Reminder: Everyone Is Faking It

I think a lot of insecurity has little to do with reality. One thing I think about a lot and talk about on Rookie is how embarrassed you can be of yourself, and how when you’re a teenager you change a lot and constantly try to get away from who you used to be — I think that’s intensified if you are at all in the public eye. Do you ever feel like that? Like, it’s not only the boys at home who can remind you of the “totally inadequate” person you used to be — it’s this whole public documentation of your life?

It’s called the impostor syndrome. It’s almost like the better I do, the more my feeling of inadequacy actually increases, because I’m just going, Any moment, someone’s going to find out I’m a total fraud, and that I don’t deserve any of what I’ve achieved. I can’t possibly live up to what everyone thinks I am and what everyone’s expectations of me are. It’s weird — sometimes [success] can be incredibly validating, but sometimes it can be incredibly unnerving and throw your balance off a bit, because you’re trying to reconcile how you feel about yourself with how the rest of the world perceives you.

Tavi Gevinson interviewed Emma Watson for Rookie, and it’s a delight. That is, like, an entire chapter of Lean In, summarized in 115 words. Wildly successful young movie stars: They’re just as insecure as us.

Bling Ring is in theaters June 14.