Teen ‘It’ girl of the moment Shailene Woodley is no fan of Twilight.
The 22-year-old star of The Secret Life of the American Teenager and the critically-acclaimed film, The Descendants, is on the precipice of teen fiction superstardom: she has the lead role in Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars, both based on popular young adult novels and both due out this year.
In an interview with Teen Vogue, Woodley criticized the uber-popular YA series, Twilight. Though many have praised the book for its emphasis on love rather than sex—the couple famously waits until marriage to consumate the relationship—Woodley thinks the relationship sends a bad message. The young star calls out the series for glorifying Bella’s decision to give up everything for a guy:
Twilight, I’m sorry, is about a very unhealthy, toxic relationship. [The protagonist Bella] falls in love with this guy and the second he leaves her, her life is over and she’s going to kill herself! What message are we sending to young people? That is not going to help this world evolve.”
The upcoming Divergent, which has been compared to The Hunger Games in the girl power discussion, focuses on a young girl on her journey to overthrow a totalitarian regime. Keep the empowered heroines coming!
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Write to Eliana Dockterman at eliana.dockterman@time.com