In case you hadn't heard, Chrissy Teigen is a huge fan of social media. She uses it to share photos of her stretch marks, troll President Trump, and ask for bananas to help her make banana bread. But the most important reason the model-turned-TV host-turned-cookbook author thinks social media exists is to support movements like Time's Up. In an interview with Bustle at a brunch to celebrate Vita Coco's new Coconutmilk (for which she is a proud ambassador for), a glowing Teigen shares her thoughts on the powerful social media hashtag.
"Social media can be horrible sometimes, but it can also do really wonderful things for people and I think it's become a community of women and even men, honestly, that are so proud to stand for each other and have each other's backs," she tells Bustle. "I think if there was a reason that social media was invented, it would be for things like this, where we can bond and feel comfortable with one another and feel like we're in a safe place where people are going to respect what has happened to us and respect what we have to say."
When asked if she thinks if the support for the movement will fizzle after awards season, Teigen says she believes this is really only the beginning.
"It's hard because sometimes you wonder if Twitter is just creating this hashtag and is it maybe going to last? Are people going to still care about this [after a while]?" she explains. "But I think this is a real movement. This is something that's not going away. The stories only get more and more bold and people are speaking out and with every story, comes a thousand more people that feel like they can tell their own story, so it's not just a trend and not just something to talk about on Twitter for a little bit."
Chrissy Teigen has been vocal about being a feminist and her support for other women for years now. In an interview with The Huffington Post in 2014, she defined the word feminism as "having the power to do whatever the f--ck you want" and "having your own beliefs and staying true to them." In 2017, being one of Trump's most hated social media enemies, Teigen protested in Washington, D.C. "to support [her] fellow women" at the Women's March. In October, she boycotted her favorite platform, Twitter, after Rose McGowan's account was supposedly suspended for speaking out against sexual assault. And earlier this month, Teigen offered to pay for Mckayla Maroney's NDA fine to speak out against USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar at his sentencing.
While the expectant mother has always used social media to express her thoughts, she thinks "it's wonderful" that other people are finally looking to the platform as a tool to support one another.
"It's really important and really vital and it's almost just multiplying and growing and growing every single day," says Teigen on the #TimesUp hashtag. "It's really wonderful to see that people are really inspired by other people coming out, and just to see the messages that I get, and that people can really feel like they can speak up and they feel like they have this team around them that can support them. I think it's so wonderful."
If you are feeling discouraged or worried at all that the momentum for the Time's Up movement is going to die down, don't — Teigen encourages you to keep tweeting and sharing your stories. "It's not going away anytime soon," Teigen says, with her big, gorgeous (albeit slightly mischievous) smile.
