Will Reese Witherspoon’s punk teenager daughter help or hurt her Oscar chances?

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Just my opinion: I think Reese Witherspoon adjusted her Oscar campaign mid-stream because she was afraid of looking like she was shoving her Oscar-bait films down everyone’s throat. Like, two months ago I would have said that Reese’s Oscar campaign was going to be the most annoying, but now? Nowadays, Benedict Cumberbatch and Jennifer Aniston seem hellbent on convincing everyone that they’re worthy. And Reese has toned it down significantly.

These are photos of Reese out with her family at the Farmer’s Market in LA. You know who goes to the Farmer’s Market a lot? Jennifer Garner. Garner went to the Farmer’s Market constantly when Ben Affleck was campaigning for Argo. So Reese had to get in on it too! Jim Toth was there, as was their son Tennessee (he’s adorable). And Reese’s oldest kid, her beautiful daughter Ava. Ava is 15 years old and she has pink hair now!!! Think about that… American Citizen™ Reese is the mother of a teenager. A punked-out teenager with a Manic Panic dye job! Does this make Reese more or less relatable to Academy voters, most of whom are old white men? My guess is that Ava might remind those old white men of their granddaughters. Reese might even play it up, like “You know, I have a teenage daughter, feminism plus family values, y’all.”

Reese is doing press for Wild these days, but she’s being pretty careful to do strategic interviews, timed out so she avoids oversaturation (coughCumbycough). There’s a new piece in THR about how Reese shepherded Wild to the screen because she felt so passionately about the material, blah, etc. You can read it here.

PS… Even with punk pink hair, Ava still looks like an LL Bean model, for goodness sake. She’s so wholesome-looking!!

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Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.

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116 Responses to “Will Reese Witherspoon’s punk teenager daughter help or hurt her Oscar chances?”

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  1. paola says:

    Is she even going to be nominated though?
    I think she is one of the most overrated actresses out there.

  2. Kate says:

    Holy crap that girl looks like her Dad, doesn’t she? Is that Ryan Phillippe’s face or what?

  3. whipmyhair says:

    Ava looks like she was carved from marble by Michelangelo. If I was a teenage boy I would be lost in love with her.

    Edit: that came out creepier than intended.

    • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

      Lol. You littler creeper.

      Oh, and I think her daughter is perfectly adorable, too.

    • SpookySpooks says:

      She’s cute but nothing that special. Just like Reese.

    • serena says:

      Lmao XD

    • Erinn says:

      I think she’s SUPER pretty. I love the hair.

    • Lisa says:

      I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not. I see about a dozen girls who look like her every day. Pretty, but nothing special.

      • perplexed says:

        I don’t think she’s extra-special but I do think she has the type of look to her that would probably appeal to teenage boys. Or at least I think that was the kind of look that appealed to boys when I was in high school.

        I’d classify her as pretty though. Well, pretty enough anyway. She’s definitely not an ogre. I think what I do notice about her is how much she looks like her father, and this kind of fascinates me. Maybe it helps that her parents are young enough to see the resemblance though,

  4. mkyarwood says:

    I am not sure having Jem hair makes you a punk.

    • Abbott says:

      Is that you, Pizzazz? 😉

    • SpookySpooks says:

      Half of the kids these days have bright coloured hair. It’s fashionable these days. Nothing punk about it.
      There was a band at the Amas (something something summer?) and they looked punk but played pop music. It’s all blurred together nowdays.

      • Amy Tennant says:

        My daughter has that same color hair now (Manic Panic vampire red that’s faded a bit), and SHE wants to be punk, but I agree. As I keep explaining to her grandparents and older aunts and uncles (who are scandalized), unusually colored hair doesn’t mean now what it would have it in their time or even my time. It’s much more common and less “extreme” or rebellious. I work at a university and see all shades and colors of hair every day (and I’m jealous. I always wanted to dye my hair blue like Stormer but my mom would never have let me)!

      • Charlie says:

        Half of my sister’s friends have manic panic hair, and none of them are punk. It’s pretty cute.

