I am indifferent to Lucy Hale on most days. I think I’ve covered some interviews with her before, but I don’t even care enough to look them up? I trust that my general feeling towards her as always been “harmless/meh.” So I came into her Cosmopolitan cover interview cold, just seeing if there were any interesting quotes. There were! She’s sort of okay. Lucy turned 30 years old last year and she’s no longer in the business of playing high school teenagers. She’s all grown up and she has a new CW show called (I sh-t you not) Katy Keene. It’s an Archie spinoff and Cosmo describes is as, like, the 2020 version of Sex and the City? Maybe. Anyway, Lucy is aware that most people think of her the girl with a squeaky-clean image in teen soap operas. But she’s a lot more than that. She has tattoos! She has piercings! She chopped off her hair! You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
She’s getting six tattoos removed: An elephant (“I got it done out of the country and it was not done well”), a light bulb (“just over it”), and a Bible verse on her rib cage (“I’m not religious by any means at all anymore,” plus the “thick font” doesn’t vibe with the single-needle aesthetic she has on the rest of her body). Some of her surviving ink, for now: her grandmother’s handwriting on her arm, an evil eye, and a quote from the Insta poet Atticus: “Love her but leave her wild.”
She’s finally aged out of teen soap operas: “I’m finally at the point where I don’t have to audition for teenagers. It’s so nice. Looking back on it now, it’s like, Oh, that was really tough… You did feel like you had to uphold some sort of image. I’ve always been very petite, but over the course of eight years, my body changed. I gained a little bit of weight, and seeing how people reacted to that really messed with my head. I started getting all these stress-related, hormone-related breakouts,” she remembers. On days when her skin flared up, “they had this specialty light for me.”
She was so worried about what people thought of her: “I look back and I think of all the minutes and hours I’ve wasted upset over how I looked or something that was out of my control. I wish I could get that time back, although it has led me to where I’m at now…[At 30], It feels nice to just not give a f–k about certain things.
Chopping off eight inches of hair: “It was the most liberating thing I’ve ever done… I couldn’t tell you the amount of times when guys were like, ‘You should grow your hair out again. I like long hair.’ I’m like, ‘I’m not cutting my f–king hair for you.’ I cut my hair for me. And I feel great with it this way.”
She loves a bold lip too: “Or a lot of guys don’t like a bold lip color. I love a bold lip color. I don’t care. I don’t care! I truly don’t dress for men at all. I dress for me and what I think is cool.” Her preferred aesthetic is “a nontraditionally sexy look. More masculine stuff is really cool to me. I’ve never been the girl who’s like, ‘Ooh, tighter, lower, shorter.’ I constantly want to dress like an Olsen twin.”
She’s not in a rush to settle down: “When I was younger, I was constantly wanting to be with or date someone because I was so deathly afraid of being single or by myself. Now, I’m at the point where if I meet someone, they better really elevate my life, because I love being single.” (Her family plans? Also on hold. Lucy sidebarred that she loves her Kyleena IUD because “I don’t want kids for a while.”)
She’s into nice guys now, not bad boys: “I used to be really drawn to, like, damaged people who had been through some sh-t. Now, I’m like, You can be nice but not boring. Nice but not a dud.”
She tried Raya (the dating app for celebs): “John Mayer is on there. And I pressed yes for him, but I don’t think he pressed yes for me…. I’m so drawn to musical talent, I don’t care.”
The fact that she talks about moving away from bad boys and wanting a nice guy and then IN THE NEXT BREATH talks about pressing yes for John Mayer, well. Not that John Mayer is a “bad boy.” He is not. He’s just awful. He’s awful to the women he dates and he does it under the guise of being a broody bluesman. Don’t do it, Lucy! Anyway, she sounds… like so many of the starlets these days. Judging Millennials solely by celebrity interviews, I feel like it’s a very Millennial experience for one’s 20s to be absolute garbage. And then every Millennial is like “yay, my 30s, finally!” Also: who knew Lucy Hale had tons of ink?
Photos courtesy of Backgrid, cover courtesy of Cosmo.
She sounds a lot younger than 30 in this interview… seems really consumed with who she’s supposed to be and kind of “performing” being in your 30s? I’m only a few years older than her (34) and reading this interview just kind of exhausted me.
I’m 28 and thought she came off really “young” too.
That interview was… yeah, I agree with runcmc and Bebe. She seems far younger than 30. And what the hell is she wearing in that one photo?
Scrunchie stilettos? No, honey. Just…no.
I’m assuming she’s on set(tv or magazine). I doubt this is an everyday outfit. She does sound young but not in a bad way.
Apart from the ankle scrunchies I actually love that outfit.
