Wow, this is the first time I’ve really seen Lili Reinhart’s beautiful gold-green eyes. Her eye color is really enchanting and unusual! Lili covers the latest issue of Allure and they did this insane thing to her eyelashes, but I guess it’s fine? Lili is probably best known for her role in Riverdale, but I’m not watching that, so I only know her from Hustlers, where she stole some scenes away from Jennifer Lopez and Constance Wu. She’s really beautiful and she reminds everyone of Brittany Murphy (RIP). Anyway, you can read Lili’s Allure piece here. Some highlights:
She’s not vegan: Reinhart is not vegan, gluten-free, keto, or on a macrobiotic diet. She is a self-described picky eater and considers this a treat. “No one wants to go [here] with me,” she says about The Cheesecake Factory.
General thoughts: She volunteers thoughts on cute babies (just her goddaughter, for now), romantic love (something she prefers to fall into rarely, and fiercely), taking a spouse’s surname (she favors hyphenation), and being the “grandma” of her friend group.
How her name came to be: Her parents named their second daughter after the actor Lili Taylor. There wasn’t any special connection. “They just liked the spelling of her name. It’s the French spelling.”
She was 16 when an adult work associate attempted to force himself on her. “I felt physically pinned down to the ground while someone dry humped me, basically,” she says. She has spoken publicly about the assault before — but in retrospect, she believes those statements were premature. “I think I shared my story…before I had really understood it. I kept thinking of it as something physical, but it was more so a psychological abuse…that spanned a couple of months. I went along with it and was trying to get his approval because we were working together…. I wanted my work environment to be easy.”
On mental health: She recently read an article she can’t get out of her head, about a child under the age of 10 who ended his life after being severely bullied. “Now more than ever, we need to be bringing the idea of mental health into schools and teaching it. It’s about communicating clearly.” She recalls experiencing crippling anxiety when she was growing up. “I felt very alone. But I was not being bullied, which made it really hard for my parents to understand.”
Equal pay: “Going into projects in the future, I’m much more aware of it. So is my lawyer.” She’s also learned from the experiences of women like Michelle Williams and Taraji P. Henson. “I was taking notes,” she says. “Taraji Henson had said something like, when she renegotiated for Empire, she knew her value to the show. She knew what that value was, and she demanded it… I do know the value that I bring as someone who attracts an audience. And I’m not going to accept less than what I think I’m worth. And it’s okay to fight for what I’m worth.”
Sometimes, I feel so proud when I hear younger women talk about stuff like equal pay and how they’ve dealt with harassment and abuse, because I feel like what the industry went through with Me Too and then Time’s Up… it really did make a difference. It really did change some hearts and minds. Younger girls and women really did learn some stuff and there will be changes we can see immediately and changes that we’ll see in the years to come. It’s clear that Lili has been paying attention to what the older actresses have said publicly and she’s learned from it, from negotiating her worth to how to speak about her assault.
Also: she’s on the cover of Allure for several reasons, including Riverdale and her Cover Girl contract, but she’s also releasing a book of poetry! That’s kind of cool.
Covers courtesy of Allure.
Jeebus. Someone tell her since the rethugs began dismembering public education there’s barely any money for counselors. Many schools have to share and the guidelines are pathetic. Some schools use security or campus cops to handle mental health issues. Nice, huh? And it’s not because they want to.
Honestly, it’s hard not to think we’re more ‘valuable’ (read: easily manipulated) to the govt/corporations cuz education & knowledge threaten the bottomline bc education = informed. Consider the highschool to military pipeline w/the promise of schooling/funds later (often the damage done to these amazing veterans makes them unable to utilize those draws that swayed them initially). They get them in the military, use them, then dump them. The VA & its mental healthcare is despicable – veterans have died in waiting rooms, another veteran shot herself in front of the VA, trying to send a message how they failed her. These stories happen all the time & NEVER make the news.
