Emma Watson: From wands to women's rights

It’s easy to forget that Emma Watson, the style icon and advocate for women’s rights is the same precocious child who won our hearts as Hermione Grainger all those years ago. Dodging all the usual pitfalls of child actors, Watson has carved her own niche as an actor and also as UN Women goodwill ambassador and inspiring figure for women and girls everywhere.

Having been vocal in the past about the gender pay gap, Watson, who founded the gender equality organisation HeForShe, pushed her point further by saying in an interview published today: “We are not supposed to talk about money, because people will think you’re ‘difficult’ or a ‘diva’ ” Going on to say that it doesn’t affect her when people label her a ‘feminazi’ or ‘first world feminist’, she will still continue to pursue change.


“Whether you are a woman on a tea plantation in Kenya, or a stockbroker on Wall Street, or a Hollywood actress, no one is being paid equally.”

The 25 year old, who is featured in this month's edition of Psychologies magazine, will soon be taking a one year sabbatical from acting to focus on women’s rights around the world but prior to that Watson will be seen alongside John Boyega in the thriller The Circle, and in the lead role in Disney’s live-action Beauty and the Beast.

Watson is one of several, young celebrities who are using their fame for positive causes and Watson said she already felt her decision to take a year off from Hollywood was worthwhile: “It’s so awesome to be at the forefront of that wave and that energy and just being able to channel that which I found mildly horrifying – all of the crazy attention on me – and doing something good with it,” she enthused. “It just feels like I’m really doing what I’m meant to be doing.”



Instagram Image courtesy of @emmawatson