Hollywood sweetheart Blake Lively may have played the popular girl on the hit show “Gossip Girl,” but back when she was in school, things were totally different.
In a recent Instagram post with Big Bird from “Sesame Street,” Lively opened up about how she was bullied as a child, saying that people compared her to the big, friendly bird.
“Kids used to make fun of me in elementary school by calling me Big Bird (because I was “too tall” and had “yellow” hair,” the 5-foot-10-inch actress wrote in the caption.
“Here’s to making best buddies with the things that once hurt you,” she added.
Dozens of Instagram followers chimed in saying they too had been teased and bullied as a kid, with at least one woman saying she’d been dealt the same jab.
Wearing a rainbow skirt and sparkly shoes, Lively was all smiles with her new friend, who she bonded with when she made her debut appearance on the children’s TV show earlier this month.
This isn't the first time the actress has been open and honest about beauty and self-esteem. In 2017, she wrote on Instagram that she doesn’t want her daughters, James (3 years old) and Ines (18 months), thinking that red-carpet looks are natural or standard.
"We have really unrealistic beauty standards and beauty norms," she told Refinery29. "What little girls are seeing isn’t what (these celebrities) look like when they wake up in the morning — even though it’s no less beautiful."
In response to Lively's post with Big Bird, the "Sesame Street" Instagram account had the perfect response: a bunch of big, yellow hearts.