Happy International Women’s Day to every single woman out there! Today is about celebrating all women—it’s meant to inspire and empower women to be themselves, be a community and be incredible. In our last blog post, we gave a shout out to some of our brand’s main babes. Today, we’re highlighting a woman who empowers on-and-off the silver screen: Haley Lu Richardson.
Haley Lu has starred in the films, “The Edge of Seventeen,” “Split” and her most recent role as Stella in the upcoming film, “Five Feet Apart” (in theaters March 15th, 2019!). Love. We’re so excited to have been able to partner with her and ask some questions about how she promotes #femaleempowerment in her life and her work.
Check out video below for her full interview, or read on to check out her answers:
If you could start your own charity what would you do and why?
“There are a lot of charities I would want to start in my life. I’m really passionate about people understanding nutrition and eating healthy, because a lot of people don’t even know that the foods that you eat affects how you feel and how long you live and how your life goes.”
Tell us about your female idol and what makes her special to you.
“My idol that’s a woman is my mom. She’s the best woman I have ever met to this day. She is the strongest, most selfless, most creative human that I know, and she’s 60 years old and still open to growing and learning new things. So that’s what I want to be like.”
What is one meaningful struggle you’ve encountered as a young woman in Hollywood?
“Sometimes it takes a little longer for people to take me seriously because I’m a young, fun, bubbly, innocent gal, so sometimes I’ll meet people in the business and they’ll be like, ‘Oh, she’s fun, and we can pull this over on her.’ I’m like, ‘Nope. I’m smart, too,’ so that’s something I’ve dealt with.”
As an actress, any advice for women regarding building confidence or a positive self-image?
“I think the biggest thing being a person in general, and maybe especially being a girl growing up into a woman, is just being your own best friend. It’s easy to be there for other people, but it’s harder to be there for yourself and be kind to yourself when you’re going through something or when no one else around you seems to understand what you’re going through. So talking to yourself with love and being your own best friend I think is the most important thing to learn to do in life, as a girl.”
You have the benefit of being someone lots of you women can look up to, any words you’d like to say to your female fans?
“(giggles) — I don’t know if I have a lot of fans yet, in my life, or if really many people look up to me yet, but I feel like that’s a cool thing about being an actor is that when people watch your movies and enjoy you, they then also get a chance to know about you as a person and the things that you’ve worked hard for, and the dreams that you’ve reached. So I feel like, I’ve just really worked hard my whole life; I’ve worked hard as a dancer back in Arizona when I grew up, and then when I moved to L.A. 7 years ago—it’s been a lot of hard work and a lot of focus and a lot of not giving up. So if you have something that you love to do, and it’s the only thing that you can see yourself doing in life, if it’s the thing that would make you more happy than anything, then don’t give up on it, work hard for it, and literally there is no way that you can fail if you don’t give up.”
Love Haley Lu as much as we do? Check out the trailer for Five Feet Apart here, and leave a comment below telling us who empowers and inspires you everyday.
