Anne Hathaway Has Learned to Shake It Off

I have a terrible confession to make: I used to be one of those people who just did not like Anne Hathaway and the worst thing about it was that I could never really give the reasons as to why. Unfortunately, that seemed to be the case with many people in the blogosphere, with the real "Hathahaters" coming out of the woodwork following her Oscars win for Les Misérables. Why did we decide to hate this young actress who continually chose great films and who completely encompassed herself into her brilliant performance as Fatine? In a 2013 article from Salon titled "Anne Hathaway: Hollywood's most polarizing star," the writer delves into some of these questions and the results, from a variety of different people from bloggers to psychology professors, were disheartening. Reasons ranged from her being "too wide eyed" to the "wrong" shape of her head! (I wonder if any MALE actor would ever have to deal with this extent of criticism.)

It's been a long journey for Miss Hathaway, sharing her struggles with fame in November's ELLE UK and, even more recently, appearing on The Ellen DeGeneres Show to discuss her upcoming (and highly anticipated) film, Interstellar and, once again, her persistent group of haters.

In the interview, Hathaway first tells DeGeneres how she was Googling herself and other actresses for pregnancy rumors for a Funny or Die video with her friends, when she came across an article titled, "Why Do People Hate Anne Hathaway?" but as soon as the audience gasped, she quickly quipped with a smile, "It's really OK. It has a happy ending. Life continues!" This in itself is telling of the positive transformation she is going through as a woman dealing with such harsh realities in the spotlight. When DeGeneres asked her how she handled this cyber-bullying she answered,

I listened at first. I couldn't help it, you know? And you try to shut it off and I couldn't, and then I realized why I couldn't was I hadn't learned to love myself yet. I hadn't gotten there. And if you don't love yourself when someone else says horrible thing to you part of you is always going to believe them... I don't want to believe these people... And I want to figure out who I am. I want to learn who I am. I don't want to feel like I'm fragile every time I leave the house because I'm so dependent on what other people think about me.

BRAVO ANNIE!

And that is one beautiful thing about being a woman — we are constantly evolving and dynamic creatures. Regardless of her fame, money, and magazine covers, Hathaway is still a 31-year-old woman who could be our sister, our best friend. We can find strength in our femininity and fragility without it being a negative trait. As DeGeneres puts it, "There's a great phrase: 'What you think of me is none of my business.' And there's nothing wrong with being fragile. I think it's a beautiful thing."

In the end, I'm choosing to not fall into this treatment of a talented woman under the microscope, because Hathaway is going through many of the same struggles as I am (you know, the whole loving yourself thing) and I choose to support all of us ladies on this journey.

You can check out Hathaway's interview here.

Images: Getty Images