Rowan Blanchard Explains Why She Doesn't Want to be Called An 'Activist' Right Now

Rowan Blanchard is often referred to as an activist, however, she’s doesn’t want to be anymore.

The 16-year-old actor opened up about why on her Instagram account after discussing the term in her new cover story with L’Officiel magazine.

“I have been feeling uh dysphoric about the term activist and it’s accessibility and appropriation,” she starts out. “It maybe feels more reductive than progressive.”

Rowan continues that she feels the term “is maybe more of a dead end when its used as a marker of celebrity tokenism and forced upon marginalized identities so that they can do more work than the rest of us.”

“Maybe don’t call me an activist right now, even though I have used that word as applicable to myself before, language changes, and maybe its not my word right now,” she shares. “Thanks for listening.”

In her feature, Rowan discussed why the term was irritating to her at this moment in time.

“I guess what’s irritating about the context of the word ‘activist’ is that so many of my friends whose identities are more fragile and more destructed by this [Trump’s] administration are forced to have the word activist attached to them just because they’re trying to survive and be who they are,” she said.

“They might be trans because that’s who they are, but if they speak about that they’re automatically a trans activist and so on. That’s what makes me feel weird about the term—who gets to decide to be an activist, and who just has to be one because they’re forced to fight?”