Anne Hathaway Has Finally Learned To Love Herself In a Simple, Yet Effective Way

Hollywood isn't all glitz and glamour. Celebrities are forced to deal with an unimaginable amount of scrutiny, and no matter how confident they may seem on the outside, on the inside they're vulnerable just like the rest of us. So, how do they deal with it all? Anne Hathaway explained how she practices self-love in a new interview with People, and what she had to say was so simple, yet something everyone should strive to do.

Sometime around 2011, Hathaway's public persona was vehemently called into question. A lot of hate was slung in the actor's direction, especially after her widely-panned co-hosting gig with James Franco at that year's Academy Awards. Then when she won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2013 — for her role as Fantine in the big-screen adaptation of Les Miserables — her acceptance speech was largely viewed as supremely disingenuous and excessively sappy. Some in the media deemed her a self-righteous "diva," and her one-time "America's Sweetheart" title was all but stripped entirely.

In the years leading up to those publicly-damning moments, Hathaway recently admitted to People that she was dealing with "feelings of inadequacy, insecurity and nervousness and anxiety." Now, though, she's learned how to better manage those negative feelings and actively practices self-love. In excerpts from an interview with People published on Jan. 30, Hathaway explained,

"I just figured out how to say thank you to life by taking care of myself. By not apologizing for taking up space, which is not something I knew how to do 10 years ago."

This isn't the first time Hathaway has reflected on that time in her life. Back in 2016, she admitted to The Guardian that she "kind of lost [her] mind" while filming Les Miserables, and "it hadn’t come back," by the time she won her Oscar.

"I felt wrong that I was standing there in a gown that cost more than some people are going to see in their lifetime, and winning an award for portraying pain that still felt very much a part of our collective experience as human beings," she told the publication. "I tried to pretend that I was happy and I got called out on it, big time."

The fact that Hathaway was able to admit that then — and continues to reflect on her perceived missteps now — truly shows how much she's grown. "It’s been a journey," she told People. "I don’t look that different, but I just feel like the inside has transformed so much."

Other aspects of her life have changed since then, too, and seemingly for the better. In 2012, Hathaway married producer Adam Shulman in Big Sur, California, People reported. In 2016, the couple welcomed their first child together — a baby boy named Jonathan Rosebanks.

In terms of her career, Hathaway recently admitted that a Princess Diaries 3 could definitely be on the horizon. "We all really want it to happen," she told Andy Cohen on Watch What Happens Live, confirming that both Julie Andrews — who starred as her royal grandmother, Clarisse Renaldi, in the first two films — and producer Debra Martin Chase were on board as well. Not only that, but she's currently starring alongside fellow Oscar winner Matthew McConaughey in the new thriller, Serenity.

Things are definitely looking up for Hathaway these days, and she has herself to thank for that. Learning self-love is incredibly important, and her simple, yet effective advice was perfectly put.