that in fact wasn’t my healthy.”
Grande admitted that she “shouldn’t have to explain” that different types of bodies are beautiful, and that she chose to address critics in the hopes that she can help change the conversation around bodies.
“You never know what someone is going through,” she said. “So even if you are coming from a loving place and a caring place, that person probably is working on it or has a support system they are working on it with.”
