Chloë Grace Moretz has revealed the true and awful impact a meme had on her life.
She sat down with Hunger magazine to share that a viral meme, which went mega-viral after it was referenced on Family Guy, turned her into a recluse and exacerbated her body dysmorphia.
A simple photo from 2016 of the actor carrying a pizza box, dressed in shorts and heels that showed off her beautiful long legs, was the start of it all.
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Someone took the image and made her torso short and her gorgeous pins absurdly long.
Moretz revealed that the image broke her heart.
"Then came the onslaught of horrific memes that started getting sent to me about my body," she told Hunger.
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"I’ve actually never really talked about this, but there was one meme that really affected me, of me walking into a hotel with a pizza box in my hand.
"And this photo got manipulated into a character from Family Guy with the long legs and the short torso, and it was one of the most widespread memes at the time."
She struggled as everyone made fun of her body. When she expressed her anguish to someone over the viral image, she was told 'oh, shut the f**k up, it’s funny'.
"And I just remember sitting there and thinking, my body is being used as a joke and it’s something that I can’t change about who I am, and it is being posted all over Instagram," Moretz said.
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She added: "It was something so benign as walking into a hotel with leftovers. And to this day, when I see that meme, it’s something very hard for me to overcome."
The Greta star revealed the Family Guy meme took from her something that she used to enjoy: getting all dressed up.
"[It] made me super self-conscious. And I think that body dysmorphia — which we all deal with in this world – is extrapolated by social media. It’s a headf**k."
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Body dysmorphia is a disorder in which you can't stop thinking about one or many perceived defects or flaws in your appearance, a flaw that is either so minor or invisible to others.
"I basically became a recluse,” Moretz told Hunger.
And when it came to be photographed, she revealed the experience caused her to become 'severely anxious'
"My heart rate would rise and I would hyperventilate," she said.
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So, a lesson to all: next time you take it upon yourself to make a meme, think about the impact it could have.
Topics: Celebrity, Family Guy, TV and Film, Viral
Rachel Lang