We first set eyes on Hailee Steinfeld as the badass Mattie Ross in the Coen brothers’ 2010 Western True Grit alongside Jeff Bridges. Just 14 years old, Hailee was nominated for that year’s Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and immediately cemented herself as awesome in the eyes of the world. A lot has happened since then; her life got really busy and a lot of doors opened, but she’s still the same old Haiz.
You might have seen her in the teen dream remake of Romeo and Juliet, the second Pitch Perfect (and the trailers for the third), the John Hughes-style coming of age flick The Edge of Seventeen, or any of her many many more movies. Not content with simply singing in multiple massive acapella movies and/or starring in her mate Taylor Swift’s epic squad video for Bad Blood, Hailee dipped her toe into the music world herself with masterbation-themed 2015 single Love Myself, before diving in headfirst and getting a perfect score with last year’s album Haiz. She’s back again with new single Most Girls.
“There was a split second where I heard the song and I was like, hold on, do I wanna be like most girls? No, I wanna be the only me that there is and I wanna be different,” Hailee explains of the single. “I thought about it really hard, listened to the song again, and realised, why wouldn’t anyone want to be like most girls? Because most girls really are amazing and smart and beautiful and have so much to offer. I just think it’s a real progressive way of thinking.”
We applaud Hailee and her progressive pop, because, in a time of musical shade throwing we could always do with more positive people pushing to improve attitudes. “I’ve realised the importance of women coming together in the last few years more than ever before,” she told us on the rooftop bar of her Thames-side London hotel the night after she played Wembley Stadium (no biggie). “I’ve always had strong women in my life that I’ve been able to look up to. But I’ve been guilty of looking for validation in the wrong places or looking at other women as competition and not as a sisterhood. We should band together, support one another, and lift each other up.” Here are some words of wisdom from Miss Steinfeld on female solidarity.
Celebrate your strengths, and those of the girls around you…
“Be aware of what the girl next to you has to offer, and look at how she can help you, as well as how you can help her. Or if there’s a girl in class who is struggling to find herself, or find a friend, be there. Come together and know that supporting one another and being kind more fun and a lot less effort than doing the opposite.”
Never let anybody make you feel bad about taking selfies…
“I think we go crazy trying to find ways to avoid negativity on social media. I’m always torn between sticking up for myself and just letting it roll off my back — for every negative comment there are a hundred positive ones. But whenever I see one of my friends being called out on social media, I’ll write to them and say what I feel about the situation. You’ve got to remind yourself that whatever you’re putting out there in public, you’re putting it out because you love it. Whether that’s a picture of you and your friends, a selfie of you in your bikini, or whatever it is, you chose to share it because you love it and you feel great about it, and it really doesn’t matter what anyone else says.”
When it comes to friends, it’s quality over quantity…
“I definitely went through a stage in my life where I felt like I didn’t have any friends, but I’ve realised that — and my parents have pointed this out to me a number of times — if you can count the number of friends you have on one hand, you’re lucky.”
Keep your childhood friends close…
“I find it so important to keep those friends I grew up with. I love that I can go anywhere and everywhere in the world and know that whenever I go home I have them to go back to. My family too, they’re my best friends, they’ve always been important to me.”
It’s always good to talk…
“One of my great friends is Julia Michaels, who I’ve worked with before and is an incredible writer and an amazing artist. I met her and instantly felt like I had known her my whole life because we got right into talking about all these shared experiences, as if we had been in the same room when they had happened. We talk after shows, like ‘how is this our life? How is this what we do?’ and we have conversations that last for hours. She’s someone that truly gets both sides of what we do.”
If you can, call your mum…
“My mum is my world. She’s travels with me. She’s my best friend. I don’t know what I’d do without her. It’s so funny because I’ve had people my age make a lot of comments about how my mum is always with me. And it’s never really occurred to me that my mum is always with me, it is what it is. She’s here because I want her to be here, and I pray that she’s never gonna want to wake up and say she’s going home, because I can’t do it without her. I realise how lucky I am to have her. Not only as my mum but as my best friend.”
Work with an all-female team at some point in your life for a super empowering time…
“I’ve worked with female directors and made movies with a full cast of women and it’s a completely different experience. It really is amazing to be under the direction of a woman. I made a movie recently called The Edge Of Seventeen and Kelly Fremon Craig wrote and directed it. It was amazing, not only having her as a director but as a writer. She had a better understanding than anyone else could have had, and I was able to go to her and talk to her and be vulnerable without any hesitation. She brought out the best in me.”
Remember that most girls actually are amazing, on your side, and not competition…
“I wrote Most Girls after receiving the comment “you’re not like most girls” as a compliment. I’ve been told that before, I’ve witnessed guys say it to girls before, and I really believe that — little do they know — it isn’t a compliment. I wondered, which part of me isn’t like most girls? It’s actually almost offensive, and that’s what triggered it. I thought, screw that, because most girls are amazing. We make the world go round.”