Emma Watson: Why She’s Proud To Be A Feminist & You Should Be Too

Emma Watson will blow the movie box office away this weekend, starring as Belle in ‘Beauty and the Beast.’ You should see it and let both her smart, assertive Belle and real-life feminism inspire you.

Emma Watson, 26, is a real-life Hermione and real-life Belle, from Beauty and the Beast. Both of the infamous film characters she has played are intelligent, go-getting young women who aspire to have exciting, fulfilling lives. They both are deeply loyal to the people they love, but even more important — they are loyal to themselves. They believe in their right to have lives that are as consequential as any man’s.

Emma’s iconic characters are inspiring, but in the real world, Emma is even more so. She has, at the age of 26, committed herself to use her celebrity to speak out about why both women and men should be “feminists!” Sadly, today there is so much controversy and negativity about the word “feminist,” even amongst young women who, in reality, have completely feminist aspirations for their lives. Yet, these women are afraid to label themselves with the term. They and you, shouldn’t be.

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Emma Watson, on the other hand, is proud to call herself a feminist and she eloquently dispelled myths about what it means to be a feminist when she spoke in front of the United Nations on Sept. 20, 2014. Feminism is “the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes,” she told her audience at the United Nations headquarters in New York City. Emma had been named a UN Women’s Goodwill Ambassador and she was addressing a special event for the HeForShe campaign, which called for men to also advocate for gender equality.

Now that you’ve read Emma’s definition of feminism, you have to agree that you want and deserve to have equal rights and opportunities in every aspect of your life, and that that makes you a feminist, too, don’t you? If you, for some reason, think that feminists can’t be feminine and funny, Emma has to make you rethink that too.

Not only has she stunned in gorgeous gowns and jumpsuits for her LA and NYC Beauty And The Beast premieres, but she also revealed a contagious sense of humor in numerous interviews. She allowed Ellen DeGeneres to have her interview a “nanny” for herself a la Corinne on The Bachelor, while licking a lollipop. She submitted herself to a Funny or Die interview in which she was asked whether kidnapping  Beauty And The Beast- style is a good dating strategy, and then she played with several kittens while doing a Buzzfeed interview. Emma couldn’t have been a better sport or been more engaging in all of them. And, while she played with the kittens, she was also able to deliver some inspirational and feminist words for other women.

She revealed in that interview that she would want her own “future daughter” to know that “she is a force to be reckoned with and never to underestimate her own power.” She also delivered some advice that all of us can use: “When people have told me that I can’t do something, it’s going to be too hard or whatever else, try to use that as motivation.”

Well, Emma, we can use you as motivation. Every young women should have the same equal rights and opportunities as a young man. And in the coming years, women are no doubt going to have to fight very hard for those rights and opportunities in order to fulfill their dreams. But, they’re worth fighting for. So, HollywoodLifers, embrace your feminism, just like Emma Watson. Is she a role model for you? Let us know!