How Emma Watson deals with self-doubt, because even she feels it sometimes

Sometimes we think to ourselves “Oh, if only I had the life of a famous, glamorous person, I would never feel insecure about anything ever again and life would be just the sparkliest dream.” Of course, then we do a reality check and remember that NOBODY’S life is perfect and EVERYBODY gets the insecurity blues. Yes, even your favorite singers and actresses, even the ladies whose lives look like perfection beyond perfection from the outside.

Case in point, our beloved Emma Watson recently did an interview with Vogue UK in which she came clean and admitted that she’s had to deal with some major bouts of self-doubt in her life.

As E! reports, when asked whether “acting comes naturally,” Watson admitted she wasn’t sure.

“It’s something I’ve really wrestled with. I’ve gone back and I’ve quizzed my parents. When I was younger, I just did it. I just acted. It was just there. So now when I receive recognition for my acting, I feel incredibly uncomfortable. I tend to turn in on myself. I feel like an impostor.”

Solidarity, sister, we’ve been there. In fact, the feeling that “Everyone’s going to discover that you’re not really that great and actually you’ve been faking all that greatness the entire time” has a name, which is (and we’re sure Emma Watson will appreciate this) “Impostor Syndrome.” The reason for “Impostor Syndrome”? Basically, it can be hard for the high-achieving to internalize their accomplishments and really believe they are as wonderful as the world thinks they are. Sometimes, when we’re having trouble getting our heads screwed on straight, we need the people who love us the most to get us back on track.

In Watson’s case, she learned just how much a friend can help when she gave her #HeForShe speech in New York in September of last year. Watson was NOT in a good place. “I was in my hotel room, thinking, ‘I can’t do this,’” she told Vogue UK. “I was just terrified.”

So she Skyped a friend for advice and got an A+ pep talk from her A+ pal. What her awesome-sounding friend told her was this: “‘Go through it again and ask yourself, if you were hit by a bus tomorrow, would you be comfortable with every single line?’”

So Watson pushed through because she recognized the impact her speech could make on the world.

“In my nervousness for this speech and my moments of doubt, I’ve told myself firmly, ‘If not me, who? If not now, when?’ If you have similar doubts when opportunities are presented to you, I hope that those words will be helpful because the reality is, if we do nothing, it will take 75 years or for me, to be nearly 100, before women can expect to be paid the same as men for the same work—15.5 million girls will be married in the next 16 years as children and at current rates, it won’t be until 2086 before all rural African girls can have a secondary education.”

In fact, she’s really found a sense of security in her position as UN Goodwill Ambassador.

“Part of me relaxed after I took on that position; it gave me a sense of belonging and purpose,” she told Vogue UK. “Everything clicked in to place, in a way that it hadn’t before. I understood what I’m here to do and knew where to channel all this energy that has been coming at me. I now feel this sense of peace,” she says. “People say that I’m different since I did it.”

We love the takeaways from this interview. No one is immune to insecurity. And that’s okay. Because, as Watson tells it, there are some surefire remedies to the Plague of Self-Doubt. Surround yourself with really good friends and allow them to lift you up when you feel down. Then, when you feel strong enough to stand on your own two feet, work hard to do good for the world. That’s what Watson did, and it’s given her the greatest sense of belonging, purpose, and peace. We could all do with cribbing from Emma Watson’s badass life notes. After all, even when she’s feeling super insecure, she’s still inspiring us all.

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(Images via Twitter)