Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic(LOS ANGELES) — Kristen Stewart sat down for an honest interview with InStyle magazine about her past, especially the pressure she faced when she was first romantically linked with another woman.

The Twilight actress was promoting her upcoming movie Happiest Season —  a film about a lesbian couple where one of the two women has yet to come out to her conservative parents — and admitted that she personally relates to the characters because of her own coming out experience. 

“The first time I ever dated a girl, I was immediately being asked if I was a lesbian. And it’s like, ‘God, I’m 21 years old,'” Stewart, 30, recounted. “I felt like maybe there were things that have hurt people I’ve been with.”

Because her romantic life immediately became a front page story, the actress explained she began closing herself off “not because I felt ashamed of being openly gay but because I didn’t like giving myself to the public.” 

Stewart added that her feelings about the media demanding such personal information from her “felt like such thievery.”

“The added pressure of representing a group of people, of representing queerness, wasn’t something I understood then,” added Stewart.  “I was being hounded about labeling myself.” 

“I did feel an enormous pressure, but it wasn’t put on me by the [LGBTQ+] community,” the SAG Award nominee added.  “I was a kid, and I felt personally affronted.”

Now things are different for Stewart, who happily admitted, “Now I relish it. I love the idea that anything I do with ease rubs off on somebody who is struggling.”

Happiest Season is slated to open in theaters November 25, 2020.

By Megan Stone
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