Cosmopolitan USA – September 2019

The “

b*tch”

We root for feisty young stars...so

why does everyone ghost when

t h ey t ur n int o f eist y yo un g wo m e n?

assy girls

are hilari-

ous, right? Something

about these sweet

youngins acting like

jaded, cheeky mini-

adults makes for

incredible entertain-

ment. See: Darby

Camp as a precocious

elementary schooler

on Big Little Lies,

calling her mother

“woman” and con-

trolling the family

aux cord. Or Millie

Bobby Brown get-

ting the bullies to sit

TF down in Stranger

Things. Or Abigail

Breslin’s pageant gal

defiantly dancing to

“Super Freak” in Little

Miss Sunshine (#TBT).

It’s like seeing a Chi-

huahua dressed as a

lion for Halloween:

“Hehe, that li’l nug-

get isn’t supposed to

be all ferocious-like!

the ones bordering

on teendom—say,

vigilante Hit-Girl in

Kick-Ass or Taylor

then-scheming Jenny

Humphrey on Gossip

Girl—delight audi-

ences with their atti-

tudes. That is...until

they start to grow up.

Eventually, people of

the interwebs seem to

turn on the actresses

themselves.

Hear me out—and

let’s start with Taylor,

who eventually gained

a reputation for being

difficult on the set of

GG. Tim Gunn called

her “a diva” and

“pathetic” af ter his

cameo on the show. At

one point, there was

literally a Facebook

page called Taylor

Momsen Is a Bitch.

(Way harsh, Tai.)

Meanwhile, a teenage

Abigail, releasing a

song after a purported

breakup with 5

Seconds of Summer

guitarist Michael

Clifford, was attacked

on Twitter as “fat and

ugly.” Millie Bobby

deleted her own Twit-

ter account last year

after a tribe of trolls

started #TakeDown

MillieBobby

Brown. And

as soon as

Chloë Grace

became more

outspoken

IRL, articles

started pop-

ping up with

titles like

“The Shady Side of

Chloë Grace Moretz.”

Okay, so it’s hard

out there for a sassy-

girl-turned-young-

lady. Maybe on some

level, people are just

deeply uncomfort-

able with the idea of

these once-innocuous

tots becoming grown-

ass women? No, they

definitely are. But...

why? According to

Gail Saltz,

MD, clini-

cal associate

professor of

psychiatry

at Weill Cor-

nell Medi-

cal College,

it’s partly

because

of society’s implicit

biases around what a

woman is supposed

to be like. Dr. Saltz

breaks it down into

two parts: First, kids

can kind of get away

with a lot—even when

they act particularly

extra, “people think

By LAURA BECK

s

expectation, some

people feel intimi-

dated enough to

jump to one very

loaded word: “bitch.”

“It’s an unfair term,”

says Dr. Saltz, espe-

cially because “men

who behave this way

are simply deemed

‘assertive.’”

Which...obviously

blows. And makes

me want to speak

up—loudly—for

these junior adults’

rights to be as strong-

willed now as their

onscreen personas

once were. So if

12-year-old Darby

makes headlines in

a few years for being

a diva, I’ll have

my #DarbyCampIsA

Champ hashtag

ready.

It’s hard

out there

for a

sassy-girl-

turned-

young-lady.

Hello, 911? A

girl is out here...

growing up.

BR

ES

LIN

A

ND

M

OR

ET

Z^

IN

C

HA

RA

CT

ER

:^ A

LA

MY

(^2

).^

RE

D^

CA

RP

ET

:^ G

ET

TY

IM

AG

ES

(^2

).^

36 Cosmopolitan September 2019

celeb