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Hailee Steinfeld On Being Bullied in School: “I’d Start Every Day With a Threat”

These days, Hailee Steinfeld’s on top of the world. She’s an Oscar-nominated actress, hit musician, and now a Seventeen cover star—but in our September issue, the 19-year-old reveals life before mega-fame was anything but easy.

“There was a period of time where every morning at 7:02, I’d get a prank phone call at my house,” she says. “That’s how I’d start every day, with a threat saying, ‘Come to school now. We’re going to kick your butt.’ So I went to school early and went in the back way. And there would be times when I’d come back to my desk and have hand sanitizer all over my books and in my water bottle. People would come by and slam my locker shut when I was still putting my books in it. It was just the most absurd things that you are supposed to see only in the movies.”

Fortunately, those mean girl days are way behind Hailee, but there are still times when she doesn’t feel 100% confident. “I have definitely had moments where I’m scrolling through Instagram and see these drop-dead gorgeous models, who we tend to forget are genetically a certain way, and think, Why can’t I or don’t I look like that?” she says. “It’s so easy to forget that we are all so beautiful because we’re unique.”

That’s why she was drawn to her upcoming role as a super-relatable teen in The Edge of Seventeen. “This girl goes through experiences I totally went through, where it felt like it was the absolute end of the world,” she says. “Just having so many moments where you question who you are and what it is that you’re good at and what you feel good in.”

Now, Hailee knows she has a support system of friends she can lean on when things get tough. And yes, that does include a certain popstar named Taylor Swift — but there’s a catch. “I think people think we spend a lot more time together than we actually do!” Hailee says. “She’s amazing though.”

One thing she does have in common with Taylor? Plans to dominate the music industry in a serious way. “I want to make the best first album I can possibly make,” Hailee says. “And I want to get to a level where I can headline my own arena tour. I know that I can make it happen. It’s just the beginning. I see the future being really big.”

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