Chloe Grace Moretz Got Super Honest About Struggling With Red Carpet Anxiety

If you struggle with anxiety, you are not alone — and now, one celebrity is speaking up about what she's gone through in the past and still faces today. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Chloe Grace Moretz said she was suddenly afraid of red carpets after she realized it put her in a position to be objectified by people, but now, she's coping with her anxiety in a way that's made her realize it's OK not to be OK.

Moretz has been in the spotlight for a long time; in fact, her first role was in The Guardian in 2004, when she was 7 years old. Even so, around the time she was 19, she became "terrified" of walking the red carpet, and at first, she didn't understand where the anxiety came from. She said,

“At one point, I felt carpets and everything were just fun and just silliness, and something shifted one day where I was suddenly terrified of them. And I was terrified of photos, and I was terrified of being objectified by people. Just being seen by people freaked me out. And that was brand new for me. That happened at age 19. I was like, ‘Why am I now afraid of everything, where did this anxiety come from?’"

But then, she realized it was because when she was on the red carpet, she wasn't playing a role anymore, she was just being herself — and that brought on a lot of anxiety for her. Moretz explained to THR,

“I think what becoming an adult is, is dropping the role and becoming a person, and not running away from your problems but dealing with them and becoming proud of your issues, and becoming proud of your identity. And being like, ‘Well this is who I am and I’m not going to shy away from that and fit into your societal box.’ I don’t have to laugh it off and shut it off if I don’t want to. I’m okay to cry and not be okay with a situation.”

It can be really hard to learn to embrace your own feelings in that way, so Moretz gets props for learning this important lesson. If you struggle with anxiety, you probably already know how difficult it can be to conquer the idea of not feeling OK, especially when it comes to being proud of who you are. It's not realistic to be happy all the time, and like Moretz said, not running away when you're not happy is key.

Moretz also told THR that for her, coping means meditation, working out, and giving herself the space and time away from a situation to breathe.

"I just make an effort to make sure that I give myself 30 minutes a day to walk away," she said. "That just means shutting a bathroom door and just standing there for a second and focusing on my breathing, and focusing on my brain, and reconnecting to my heart and understanding who I am."

Moretz is right — sometimes, 30 minutes can make all the difference. It can't be easy to be in the spotlight from such a young age, but so far, it seems like she's doing a pretty good job, anxiety or not.