Entertainment

Bella Thorne Just Came Out As Pansexual In A Candid New Interview

by Jessica Wang
Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

During an appearance on Good Morning America, Bella Thorne came out as pansexual in an interview with reporter Juju Chang. The former Disney Channel star sat down with the ABC News journalist on Monday, July 22 to discuss her upcoming book Life of a Wannabe Mogul: Mental Disarray, a collection of poems that detail her struggles with self-acceptance, dyslexia, and sexual abuse, available in bookstores on July 23. During the candid interview, Thorne revealed that she is pansexual.

"I’m actually pansexual and I didn’t know that," Thorne told Chang. "Somebody explained it to me. You like beings. You like what you like. It doesn’t have to be a girl or a guy or, you know, he, she, they, this or that. It’s literally, you like personality. You just like a being."

According to Minus18, an organization that provides resources for LGBTQ youth, pansexual orientation refers to the attraction of all genders — binary or not. Additionally, Thorne's GMA interview isn’t the first time the 21-year-old actress has been vocal about her sexual orientation. In 2016, Thorne revealed that she was bisexual on Twitter after fielding an inquiry from a follower. When asked if she were bisexual, the actress simply replied “Yes,” which sparked supportive responses from fans. "Aww thank you for all the accepting tweets from everyone," she wrote on Twitter in August 2016. "I love you guys #pride."

Thorne, who first rose to fame at 16 for her role in the Disney Channel series Shake It Up, also opened up about the sexual abuse she endured at 6 years old that continued until adolescence in the all-encompassing interview. According to the actress, she believes the abuse resulted in "Stockholm Syndrome." Thorne told Chang, "When you're raised with someone, and you don't know that it's wrong — it's just very, like, an everyday occurrence. Like no big deal."

She added of the tolls of the abuse, "I think that you have anger towards society in general. And our society clearly… this is something that is literally happening at everyone's doorstep… And still, nothing is ever done about it. We don't look at it as a main problem, but it is, because it is shaping our society. It is shaping our girls to be different girls than what they were supposed to be."

Life of a Wannabe Mogul: Mental Disarray marks Thorne’s fourth book. The actress has published three other young adult novels: Autumn Falls, Autumn’s Kiss, and Autumn’s Wish. In June, the Disney alum revealed that she suffered from dyslexia as a kid and taught herself how to read from reading scripts. According to the actress, the ability to write her past novels as a dyslexic is “kind of what the series is about.” These struggles will also be explored in her upcoming book. “All these things I couldn’t do, and I did it somehow," Thorne told Chang. "Like, I couldn't read and I learned to read from reading scripts."

Life of a Wannabe Mogul: Mental Disarray will be available in bookstores on July 23. Given what we learned in Thorne's GMA interview, it's bound to be intimate.