This is your sign to take a social-media break. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Kelly Marie Tran opened up about her decision to step away from social media in June 2018, leaving her Instagram blank except for a defiant “Afraid, but doing it anyway.†“We can talk about the interaction between mental health and social media, but also mental health and this idea of fame and what it does to you,†she said. “It is not normal. For me, that navigation is about how I protect myself in a way where I can continue to work in this world, and continue to lift the stories that I feel like the world needs to hear.†Tran got the worst of the toxic Star Wars fans’ harassment following the release of Rian Johnson’s controversial addition to the canon, The Last Jedi. “It felt like I was just hearing the voice of my agents and my publicity team and all of these people telling me what to say and what to do and how to feel,†Tran recalled. “And I realized I didn’t know how I felt anymore. And I didn’t remember why I was in this in the first place. Any time that happens, I have to close up shop and go away for a while and really interact in the real world — read books and journal and go on hikes and look at a tree and remind myself that there was a fire that burned inside of me before Star Wars, before any of this.â€
Since leaving social media, she’s learned in therapy that she shouldn’t have to internalize the internet’s “misogyny or racism or all of the above,†but that doesn’t mean she’s coming back. For now, you can see Tran in the upcoming animated Disney film Raya and the Last Dragon, where she plays a courageous warrior princess not unlike herself. “I’ve truly just been so much happier without being on the internet,†she added. “I’ve had my agents tell me [I’m] forgoing brand partnerships, but I’m not here to sell flat-tummy tea to young girls.â€