She'd Choose Sewing Over Boys Any Day

Shailene Woodley is wonderfully offbeat. Maybe it’s because she’s our generation’s Molly Ringwald — she’s in three teen movies derived from YA novels, which is today’s version of John Hughes — so she's leading young teens and opening their eyes to a world of flower power, zen, and hoo-ha sunning. I love how she ends many of her sentences with “man” and "rad" in the same way that Jay Gatsby's vernacular includes “ol’ sport". I love that she is the poster girl for clay eating. And I really love her haircut. So it wasn’t surprising when she said that she didn’t have normal a “teen obsession” when she was younger, which wasn’t that long ago for the 22-year-old The Fault in Our Stars actress. Whereas normal teens would obsess and tack up posters of young Hollywood hunks on their bedroom walls, Shailene Woodley admitted at the Teen Choice Awards, “Teen obsessions? You know, it’s funny. I never had posters on my wall.” Instead, she added, “I was really obsessed with sewing as a teenager. True story!”

I don't doubt it, and Woodley, ever herself, wanted other teens to embrace their personal quirks too. While accepting her first surfboard award for her role in Divergent, she told the crowd, “In my opinion, you can be brave and jump off trains, but the truest form of bravery and courage is to wake up every single day and to be ourselves. That is something all of us have the opportunity and choice to make each and every morning.”

That may sound easy to say post-adolescence, but maybe a look at some of Woodley's habits compared to typical teen behavior will help any tween or teen see that different is just, as Woodley would say, rad.

Instead of collecting boy band posters from Tiger Beat and fangirl crying...

...Shailene Woodley probably collected sewing patterns. They're just as fun and emotional, but with less stage choreography.

Instead of shopping at the mall...

...Woodley surfs on couches. Not literally, though maybe a bored Woodley does that too. She's spent nights on friends' couches, and instead of shopping bags, Woodley only travelled with one bag. As an over packer, I'm really impressed by that.

Instead of spending hours on the phone...

...Woodley just doesn't talk on the phone. For her press tour for her recent films, her publicist had to give her one and taped the number on the back so she could be reached.

Instead of eating burgers and fast food...

...Woodley eats clay, which says a lot about her opinion on fast food, huh? Ha, actually she likes the health benefits and maybe the taste seeing as she makes her own toothpaste with the stuff. If you need more convincing, this baby elephant makes mud and clay look fun too.

Instead of gossiping...

...Woodley just doesn't care. She wore those barefoot running shoes with an evening gown and got flack for it, but Woodley said she would do it again. She can get away with it, because even if I hate those shoes, I think she carried off the look with confidence.

Shailene Woodley's just showing us that it's cool not to care. We might not resort eating dirt to embrace ourselves, but she's certainly showing us that we can if we want to.

Images: MTV; My Nice Profile (2); p0k0u, lannestere, Dimpled Goddess Is Gone/Tumblr; Imgur (2); Giphy (2)