At times, young stars face difficulties transitioning into adulthood, especially under the gaze of a public who’ve watched them since their adolescent years — as seen with actress Zendaya and more recently Chloe Bailey of the R&B sister duo Chloe X Halle.
Chloe has been dealing with an immense amount of backlash from internet scolds on some corners of social media after sharing sexy photos of herself online and participating in the “Bussit” challenge that immediately went viral. A charitable explanation for their vitriol is they seemingly can’t accept that the 22-year-old is no little girl anymore.
Recently another former child star, Meagan Good, spoke out in support of the songstress. During an interview with reporter Marsha B for HelloBeautiful magazine’s “POWER” issue, the “Waist Deep” star shared how she felt seeing Chloe’s emotional reaction to online criticisms. At various times throughout her career, Meagan was blasted for being “too sexy” and told to “cover up” because of her religion and marriage to pastor Devon Franklin.
“It breaks my heart to see her have to go through that,” the 39-year-old told the publication. She added, “And again, getting free of what other people think of you is a process. You know, it depends on the person. Depends on how they download things — what it feels like to their spirit — so you can’t just tell them to get over it,” According to Meagan, “these people don’t determine your destiny, these people don’t determine your purpose.
She continued, “They don’t determine the call that God has on your life. The only way for you to continue to walk in that purpose and that destiny and that calling is to be authentically yourself and knowing that along the way, some people are not going to get it, and that’s OK.”
In February, the “grown-ish” actress addressed her critics in an emotional Instagram Live session where she revealed her struggles with insecurities, including battles with body image. Chloe explained that doing the challenge helped her tap into her sexier side.
“’Cause all the people who know me personally, I’m really like such a nerd, and I’m really to myself, and I’m really, really shy. So it is like, it’s honestly taken a lot for me to show the world what I kind of like really am inside,” she said at the time. “I’ve been like really insecure for a long time, and I’m finally like at that place where I have self-confidence. And I’m really happy that I get to share that with you all, and I think it’s so important and so special when a Black woman can be strong and stand in her power in every single way.”
The singer’s supporters kindly advised the star to block out the negative comments and continue to live her life as she pleases.
