Appearing on the fashion magazine’s recent cover, which released online on Tuesday, Watson, who will be 30 in April, spoke about the pressures she feels regarding her next birthday and the societal perception of women who do not have families of their own by age 30. Watson admitted she initially didn’t get why “everyone makes such a big fuss about turning 30,” but noted that as her milestone birthday approaches, she now understands why there is so much stress and anxiety surrounding the age.
“Cut to 29, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I feel so stressed and anxious. And I realize it’s because there is suddenly this bloody influx of subliminal messaging around. If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby and you’re turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career, or you’re still figuring things out…There is just this incredible amount of anxiety,” the Little Women star said.
Despite her newfound recognition of this, Watson said she wasn’t giving in to the negative rhetoric towards possibly being a single 30-year-old and is happy with her current lifestyle.
“I never believed the whole ‘I’m happy single’ spiel,’” she admitted. “I was like, ‘This is total spiel.’ It took me a long time, but I’m very happy [being single]. I call it self-partnered.”
Not long after Watson’s interview released, Twitter was flooded with messages from fans praising the Harry Potter actress for her rejection of the term “single.” Dozens of people suggested they too would use Watson’s newly coined descriptor to explain their dating status.
“I’m identifying myself as ‘self partnered’ this Holiday season…tired of my family asking me about my relationship status,” one user wrote on Twitter.
Another also thought the phrase was the perfect response to give inquiring minds: “When your parents asks if you’re seeing anyone and you tell them you’re #SelfPartnered.”
Others thanked Watson for helping to remove the negative connotations typically applied to single 30-year-olds. “I personally love that Emma Watson calls being single ‘self-partnered.’ We really need to overhaul the way we think about singledom and especially how our culture views single women,” one Twitter user wrote.
In the latest adaptation of Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, which premieres in theaters on Christmas day, Watson Margaret “Meg” March, a young woman who prides herself on her future role as a housewife and homemaker. While Meg’s life and desires in Little Women are strikingly different from Watson’s, the young women’s rights advocate said feminism is all about understanding women have a choice.
“[Meg’s] choice is that she wants to be a full-time mother and wife. To Jo [Saoirse Ronan], bring married is really some sort of prison sentence. But Meg says, ‘You know, I love him [John Brooke, played by James Norton], and I’m really happy and this is what I want. And just because my dreams are different than yours, it doesn’t mean they’re unimportant,’” Watson explained.
See a few more reactions to Watson’s “self-partnered” declaration below.