        5 Seconds of Summer is the band. My sister loves them so she makes me watch interviews. They’re One Direction with guitars but they really want to be punk. It’s also cute.

      • Louminary says:

        I had the exact same hair colour when I was 15 —- in 1995. Times haven’t changed all that much, tons of teens did it back then too!
        Semi permanent dye that meant when I played soccer in the rain I had pink lines all down my face lol!

    • Deedee says:

      LOL! Gem hair! Have to agree with you, but it’s very flattering on her.

  5. silken_floss says:

    WOW she’s tall! I can remember when was born, around the same time as my son. How times flies! I feel old 🙁

  6. minime says:

    wow Ava is the perfect mix of her mom and dad! Meh..I don’t think that some pink hair in a teenager is that much of a big deal anyway. Pretty healthy and normal to me.

    • Esmom says:

      +1 The pink hair is not a big deal at all, so commonplace now that it has nothing to do with punk or rebellion.

  7. NewWester says:

    That smirk on Reese’s face is just too much. I could put a thought bubble on that pic and it would say”do these people know who I am!!”

  8. CandyKay says:

    I think Ava is lovely, and looks a lot like her father, Ryan Phillippe. She’s also just a few years younger than most of Ryan’s girlfriends.

    As for Reese, it’s always dangerous for an actress to stand next to a younger version of herself.

    • perplexed says:

      I noticed that they’re both the same level of skinny though. I can tell Reese is the older one when I look at the faces, but their bodies look the same. Reese had her kid at an age that’s not abnormal, but I still start freaking out that she has a daughter that old. She seems too young to have a 15 year old daughter even though she had her kid at age was probably standard only a few generations ago (the generation before Reese’s?)

  9. L says:

    I dyed my hair purple at 15- I thought my parents would be furious but they just said that if that was the way I wanted to “rebel” at that age there were much worse things I could be doing. It was hair and I could dye it back if I hated it. I have a feeling Reese is the same kind of parent. Her daughter has seemed pretty well behaved growing up-let her have her small rebellion.

    Total doppelgänger of her and Ryan though. Beautiful kids.

    • Amy Tennant says:

      Seriously. My kid gets straight A’s, and if she wants to have a pink undercut, I’m fine with it. Hair grows back.

      • get it together says:

        I completely agree! I was such a straight-edge kid with straight A’s and wanted to dye my hair purple when I was 14. My mom agreed to it since I didn’t have a rebellious streak at all. My mom actually put the dye in for me, and this was the mid 90s. Today as I type this, I’m 32 years old and my hair, which is down to the middle of my back, is all purple. If one day my child wants fun hair colors, I don’t see a problem as long as the kid is otherwise on the right path.

      • Sugar1 says:

        @ get it together thats awesome I was the mom dying my sons hair in the 90’s
        His sister is a hairstylist now I told her. One day not long ago I wish your brother was still crazy with his hair because you could knock it out and make him really badass!

  10. kymmie says:

    I never noticed how smug and sanctimonious she looks….especially in the first pic

  11. Kiddo says:

    Yeah, I don’t think a pansy-dotted sweatshirt is really telling society to F- off. lol

  12. Ag-UK says:

    She irks me to no end. Her daughter resembles Ireland Baldwin with that hair.

    • Denise says:

      You’re right. Beyond being Ryan Philippe as a 15 year old girl, I knew there was something else familiar. I hope that phases passes, I don’t think resembling Ireland Baldwin is a good thing.

  13. Illyra says:

    Wow, I feel like an old bag. Seems like just yesterday her daughter was a toddler.

  14. lucy2 says:

    Wow, all of a sudden her daughter looks so grown up!
    I’m going to throw it out there and suggest that an actor’s daughter’s hair color will have ZERO impact on their Oscar campaign.

  15. Lucy says:

    I love Ava’s hair! Her outfit is cute too.

