Chloë Grace Moretz on Destigmatizing Gender Norms & Growing Up in the Spotlight

At 21 years old, Chloë Grace Moretz has starred in more than two dozen movies. She’s been working nonstop since she was 7, but her career really took off when she was 13 and starred as a sass-mouthed superhero in 2010’s Kick-Ass, launching her career from unknown child star to instant teen idol. But Moretz’s success story is more complicated than that. In between box-office buzz and bucket-list magazine covers, Moretz saw her name attached to headlines about her appearance, relationships and feuds. “I’ve had the best and worst moments spread across papers,” Moretz tells StyleCaster.

Michael Simon/startraksphoto.com.

Like most teens, Moretz became negative, which is why, a couple years ago, she took a break from acting to look back on her career and the opportunities that have come with it: campaigning with Hillary Clinton in 2016; starring in a gay-conversion-therapy movie, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, in 2018. “Being a teenager, everything can be incredibly negative because you try to find the worst in things,” Moretz says. “If I talked about this years ago, I would probably talk about the trials and tribulations of being famous. Part of that step back was to reassess all the wonderful things that have come along.”

I’ve had the best and worst moments spread across papers.

But Moretz isn’t keeping what she’s learned to herself. Since her realization that her platform is more than her, Moretz has been using her influence to teach her fans, whether on social media on in real life, that insecurities are normal and a part of growing up. “Yes, there’s prying, and yes, there’s paparazzi, and yes, this and that, “Moretz says. “But I think it’s more important to talk about this beautiful platform and be able to destigmatize something and look at young women and bring them into my circle and go, ‘Hey. You don’t feel comfortable with where you are or who you are? Come here and talk to me because I’ve been there too. We’ve all been there.’ Do you ever truly feel comfortable with who you are? No. It’s a daily process working with yourself.”

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Still, Moretz acknowledges that her upbringing is different than most. With photo shoots and red carpets, Moretz knows that she wasn’t an average teen, which is why, through Instagram and campaigns such as SK-II’s Bare Skin Project, she’s conscious of breaking down the fourth wall and showing her fans what they see on screen isn’t always a reflection of real life. “If people are like, ‘Oh my God, you look so beautiful.’ I’m like, ‘I’ve been in two and a half hours of makeup and hair,” Moretz says. “Being able to break that fourth wall and show them, ‘This is what I look like with no makeup on’ is important. I feel so confident with being in front of a camera with nothing more than just me, as Chloë.”

Destigmatizing is something I’ve always wanted to be inherent to who Chloë Moretz is.

Moretz’s next goal is to destigmatize gender norms. Growing up with two gay older brothers, Moretz learned from a young age that gender norms are societal constructs and nothing is standing in her way as a woman. “You should be so proud of who you are as a woman and not allow the stigma of being a woman in this society and societal pressures of being a woman influence or affect who you are,” Moretz says.

Michael Simon/startraksphoto.com.

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For Moretz, her fight against gender norms began years ago when she played video games at a time when “it wasn’t a cool thing for a girl to do.” It’s also one of the reasons she partnered with Oculus Go, a virtual-reality headset, to let her fans know that nothing—not gender norms; not other people—should stop them from being who they are. “I was proud to be like, ‘Oh, yeah. I’m a video-gamer.’ I was telling all my friends that at 13 years old when, at that point in time, it was strictly geared toward boys. Girls didn’t really game and it wasn’t a cool thing for a girl to do,” Moretz says. “Destigmatizing is something I’ve always wanted to be inherent to who Chloë Moretz is and the brand because that’s who I am as a person.”