13 Very Strong Opinions About Shailene Woodley

As Shailene Woodley’s star has quickly ascended, girl has been squished pretty hard between the lens and glass plate of The Great and All-Powerful Internet Microscope. Everyone has an opinion about Shai, and some of those opinions are intense. Since her meteoric rise, she’s pondered everything from clay-eating to feminism to nudity and back to feminism again. Her comments have inspired anger, praise, snark, defensiveness, and above all, critical thinking. Below, a round-up of the internet’s opinions on Woodley, who is quickly becoming one of our most analyzed celebrities.

1.)”Woodley is well-liked. She seems very nice. She is frequently described as “earnest.” Virtually every profile of her devotes at least one paragraph to a meditation on her hugs (which can be summarized as: anybody, anywhere, anytime, everyhug). She earns Jennifer Lawrence levels of praise for her down-to-earth demeanor. But Woodley takes it a step further, burrowing deep down into the earth until soil covers her completely, eating rocks and learning plants’ secret names before making love to them.” – Caity Weaver, Gawker

2.) “Okay, Shailene Woodley kind of drives me crazy. I just don’t get her schtick. She is talented and I’m glad for her success but she’s on all the talk shows now talking about girl power. Girl…. get you some books.” @rgay on Twitter.

3.) “Honestly, fly your freak flag. We’re all for it. If you’re a dirt-eating moon worshipper, then go and do that thing, with our blessing. And if you want to dress to show the world just how crunchy your granola is, we’re fully supportive. Style’s all about expressing yourself, as far as we’re concerned; not about conforming.” –Tom and Lorenzo.

4.) “I know 90% of my followers LOOK like Shailene Woodley, but I’m pretty sure only 40% of them actually are her.”- @caitlynstasey on Twitter

5.) “Ironically, Woodley’s argument that she doesn’t want to embrace feminism because she doesn’t like labels is a tidy explanation of why labels are great. She says that she doesn’t need them because she knows where her spices are. But trust me, one day you’re reaching for the cinnamon and without one of those handy label things on the jar, you grab the cayenne instead, and you’ve just made the world’s worst apple pie. Or, if you’re Shailene Woodley, just a really bad argument.”- Mary Elizabeth Williams for Salon.

6.) “You can boo Shailene Woodley, but you can’t silence her.” – New York Daily News (re: her being booed by a ‘shocked and angry’ audience on Jimmy Fallon Show when she resisted comparisons to JLaw segment)

7.) “From your previous discussions of the big issues, it is clear you are a thoughtful and intelligent woman. But like me, you are still relatively young and we’ve both got a lot to learn. I encourage you to go out and explore more, take a tip from Beyonce and watch feminist videos or keep exploring feminist writing, and talk to men and women who believe in feminism. After that, if you reject the label of feminism, that’s your choice. I only hope that you — and others — will take a look at the whole picture, and not just the part we’ve all been told to focus on. ” Sara Roncero-Menendez, Huffington Post

8.) “Yes, @shailenewoodley, this is feminism in the same way that people who speak out against racism are ‘the real racists’” – @loganjames

9.) “It’s time to stop making our pop stars into political icons. Shailene Woodley, Kirsten Dunst, Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift are not feminists — nor do they need to be.”- Rhian Sasseen, Salon

10.) “Benevolent woodland spirit/up-and-coming star Shailene Woodley has shared some of her beauty advice with the world, and it is exactly as one would expect Shailene Woodley Beauty Advice to be (only, possibly, better). Her most indispensable tip: sunbathe your vagina. This is the best beauty advice ever uttered, mostly because it’s essentially an excuse to lie around without pants on. Shailene Woodley is all kinds of great.” Callie Beusman, Jezebel

11.) “On last night’s Late Show, David Letterman grilled America’s sacred moonchild/actress Shailene Woodley for over three minutes on her well-known clay-eating habit. During her answers, she came off as both a good sport and a good sport who takes her clay-eating and good-sporting very seriously.” Rich Juzwiak, Gawker

12.) “Shailene Woodley goes barefoot in NYC because she’s braver than all of us.”- Lauren Zupkus, Huffington Post

13.) “Lynn Hirschberg spoke to actresses Shailene Woodley and Brie Larson for this week’s issue of New York magazine, and if her profile is to be believed, these two are going to revolutionize Hollywood for all Woman (or Human) kind. There’s not a clear indication of exactly what the two are going to do to “conquer” and “fix” Hollywood specifically. We do learn that they plan to “pick films that are honest and not detrimental to girls” and stay “weird,” while also “playing the game” that is the Hollywood industrial complex. In this world, that’s revolutionary.” – Kate Dries, Jezebel

Photo via Into the Gloss

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