  16. Cici says:

    I think Reese would have campaigned harder if not for the fact that Julianne Moore is locked to win. Reese surely knows she has no chance to win while her nomination is pretty much certain so better not to come across as desperate to win since she is a winner already whereas Julianne has never won.

    • susiecue says:

      I agree. Oscars are more political than fair, really. In this case it would be both as Julianne is an incredible actress who has this a long time coming.

    • Marianne says:

      I dont even think Julianne is a lock to win. Its still really early at the moment. Amy Adams is also getting tons of buzz and she’s also “due”.

      So far I think the list will be…

      Amy Adams – Big Eyes
      Julianne Moore – Still Alice
      Reese Witherspoon – Wild
      Rosamund Pike – Gone Girl
      Felicity Jones – The Theory of Everything

      • Lisa says:

        Eh? One review of Big Eyes essentially called that movie basic. It is not going to be a factor and if Amy is nominated, which is a long shot at this point, she will not win. Julianne is winning the award. Besides, I think Hilary Swank will be nominated for The Homesman over Amy.

  17. susiecue says:

    That seems like a stretch. Really?

    Also Reese shouldn’t wear aviators. Also Ava is super gorgeous!

  18. Carrie says:

    Friendly reminder that colored hair etc does not automatically equal attitude problems or whatever else a ‘punk’ teenager entails. It’s hair.

  19. Talie says:

    Ryan is kind of a free spirit, so she probably gets a lot of this from him. He’s been quite lowkey since leaving Reese.

  20. shannon says:

    That first pic…Reese really needs to keep that chin jut in check.

  21. Mzizkrizten says:

    Ha Reese looks sooooo annoyed in those pics, like she is just tolerating the pink hair. Love it.

  22. OhDear says:

    TBH, I always thought that Reese W. would be one of those “perfect Southern women, wants her daughter to be a debutante, what would the neighbors think if you didn’t look and act perfectly and properly all the time” parents, so I’m surprised that her daughter has pink hair. Maybe that’s the strategy (“I’m a good parent who lets her kids express themselves! I’m not as uptight as you think I am!”)?

    (To be fair, there may have been a private freak out?)

  23. Adrien says:

    Wow, pink hair. So punk. Avril would be proud.

  24. insomniac says:

    I love the hair, but that girl looks about as punk rock as one of the Duggar girls. I doubt like hell that this is going to spook the Academy.

  25. scout says:

    She is so pretty, unlike her mom. Got dad’s good looks. Is she talented like her parents? Hope so.

  26. grabbyhands says:

    Dying her hair pink makes her a teenager, not a punk. When she gets a mohawk we can talk.

  27. serena says:

    I don’t think Ava is ‘punk’ just because she dyed her hair pink.. it’s such a common thing now, even among young adults (now I sound like an old fart, lol) so, um, no. Anyway she’s beautiful, she used to be Reese mini-me but now not so much, and this new haircolour I think helped.

    And by the way I don’t think Reese will get a nomination, just like Jennifer Aniston, they produce Oscar buzz on their own in an attempt to get attention.

  28. Darlene says:

    IMHO pink hair these days doesn’t make you a punk, it makes you trendy.

    • Marianne says:

      Exactly. If she was really “punk”, then she wouldn’t be that cute sweater and all. Multi-colored hair is really in right now. She’s probably copying a favourite artist or something.

  29. Suzy from Ontario says:

    I thought it was Reese with her hair dyed at first glance! Wow, doppelganger or what!

  30. Shambles says:

    If my job would allow it my hair would be a different neon color every month. I love it. Still pretty and feminine. You go, Ava.

  31. don't kill me i'm french says:

    I love her Jem hair.I wanted Jem hair when i was teen but my hair was too dark

  32. HughJass says:

    Lovely girl. I hope she has her head screwed on right and goes to school instead of becoming a “model” like so many other celebrity teen offspring.

    Pink hair — meh? A cute and harmless thing to do at 15. You’ve got to let teens have a bit of freedom and room for personal expression.

  33. FingerBinger says:

    I wonder what nickname you would give a kid named Tennessee.

