iPhone app iPad app Android phone app Android tablet app More

Zooey Deschanel, Age 17, To Vogue: 'Is Insecurity Something You Want To Advocate?'

The Huffington Post   First Posted: 05/13/2011 12:08 pm Updated: 07/13/2011 5:12 am

Now making the internet rounds: a letter that teenage Zooey Deschanel wrote to Vogue.

On Thursday, the divine Miss D. Tweeted:

wrote this letter to vogue when I was 17 & someone found it! proud of my feminist teen self. RT @wellsbones: http://tumblr.com/xvg2hpk770

PS: the vogue letter was published in the magazine! no hard feelings @voguemagazine,love your mag! I was a feisty 17.

A feisty but truthful 17. Don't be ashamed, girl! Read her full message to the glossy below.

(Via lostinthepresent.tumblr.com)

Why would you want to limit the spectrum of beauty to an "ideal" when you, as a popular women's magazine, have the opportunity to expand it? I don't think any woman should have to feel as if she needs to shove herself into an "ideal" to be beautiful. Beauty should be something that is celebrated and something that is enjoyable, not something that people should feel uncomfortable about achieving. Most of the women, and certainly most of the adolescent girls, in the United States do not feel completely secure with themselves, especially with their appearance; is insecurity something you want to advocate? As American women, we don't need discouragement, but inspiration.

Zooey Deschanel
Los Angeles, CA

FOLLOW HUFFPOST STYLE

 
 
  • Comments
  • 91
  • Pending Comments
  • 0
  • View FAQ
Comments are closed for this entry
View All
Favorites
Recency  | 
Popularity
Page: 1 2 3 4  Next ›  Last »  (4 total)
06:42 AM on 05/18/2011
Zoe is so amazing that just being in the same photo is no easy feat, and so, now that I mentioned it; just exactly who is that standing next to her?

Please to be removing the Yellow Arrow so that I might see better who is the lovely vision of a Zoe friend. Mama mia.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
MissingAmerica
03:27 PM on 05/16/2011
I like this gal more all the time! I'm not sure I'd call it "called out", but I do applaud the message of the letter. We need to promote a healthy self-image in women, and we need to rely more and more on womens' magazines to do this since in this current political and economic climate, especially, women are being spoken of and treated as anything but beautiful, capable and equal. Politically, rightwing attempts to legislate reproductive rights lead one to think of women as nothing more than breeders, and pronounced liaisons with politicians would suggest they are nothing more than dumpsites for Viagra byproducts! So please, womens' magazines, be for our young people by showing them they are more than sexual and reproductive organisms!
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
beautyontheinside
I've never dropped anyone I believed in. Marilyn
12:20 PM on 05/16/2011
"Majorly called out Vogue"
Who the heck writes these headlines? Twelve year old girls??

Love Zooey...she's got great style and love her quirkiness
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
DanoX
I'll be your snack-pack baby!
11:16 PM on 05/16/2011
Like, totally!
10:48 AM on 05/16/2011
I think my favorite of all is when someone who is genetically flawless and possesses the much sought-after big blue mesmer-eyes and porcelain skin that Hollywood adores somehow takes it upon herself to be a megaphone for fairness in the beauty game. I'm sure in the years since she has also posed for the very magazine she balks about. Not that I'm bitter. Hey, wait a minute. Am I?
photo
FalstaffsMind
"This isn't right, this isn't even wrong." - Pauli
10:38 AM on 05/16/2011
She's magnetic. Even in a movie like "Failure to Launch" were she's not the main star, she is the one I watch.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
cameron d
Good Guys Win
05:41 PM on 05/15/2011
She's everything I could ever want in a woman.
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
PengieP
06:55 PM on 05/14/2011
Man, just when I thought Zooey couldn't be any more desirable. What a woman! Good for her!
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
06:47 PM on 05/14/2011
There isn't a chick in the world I'd rather do than Zooey. Well I can dream, can't I?
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Francois Bergeron
seeking sense
06:30 PM on 05/14/2011
My kinda girl.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
alumcreek
sorry to see humanity repeating errors ad nauseam
03:51 PM on 05/14/2011
If you don' keep women unbalaced and uncertain how will you get them to continue to buy the magazine and the products advertized inside?
photo
Woods-shade
Remember, pillage THEN burn.
07:00 PM on 05/15/2011
Exactly. Why women buy them is a wonder. If you tore out all the advertising, you're left with 1/8" thick pile of condescending, mindnumbing articles of drivel.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
joenp3
03:17 PM on 05/14/2011
...you girl go...or whatever "they" say...
photo
HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
doglove
03:12 PM on 05/14/2011
What does she do? Actor? Model? Singer?
04:26 PM on 05/14/2011
Is there a check attached?
So, yes...
photo
HUFFPOST COMMUNITY MODERATOR
cinemaven
Follow me on Twitter :)
10:51 AM on 05/17/2011
She's an actress.. an excellent one
She's from a royal pedigree by Hollywood standards, her dad is an academy award nominated cinematographer and mom's an actress (they've been married almost 40 years so very non-Hollywood) and her sister plays Dr. Temperance Brennan (Bones).
photo
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
1jurisdiva
I think, therefore I am a Democrat.
11:53 AM on 05/14/2011
"Majorly called out Vogue"? HP you should be calling unemployed writers with a vocabulary of over 200 words for an opening in the Style section.
photo
Gigity
Neither liberal nor Conservative
11:26 AM on 05/14/2011
I'll listen to her after she gets breast implants. Ahhh who am I kidding, I won't to her then either. Hi ladies!
06:02 AM on 05/15/2011
I'm sure she's devastated.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
photo
littlepuffycloud
I propose a toast to my self control...
11:26 AM on 05/17/2011
LOL..'Hi ladies!'
11:06 AM on 05/14/2011
Go Zo!