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'God, what if I was 15?': Julia Roberts responds to being shamed in photo with niece Emma Roberts

It opened her eyes to the toxicity of social media.

via U.S. Department of State/Wikimedia Commons and Dominick D/Wikimedia Commons

Julia Roberts and Emma Roberts

Actress Julia Roberts was late to the game when it came to joining social media, so she was blown away when she finally saw first-hand how toxic it could be. She started an Instagram account in June of 2018 and, shortly after, was the target of trolls mocking her appearance in a post by her niece.

Roberts was upset about the negative comments people made about her looks and then was gutted when she considered social media's effect on young women. In a 2018 interview with Oprah Winfrey for Harper’s Bazaar, Julia recounted the story:

“Although something did happen recently on my niece Emma’s Instagram that I think taught me a lot about what it’s like being a young person in today’s society. One weekend morning Emma slept over, and we got up and were having tea and playing cards and having this beautiful morning, and then a couple of days later, she posted a picture of us,” Roberts recalled.

“And the number of people who felt absolutely required to talk about how terrible I looked in the picture—that I’m not aging well, that I look like a man, why would she even post a picture like this when I look that terrible!” she continued. “And I was amazed at how that made me feel. I’m a 50-year-old woman and I know who I am, and still my feelings got hurt. I was sad that people couldn’t see the point of it, the sweetness of it, the absolute shining joy of that photo. I thought, ‘What if I was 15?’”


body shaming, instagram, social media, body, dysmorphiaA young woman looks uncomfortable in the mirror. Image via Canva.

Beauty influencer Samantha Marika combined the audio of Julia telling the story, added it to the candid photo of her and Emma, and posted it to Instagram, and it went viral. The post has since been deleted, but in February 2024, actress and author Ali Wentworth posted a similar video of the photo of Roberts with her niece along with other photos from throughout the actress' life. Her words to Oprah play over the video and Wentworth applauds Roberts for being "spot on about the corrosive nature of social media and its effect on younger generations" in the caption.

In short, Julia’s concerns about teenage mental health aren’t unfounded.

A 2022 report by Pew Research shows that online bullying is pervasive among teenagers and looks are a common target. “Nearly half of U.S. teens have been bullied or harassed online, with physical appearance being seen as a relatively common reason why,” the report said. “Older teen girls are especially likely to report being targeted by online abuse overall and because of their appearance.” The Cyberbullying Research Center confirms these findings, noting in 2023 that "adolescent girls are morel likely to have experienced cyberbullying in their lifetimes (59.2% vs. 49.5% for adolescent boys).

bullies, cyberbullying, teen girls, adolescent girls, social mediaGirls experience cyberbullying more than their peers. Image via Canva.

Even though online bullying is common, those who watched Wentworth's video were disturbed by what happened to Roberts and her niece.

“I thought they were going to say how much like twins they look like & just a sweet beautiful moment they let us in on, when they didn't have to,” one viewer wrote.

"The anonymous aspect of social media adds to the cruelty. This picture is lovely and your statement is so true," said another.

Even though Roberts was disturbed by the comments she saw on Instagram, she’s glad that it helped her grasp what’s happening to young people online.

“I was so happy that happened because I had this whole new glimpse into a way of living that I didn’t get at all,” she told Winfrey. “You have to go through things to understand them, and this was just a little paper cut of what can really go on with social media.”

This article originally appeared last year. It has been updated.

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cyberbullying

18 years ago, Monica Lewinsky went through hell. It inspired her to create these emojis.

Monica Lewinsky knows a thing or two about bullying.

Photo by Fernando Leon/Getty Images.

As the 22-year-old former White House intern at the center of Bill Clinton's most notorious sex scandal, Lewinsky endured a round of public humiliation that rivals any in recent history.

Diners watch Monica Lewinsky's interview with Barbara Walters in 1999. Photo by Tannen Maury/Getty Images.