  34. Erykah B. says:

    Ehh there is nothing punk about that hair. It’s super trendy and very common these days.

  35. BW says:

    Ava is NOT PUNK.

    There is nothing about her look that says PUNK.

    And just about every girl I know that age is dyeing her hair pink with Kool-aid. It’s not a punk thing.

  36. OTHER RENEE says:

    The girl is wearing totally normal clothes so who cares if her hair is pink? I don’t see how that relates to Oscars at all.

    Why is American Citizen trademarked? (There’s a little TM next to it in the article.)

  37. Decorative Item says:

    I think the pink hair and the yellow band look cute, but I wouldn’t call it punk.

  38. Murphy says:

    Aw I like the pink hair!

  39. RobN says:

    I kind of love how much you see Ava toting the little brother around. It would have been pretty easy to not be thrilled with mom’s new kid with the new husband, but she’s in love with that little kid and it warms my cold, dark heart a little.

  40. Penelope says:

    They both look great. Ava is a pretty girl–not gorgeous, but very sweet and fresh-looking.

    And Reese & Ryan seem to be good parents.

  41. Jecko says:

    The daughter looks great. She isn’t going to harm Reese’s Oscar chances. Julianne Moore will.

  42. otaku fairy says:

    That hair looks gorgeous and anime-worthy on her. Too bad I’m too chicken to dye my hair because I think any hair color other than black or dark brown will make me look too unnatural.

    • Caz says:

      Go on be brave! My temporary pink has just washed out. It was left over after my 13-year old’s flirtation with pink hair 🙂

  43. word says:

    OMG when did her daughter become a teen? I swear she was just a little kid last year ! Damn time is flying…

  44. perplexed says:

    I’m kind of amused at how mainstream that kind of dyed hair has become. Now, everyone is shrugging.

  45. Bobby says:

    yup pink hair is just a trend. and i’m so sick of smudge’s PR strategizing. She’s so full of Sh*t.

  46. Lucky Charm says:

    I just can’t get over how IDENTICAL Ava looks to her mom as a young woman! Talk about spitting image. But I like the pink hair on her, it’s young and fun, and it’s only hair.

  47. BengalCat2000 says:

    I think she looks a bit like Katy Perry. Maybe it’s the hair. Much prettier than her mom, Imo. As another poster stated, I hope she goes to college, and pursue acting or modeling afterwards if that’s what she wants.

  48. Josefa says:

    Did you guys see her from the neck down? Punk kids don’t dress like that. At all.

    She’s so angelic looking. She looks a little bit like Sarah Paxton.

  49. Asha says:

    I don’t care about teenagers with weird hair colours. That’s half the teenagers anyway. But why can’t the dye their hair properly? I don’t understand what’s so look about looking like a drunken, blind old person who’s never been to the hairdresser tried to dye your hair and only managed to dye half of it.

  50. silly you says:

    That is not punk. Here, let me google ‘punk’ for you…
    http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punk_subculture

    Click on the Fashion link. You won’t see any Tweens in cute t-shirts and jeans there, I don’t think.

    • BoredAndExtremelyDangerous says:

      To silly you: Thank you so much for the link – that’s a fantastic article!

  51. Elsa says:

    YAS GET YR PRISM ON GIRL

  52. kitty-bye says:

    I love that she likes to do her hair. I wish USA was more tolerant of hair colors like the UK.
    I have this color now! Pravana, Special Effects, Directions, Punky Colour etc are really fun to play with. I am not “punk” :).

  53. Zenballerina says:

    She looks like Thora Birch a bit.
    And obviously a carbon copy of Ryan.

  54. Dommy Dearest says:

    How does the color of a child’s hair cause any sway in Oscar chances? If they are judging based on that over the performance of the film in question then maybe there should be some changes to who decides who wins what.

  55. weegiewarrior says:

    I hav to admit I didnt know who ryan phillipe was so I googled him- sooo handsome – and his little girl looks just like him – lovely.