Sydney Sweeney’s parents used to laugh off her childhood acting ambitions, brushing them aside as pure fantasy—about as likely as her growing up to be royalty. Now, though, there’s nothing fairytale-like about the things she faces online.
The Euphoria star has been pretty blunt about it: her inbox? Absolutely not a safe place. She’s shared how the constant barrage of hate and weirdly invasive messages leaves her on edge, fighting anxiety every time she dares to post something new.
Sydney Sweeney On Online Hate After American Eagle Campaign Backlash
Take last month. The actress caught a wave of backlash over an American Eagle jeans campaign. The ad had her stretched across a vintage car, tossing out a cheeky line about her “great jeans”-cue the internet outrage machine.
Critics accused the campaign of racial insensitivity, and some even tried to link the innocent “great jeans” pun to eugenics.
The drama didn’t stop there. A New Yorker columnist went so far as to call Sweeney an “Aryan princess.” Meanwhile, the internet’s more unhinged corners suggested her initials ‘SS’ were some sort of Nazi reference. The whole thing spiralled fast.
Sydney Sweeney Gets Real About Anxiety, Trolling & Invasive DMs
Off-screen, Sydney’s dealing with a nonstop flood of DMs. Since her recent breakup, Premier League footballers (yes, actual Manchester United and Liverpool players) slid into her messages, fishing for a date.
She turned them all down.
According to someone in her circle, she gets hit up by about 100 hopefuls a month, ranging from celebrities to wealthy strangers from all over the world. Most get ignored; the disrespectful ones are slammed with a block.
In her latest interview, she revealed, “The ones who cross the line of respect are quickly blocked,” adding, “My DMs are not a safe space. There is no respect in those.”
Sydney gets that her characters make people feel close to her, even though she doesn’t know them at all. That blurry line between fan and stranger is something she’s still trying to figure out how to set boundaries without shutting people out completely.
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