Now, 18 years after the protracted political saga that upended her life, she's back on a mission to helping kids fight back against online bullying.

Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images.

...with emojis.


The emojis, which Lewinsky conceived with a friend, are designed to send a message.

According to Lewinsky, who wrote an op-ed for Vanity Fair introducing the project, the icons give smartphone users a simple, direct way to say, "I'm here for you, and I've got your back," to anyone they see being attacked online. The designs — hands reaching out on either a heart-shaped or round colored background — are intended to evoke solidarity.

"Support — whether it’s from friends or strangers — matters," Lewinsky wrote.

The emojis were developed in collaboration with Vodaphone and are currently available for free download on iOS devices.

Lewinsky recalls that support from friends, family, and strangers was critical for her when the shaming and mockery over her affair with Clinton became almost too much to bear.

Lewinsky in 1998. Photo by Timothy Clary/Getty Images.

"In 1998, there was quite a long period of time where the highlight of my day was going down the hall to the lobby to get the mail," Lewinsky said in a video piece that accompanies her article. "I received so many letters from strangers who were offering support in different ways, and that was really a sea of compassion and support that helped me survive that period."

Now she wants to make sure that kids who are going through hell online can receive the same support from those closest to them.

Calling out bullying is important. But for Lewinsky, allying with victims is even more crucial.

"Knowing you are not alone — is vital and can even save lives," Lewinsky wrote.

Photo by Bryan Bedder/Getty Images.

Pretty great for a second act.

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A Twitter account that spreads nothing but niceness? Yes, please.

Rumor has it that something mean is posted on Twitter every 60 seconds.

But let's be real — it's probably more often than that. Even if it were only as often as every 60 seconds, that means someone is receiving a negative, insulting, or aggressive tweet that could at best annoy them and at worst truly hurt them every single minute. Welcome to the world of cyberbullying.

But what would it look like if niceness were just as prevalent online as meanness is?

Meet The NiceBot.


The brainchild of Champions Against Bullying and Deutsch Inc. advertising agency, @TheNiceBot is a Twitter account devoted to tweeting nothing but compliments and kind thoughts to people throughout the day. Every 30 seconds to be exact.

The project's goal is to eventually reach all 300 million Twitter users, one by one.

NiceBot uses a program to select Twitter users at random and send them prewritten positive messages — kind of like spam for good.

Deutsch Executive Creative Director Jeff Vinick told AdAge:

"We started thinking about different ways to be nice to as many people as possible, and a spambot seemed like a good solution. And while spam is normally thought of as something negative, we figured that if the message was simple and positive enough, people would respond favorably—and maybe even be tempted to spread some niceness themselves."

Sure, the spammy, randomized nature of the account might make for a few awkward tweets, like this one to Bill Cosby (yikes)...


...but who wouldn't want to see random notes like these in their timeline?





And my personal favorite:

Gestures like this can seem too simple and gimmicky to be truly meaningful. Can one Twitter account really change an entire culture of nastiness and cyberbullying? Um, no. But it's a step in the right direction.

On some days — you know those days — getting one nice comment, even from an automated bot, could definitely brighten your mood. Especially now.

In a time where many of our feeds are filled with heaviness, fear, and discord, moments of random positivity seem like a pretty good idea.

Not just for the momentary pleasure it brings, but because of the larger reminder it provides:

Even though the online world sometimes seems like a bizarre, surreal, and quite unreal place, it has the potential to replicate the best — and the worst — of our real-world tendencies, habits, and natures.

Sure, we can choose to replicate dangerous patterns of abuse, racism, sexism, hatred, gossip, insensitivity, exclusivity, and the like. But with every tweet, we also have the opportunity to spread more kindness, sensitivity, compassion — and maybe a little humor too.

So why not follow @TheNiceBot's lead and just do it? If more of us were nice bots (but, you know, human nice bots), the real world might just be a much nicer place.

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