Fame is a difficult thing to handle, and this is something that "Harry Potter" alum Emma Watson had to learn the hard way after she portrayed the bookish Hermione Granger in eight "Harry Potter" movie adaptations.
When she was only 10 years old, she even tried to "close off" in public and tried to appear uninteresting just so the media would stop hounding her. According to The Hamilton Spectator, Watson felt extremely uncomfortable in the limelight.
"I spent most of my time trying to convince everyone I was incredibly boring because I needed privacy and a minute to figure myself out," she said. "I used to have to go numb and close myself off, for example on the red carpet, just to get through it."
Since graduating from the movie series, taking on more adventurous roles, and assuming the responsibility of being the UN's ambassadress for gender equality, Watson has come a long way from her awkward childhood and now resolved to be her "most authentic self" both in private and in public.
She told Porter magazine during an interview: "Now at 25 for the first time in my life I feel like I have a sense of self that I'm comfortable with."
"I actually do have things that I want to say and I want to be my most authentic self. I don't want there to be a big separation between the public and the private person," she explained. "It's definitely the harder road to tread, but without a doubt, ultimately the most rewarding."
She said then that she used to feel "inadequate" compared to other girls who were out of the spotlight because they seemed very secure about themselves. As for Watson, she felt so unsure about her identity, and the media did not help with their endless interest.
"The level of questioning I was under, coming at such a young age. People asking me 'What do you think of this? Who are you, who are you, who are you?'" she said. "I felt so inadequate because I just didn't have answers yet. I had so many friends who had a clear sense of self, who knew that they liked certain things, like the smell of grass, or what their favourite color was."
"I envied those girls because I was so unsure of myself," the actress admitted. "I questioned everything. I was terrified by the level of interest in me."
