Chloe Grace says the Family Guy meme about her body made her a “recluse.” “I just remember thinking, my body is being used as a joke, and it’s something I can’t change …”
Chloe opened up about becoming a “recluse” after seeing horrific memes of herself circulate over the internet, most notably one meme comparing her body to a “Family Guy” character.
It all happened in 2016 when a meme juxtaposing a picture of the 25-year-old actor carrying pizza boxes into a hotel with a character from the animated sitcom Family Guy went viral. Although more than just “Family Guy” fans enjoyed the humor, the joke didn’t sit well with the actor.
In an interview with Hunger magazine, Chloe said that the meme’s virality on social media exacerbated the body dysmorphia she was already dealing with.
“Everyone was making fun of my body, and I brought it up with someone, and they were like, ‘Oh, shut the f*** up, it’s funny,’” the actor told Hunger magazine. “And I just remember sitting there and thinking, my body is being used as a joke, and it’s something that I can’t change about who I am, and it is being posted all over Instagram.”
Body dysmorphia is a mental health disorder in which a person cannot stop worrying about flaws in their appearance. It affects men and women and is more common in teenagers and young adults. Unfortunately, these flaws are usually unnoticeable to others.
“It took a layer of something that I used to enjoy, which was getting dressed up and going to a carpet and taking a photo, and made me super self-conscious,” Chloe added. “And I think that body dysmorphia which we all deal with in this world, is extrapolated by social media issues. It’s a headfuck.”
Thankfully, therapy has helped the actor heal somehow. “To say that these past two years have been transformative is an understatement, to say the least,” she said. “I am a very different girl than I was. I feel like a woman now.”
Chloe Moretz has starred in films such as Kick-Ass and 500 Days of Summer. She also appeared in the Hulu original film “Mother/Android.” She is set to voice Netflix’s animated “Nimona” movie.