I remember in high school wondering why a basic class like Nutrition Science or Financial Budgeting, things super helpful for young ppl weren’t offered as electives (& chemistry teachers wanted to teach the former & our sweet econ teacher the latter. Flat out no. Why? Because ‘different people have different opinions on what is proper nutrition’. Um, no. It’s physiology. Fatty acids, the B vitamin spectrum, the immune system w/gut flora, discussing ALL THOSE THINGS important that could lead ppl to be less But no. Think of how ppl knowing those things threaten bigger powers, govt or commercial, revenue. Pepsi vs Coke fighting for the schools they get to own/serve their drinks in. It’s all about money. Knowledge threatens that. They want us dumb. Since Trump is president, I’m not surprised it’s worked well. Ridiculous. Teachers should be paid so much more, it sickens me.
Yogurt, when I was in school in the 90’s, they offered “consumer math” which was things like budgeting. It was an alternative to the standard grade level math and was considered to be the class for the stupid kids. You did not want to get out there and it wasn’t something to take pride in. This still just f**king bothers me. Don’t encourage basic life skills, don’t discuss trade and vocational skills …. nope, my generation is full of people with degrees they can’t use, drowning in debt and struggling, because we were taught a bachelor’s degree in literally ANYTHING was better than being a “loser”.
My mental health starting getting worse when I was in my first semester in college. I literally couldn’t get out of bed and I know I was paying for it but I was messed up.
People gloss over mental health and for some reason it’s supposed to shame you.
I started medication and it took about about ten years to get there.
@lily
Wow Lily, I read your comment & it’s like I wrote it myself. Same exact case. I was at a UC (CA school) & I can tell All of you how crazy unsupportive & shaming my college’s office was. When I say college, I mean within the UC, so College of Letters & Science (if you’re getting a BA in those 2 categories) you go to their office for class counseling, scheduling issues and….dealing w/medical leave & returning. I remember one counselor, some jerk, say “why are you going to college if you keep going on leave?” Another lady said ‘maybe get your life together before coming back”. I was dumbstruck by the callousness. Ironically, I was a great student nonetheless. I had tons of absences, and yet I graduated with a 3.7 gpa. But yea, mental health break = you’re not cut out for college, in their minds. Unreal. Tho tbh, they told a gay male student sexually assaulted on campus to ‘maybe take some time off’….while his rapist stayed enrolled & thrived. This was actually featured in an award winning doc, his story. We pay thousands, you’d think they’d do better. Nope.
Unfortunately, my quest for something to help medication wise is still ongoing. I was diagnosed at 18, took 7 years to graduate college…& the dr I was seeing for 5 of those 7 years was adamant about a diagnosis that ended up not being what I had. Yes, that’s right, I was treated for something I didn’t have for 1/2 a decade. Half a decade added to the years taken by this. He made my parents sit in on every session, he wouldn’t treat me otherwise. Yes, from age 19…to 24. He’d ask me about my ‘libido’ in front of my parents. Unfortunately, my parents still think he ‘tried his best’ bc he was charismatic & friendly w/him. Tbh, it feels like my parents don’t see what he did as abuse, it took so much therapy to reconcile that my parents love me, but are in the wrong thinking he ‘tried his best’. We’re all in law in my family. Psychiatrists don’t get in trouble legally even w/detrimental consequences, bc they TRIED & the standard of care threshold protects them. There are bad docs out there, & nothing will stop them bc the standard of care essentially sets a sky high bar for counting it as cause for malpractice.
He put my body thru the ringer & finally Me /my parents dumped him when I turned 24, after he shrugged off me going into pre-menopause at 22…bc of the 5 medication cocktail he put me on. We trusted him, he was Stanford/Harvard blahblah, well known as ‘The Pill Guru’ but yea, he took away a lot of my life that could had been w/somebody else that could have helped me. Luckily, my next psychiatrist (he retired, sadly) was a kind man that helped me fix my sleep disorder & I improved greatly, even graduated college. But ever since I have become worse. I’m 32 now & my life still hasn’t started. It’s devastating tbh. My parents are just starting their 70s & everyday I cry thinking how they’ve been with me & watched me so sad & it’s taken such a toll on them. The only reason honestly I haven’t ended my life yet is bc it would make them sad. I do think once they do go, I will end my life. My dreams, my friends, any love prospects…they really aren’t there anymore. I just live for my parents. I’ve lost everyone else thru reclusion & socially withdrawing since my 20s.
