Emma Watson: 'I've Spent Half My Life Pretending To Be Someone Else'

At only 25-years-old, Emma Watson exudes the sort of confidence and self-awareness of someone much older.

However the Harry Potter star admits that after spending much of her youth trying to be someone else that when she didn't have to be that person any more she she had no idea who she was.

"[I've] spent more than half of my life pretending to be someone else," she says in a new interview with Porter magazine.

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Emma Watson speaks about fashion, feminism and finding herself. Photo: Getty Images

"While my contemporaries were dyeing their hair and figuring out who they were, I was figuring out who Hermione was and how best to portray her. Now at 25, for the first time in my life, I feel like I have a sense of self that I'm comfortable with."

This actress and outspoken feminist says she feels she has found her "most authentic self".

"I don't want there to be a big separation between the public and the private person. It's definitely the harder road to tread but without a doubt, ultimately the most rewarding. It sounds like a ridiculous thing to say, but I'm very interested in truth, in finding ways to be messy and unsure and flawed and incredible and great and my fullest self, all wrapped into one."

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Emma, who has become a style icon herself, says she refuses to be defined by fashion and her style choices, and is no longer willing to dress for anyone except herself

"I want to feel fabulous and comfortable and sexy and strong and beautiful. And if it's making you uncomfortable, don't do it. It's so sad if you need to go home just because you need to sit down! Moving forward, I'm prioritising just feeling awesome."

The UN Women Goodwill Ambassador, who last year launched her HeForShe campaign to encourage men to join in the fight against gender inequality, is a staunch feminist but she admits she was initially advised against using the F-word.

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"I was encouraged not to use the word ‘feminism’ because people felt that it was alienating and separating and the whole idea of the speech was to include as many people as possible."

"But I thought long and hard and ultimately felt that it was just the right thing to do. If women are terrified to use the word, how on earth are men supposed to start using it?"

Emma Watson for President.