Here are some photos of Rowan Blanchard at the Creative Arts Emmys (the Schmemmys) over the weekend. Rowan wore this princessy Blumarine dress which is sort of perfect for her, a 14 year old girl. We’ve talked about Rowan before – I became a fan when I covered her comments about Taylor Swift and “squads,” and then we talked about her again when she came out as “queer” (her word). Rowan is something of a young, woke, feminist activist. I’ve said before that I wish I was as well-spoken and thoughtful at that age, and I hope we hear more from her in the years to come. Rowan has a new interview with NY Magazine this week and she covers a lot of intersectional-feminist territory. Some highlights:

The evolution of her feminism: “My first definition of feminism was so small: Men and women should be equal. And maybe that’s how you have to learn it, so that it can be more accessible. But then I started discovering Audre Lorde and Angela Davis and all of these intricacies of feminism that were not being presented to me by these white feminist ‘icons.’ It was only then that I realized how deep it is and how it’s more about undoing these walls that we have built around marginalized people — it’s not just about women and men. It’s the fact that the walls for me are different than the walls for Amandla [Stenberg].” Now, she says, she’d define feminism like this: “Undoing patriarchal structures against marginalized people — structures that fight against people of color, that fight against women, that fight against disabled people, that fight against LGBTQ.”

Understanding those structural inequalities is the first step: “It’s understanding, when people make signs that say ‘Girl power! You can do anything you want! Believe in yourself!’ that, while I sincerely hope you do believe in yourself, here are a bunch of reasons why the world has made it hard for some people to do what they want to do….I’m still realizing so much of it. To say that I know everything about feminism would be the biggest lie! It’s such a learning process and so much of it is listening.”

The invisible sisterhood within Hollywood: “Reading scripts that have a really good cast and there’s a rape joke in it, it’s really upsetting. That and having the Woody Allens of the world, and people continue to work with them and nobody cares. It’s not a secret — everybody knows what happened but it doesn’t matter. It’s such a hunting ground for women because in the movies we watch, women are just there to be around the men and fill a spot. Look at the Bechdel test…”

Feminist headlines: “My least favorite question is being asked about Meryl Streep saying she’s not a feminist. We can’t expect every celebrity to be 100 percent aware of what’s going on socially, and when they give answers that aren’t educated or well-thought-out, it doesn’t further feminism or equality, so there’s no point in asking. I’m not thinking about who doesn’t consider themselves a feminist; I’m thinking about who does and who’s talking about it, and how awesome that is, and how they’re using their space to make more.”

[From NY Magazine]

I didn’t even know/read Audre Lorde and Angela Davis until I was 19, so Rowan’s wokeness is progressing ahead of schedule, at least by my time table. I like her answer about Meryl Streep because I find it classy, and because it’s interesting to know that I have more pettiness than a 14-year-old. I don’t expect every celebrity to be well-versed in intersectional feminism, but I did expect Meryl F—king Streep to identify as a feminist while she was promoting a movie about the history of women’s suffrage. I will never fail to be outraged about that. But I’m more petty than a 14-year-old.

Photos courtesy of WENN.