Shailene Woodley certainly isn't letting Hollywood get to her head! Since starring on the 2008 TV series The Secret Life of the American Teenager, the 21-year-old actress' career has skyrocketed. Even after landing a supporting role (and rave reviews) opposite George Clooney in the Oscar-winning 2011 film The Descendants, but she's managed to stay very, very grounded. In the new issue of Flaunt magazine, Woodley reveals that her lifestyle is way more down-to-earth than red carpet glam.
"I think everything about my lifestyle is fairly alternative. I gather my own spring water from mountains every month. I go to a farm to get my food. I make everything from my own toothpaste to my own body lotions and face oils. I could go on for hours," she says. "I make my own medicines; I don't get those from doctors. I make my own cheese and forage wild foods and identify wild plants. It's an entire lifestyle. It's appealing to my soul."
The Spectacular Now actress frequently tweets about her discoveries in nature. On Aug. 14, she wrote, "So much medicine on this mornings walk. #roses #fruitingfigtrees #puppysongs #bees #sunshine." The previous week she shared one of her homemade meals, tweeting, "Kabocha squash, sea asparagus, parsley, home made pesto. #simple #nourishing #grateful."
Woodley made a name for herself after playing a 15-year-old high school student who discovers she's pregnant on ABC Family's The Secret Life of the American Teenager. The series came to an end after five seasons in June 2013, and Woodley tells Flaunt she was happy to be free from it.
"I didn't like it because if it started to change, I had no control over it," she explains. "It's like anything in life, whether you're an actor or you work in an insurance office, if you want to be able to leave your job, it's nice to be able to leave your job. But when you're in a contract, unfortunately, you can't do that."
But Woodley adds, "I'm extremely grateful for it; it was a fantastic five years of my life, but towards the end, morally, the things that we were preaching on that show weren't really aligned with my own integrity," she says, without sharing specifics. (The series dealt with controversial issues regarding teen pregnancy.) "So that was a bit hard to show up to work every day knowing that we were going to project all of these themes to thousands—millions—of young adults across the country, when in fact they weren't what I would like to be sending out."