She seems like a nice person. Trying to make her way through career and love. I wish her well.
She sounds exhausting. Also. Is there actually an article in this magazine about which star sign is best at sex??? Yikes.
I am not a fan of bad boys (don’t like the nice guys, either, they’re as toxic. a mature guy is the goal), but I kind of understand people having soft spot for mayer. I enjoy his music a lot. it’s quite soulful. and he seems like somebody who has potential to be really interesting, he looks smart and creative, but for some reason he stays immature.
She and Mayer would be the perfect storm. She kinda reminds me of a Katy Perry type, so John would be attracted to her definitely, but the relationship wouldn’t last with him, as none of them do, but they’d have fun and sex in the meantime until it ended. Personally, I can’t understand picking John at all ugh. Why not go for someone with more potential.
Most of those tattoos were gotten during her relationship with Chris Zylka. They were together for a while years ago. That’s how I first noticed her, as Chris’ girlfriend.
I’ve been meaning to watch her new show but I don’t think I will at all. Riverdale was fun to guilt watch the first season, but not anymore. I don’t know what to expect from the spin off other than it’ll air for the HBO Go app worldwide now that Netflix lost the rights to stream the cw shows
She looks like Emily Rajatokowski very young sister. Reminds me of a high schooler with this talk
Katy Keene is really bad and boring. I wasn’t sure what to expect because I really enjoy Sabrina and I can’t stand Riverdale. I thought Katy Keene, even if it was no good, might have some personality. But it doesn’t.
Idiotic move. John Mayer is a barf bag. You in danger, girl. Run.
lol. barf bag! forgot that insult….
If she’s going anywhere near John Mayer (and God, why would you?) she should have a hazmat suit and an exorcist on standby. The man is TOXIC
ugh of course she knows that mentioning john mayer in an interview will get his attention. gross, move on girl.
I can’t get over how different she looks. She had more character before the cosmetic surgery. Now she looks as dull as her taste in men. I really loved her on PLL.
Who knew I could pull a scrunchie to my ankle and be fashion forward. What was the thought process here? I’d have loved to be a fly on THAT brainstorming wall.
John Mayer isn’t a bad boy, he’s a douche.
I have a soft spot for her because I was a PLL fan an also because, as a fellow petite, I like to look her up for fashion inspo (I don’t necessarily like everything she wears, but she has worn some lovely, flattering things for her frame). Why is why I have to say, don’t do it again, Lucy!!! Stay away from JM!!!!!!!
She is not his type tho….
Fingers crossed on millennials having great 30’s, because my twenties are indeed garbagé
Millennial here. Can confirm, twenties were an absolute dumpster fire. 30 better so far.
Ahahahaha. I cannot believe she has that Atticus quote tattoo (I have met him and he is super nice, but I can’t with his poetry). I have only seen her on Privileged, which I loved and wish had gotten more than one season! I still need to check out Katy Keene.
It’s nice to see a young woman talking publicly about her LARC. More women should be aware of them as options 🙂
I read the comments before the interview and it is much worse than what I expected. At least she’s really harmless.
Well she must be a good actress because I like her character Aria way better than I like her. 😬
My daughter, who is 19 now and a freshman in college, used to subject me to watching Pretty Little Liars back in the day LOL – with Lucy in it as Aria…so I am sure she is glad not to have to portray those type of teenage characters 🙂
But as far as saying she doesn’t want a “bad guy” and then mention John Mayer in the next breath, GOOD LORD…he is the definition of toxic!!! Look at what he said about Jessica Simpson or his other exes or how he compared his d**k to a “white supremacist” …we could go on and on about his douche ways! RUN girl RUN!!! You in danger!
I’m blown away by how many Archie Comic shows are around today. I grew up reading Archie; my dad and uncle gave me all of their old Archies and I had subscriptions to most of the digests. I am intimately familiar with the Archie universe. The 1950s-1970s comics are especially fantastic.
And probably because of this, I can’t stand Riverdale and have no interest in Sabrina. Neither show captures the fun and cleverness of the comics. Katy Keene might be better since it’s incorporating more humor and isn’t just straight drama. But I probably won’t watch it, either.
Sometimes I wonder if the people who create these shows are even moderate fans of the source material. They certainly aren’t true to the spirit of the material.
I highly recommend checking out 1950s-1960s Katy Keene comics for the beautiful art and fashions. The stories are meh but the artwork is stunning.
Do celebrities really need a dating app? It’s called being on set. Duh.
Who would qualify. So many questions.
I wish she would just STOP with the lips. They’re going to be the size of her face pretty soon and she looked lovely before she started messing with them.