Daisy Ridley has spoken out against online criticism of her appearance on her Instagram account.
In two posts Wednesday, Ridley addressed an image circulating on social media that claimed her appearance in Star Wars: The Force Awakens sets “unrealistic expectations” for young girls; the image also insisted “real women have curves.”
In Ridley’s first post, which has since been deleted, she included a screenshot of the image and wrote, “ ‘Real women’ are all shapes and sizes, all ethnicities, all levels of brave, have families, don’t have families. I am a ‘real woman’ like every other woman in this world.”
Ridley removed the screenshot after the original poster was criticized in turn, and in a follow-up post she stressed the importance of everyone “being kind to each other.”
She added, “I’m a normal girl thrust into extraordinary circumstances, just like [Star Wars character] Rey. I will not [apologize] for how I look, what I say and how I live my life … and I am striving to be the best version of myself, even if I stumble along the way.”
Read Ridley’s post below.
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