Words Can't Bring Her Down

You might not think of this gorgeous and talented actress as someone who has been heavily attacked, but Keira Knightley has endured a lot of criticism. But the takeaway here shouldn't center on the nasty quips about her appearance or the fact that her acting skills were ridiculed. The takeaway, instead, should be that that despite facing such harsh words at a young age, Knightley overcame it. Someone cue the song "Beautiful," like, right now.

Even though she overcame the insults, she wouldn't wish such a heavy-handed lesson upon anyone else. In an interview with Elle UK , she said that if she had a daughter, she wouldn't put her through it. In fact, she would tell her daughter to lay off of the acting during those impressionable years. She explains:

Oh, 100 percent, I’d absolutely tell her not to. I would 150 million trillion percent be totally discouraging. Teenage years should be done privately. You should be going out and getting unbelievably drunk, getting into ridiculous situations, making mistakes. That’s what that time of life is about and we should do that privately.

However, she wouldn't have done it any differently. She continued:

Saying that, I don’t regret it – I wouldn’t do my life any differently, but having lived through it…There was a very long time when [interviewers] were all: "Well you’re a shit actress and you’re anorexic and people hate you" which, for a teenager is a very strange thing.

Teenagers endure tons of local criticism — in school hallways, from their friends, from all sorts of people. But it's pretty great for teen girls to hear that actresses like Knightley can persevere and continue doing what they're passionate about (in Knightley's case, acting) despite hearing such hurtful things. It's implied in her words, then, that demure as she may look, she's one strong lady. Words can't bring he-e-r down! (Sorry, I'm in the corner over here singing "Beautiful" still.) Hell, she's even singing on screen in Begin Again . Take that, naysayers.