The Education of Amandla Stenberg

“I feel like fashion is kind of the epitome of a white institution that you have to mold yourself in order to fit into,” she said. “I’m less interested in doing that now.”

For a six-month period in 2017, during which she filmed both “The Hate U Give” and “The Darkest Minds,” a “Hunger Games”-esque young adult fantasy film released in August, she gave up her iPhone for an antiquated Samsung slider and stepped back from social media. She hadn’t liked the effect that constant connection was having on her brain. Her thoughts seemed to be “constantly buzzing around and not really landing anywhere.” And at night, between the time she put down her phone and fell asleep, she felt a twitchy sense of chaos in the darkness.

Her online experience at the time had chafed, as well. Seemingly every day, torrid brush fires in the post-Trump culture war, or, more grievously, life or death miscarriages of criminal justice, materialized in her feeds. Because of her reputation, Ms. Stenberg had felt as if her followers expected her to contribute to each uproar, with note-perfect nuance and indignation. Her social media accounts, once tools of self-discovery and free expression, had become like chains of her own design.

“There was this precedent for how people expected me to act on the internet, this image that I’m supposed to fulfill,” she said. “People think of me as a revolutionary or someone who is very inclined toward activism, and although activism is the driving force behind all of my work, it creates this impression of seriousness or that I won’t make mistakes, and that’s daunting, because I’m not always serious, and of course I’ll make mistakes.”

The smartphone hiatus ended in January — the lack of reliable mobile email proved terminal — and she’s resumed posting regularly to her accounts. But the composition of the posts has changed. Ms. Stenberg now largely uses her Instagram for more lighthearted content (“I’m slowly turning it into a meme account,” she joked) or to fulfill work and social obligations, of which there is no shortage.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/11/movies/amandla-stenberg-the-hate-u-give.html?partner=rss&emc=rss