I hope that it gets better – treatment all over is absurdly bad, good docs are rare, & I see SO MANY YOUNG PEOPLE that aren’t supportive of their fellow peers who are suffering. I hear the term ‘drama’ replacing mental illness. It’s sick. And I’m lucky, I can afford my treatment, have insurance & live outside a big city where it’s easier to find docs than elsewhere. I think of the millions who don’t. We talk about fixing homelessness here (SF) but nobody ever talks about how many ppl on the street…I’d say 95% have untreated mental illness, & use narcotics to cope. They don’t have any support, sexual/physical assaults happen at shelters…it’s a mess. This whole goddamn world needs to fix its viewpoint in mental illness, otherwise we’re so f*cked.
Sorry I just wrote a novel of a comment :-/ I love you guys & I’m glad I can enjoy your words every morning ❤️
@ yogurt foil medal. Reading your comments punched me in the gut. I am so sad at your negative experiences with mental health. I hear you. SF area has a ton of mental health clinicians. Please do NOT give up. If you are not happy with your providers please, please shop around. I know it is difficult to go to more than 1 counselor but there are some good ones out there. I went to grad school with some pretty lousy ones and some good ones. I am a mental health clinician. I am in the Midwest or I would try to connect you with someone. Please, please do not give up!
I’m glad you wrote this! I have had a similar experience.
Please stick around, your words really touched me.
Keep looking.
Wishing you all the best. xx
I love when people talk about mental health and de-stigmatize their struggles or the act of taking medication because both those conversations in a public forum really helped push me forward to get counseling and get on an anti depressants and anti anxiety med. I also couldn’t get out of bed in the morning. It was bad. I knew I couldn’t keep living that way though, I didn’t want to. I needed more help than I had the capacity to generate for myself at that time. If you’re reading this and need help, if you don’t want to get up and live through your own day every day, if anxiety prevents you from doing normal things, please get help. See a physician, maybe consider lexapro, start seeing a counselor. There’s help out there, and you deserve a happy life
Everything, every topic for discussion, every reason for change precluding actual change has a life span. How long has it taken to publicly speak about mental health and all its parameters, layers and when that health breaks down failing us in untold ways? Forever. That’s how long. And we’re just now getting to the grit of actual conditions. Most of us probably aren’t as open as we should be because we’re surrounded by Neanderthals. Which is my point. As long there’s people still praying away gay, closing low cost health centers while health boutiques take over in unprecedented numbers, awarding enormous tax breaks to big pharma, yada yada yada, what do you think the governmental reaction is to any proposed public school mental health programs (education and testing)? Exactly. Maniacal laughter. Maybe that’s the answer. Start at the top. Let’s investigate and test the mental health top to bottom in Washington. How fast would a bill get passed if they thought their numbers were in Jeopardy?
I like her. She’s smart, capable, willing to learn and willing to speak out. I like her acting. I watch Riverdale and take it for exactly what it is: mindless bingeable nonsense that acts as incentive to keep me exercising when I don’t wanna, but yeah it’s trash. Her intelligence carries that show because without her I think it would be not believable in the least. It isn’t but she helps suspend that disbelief. Hoping she continues to get much better roles.
Yes to talking about mental health in school but I think we also need to talk about psychological health and safety in schools to expand the discussion on the impact the environment has on health. We’re doing this in our workplaces and it seems we should be doing the same in our schools.
I went through a mental health issue in my early teens which saw me getting taken out of school for the rest of the school year. Had this issue happened at work, I would have stopped working and been sent home to focus on my recovery. Because I was a student, I was sent home, had to do homeschooling, and was still expected to perform as if I was well. It’s been over 25 years now and I still feel bad for whomever had to correct my essays because I clearly wasn’t OK.