Try again, please. Blake Lively shut down a reporter who asked her about fashion at Variety’s Power of Women event in NYC on Friday, April 21, where she was honored for her work combating child pornography.
“Really? At this event, you’re asking me about my outfit?” the 29-year-old actress demanded of a reporter on the red carpet when asked who she was wearing. “Seriously … Would you ask a man that?”
A visibly flustered Lively continued to lecture the journalist, “I’m here so we … become more aware, and that we change, and that we build [women up]. So, you can ask me another question.”
The Gossip Girl alum was, however, eager to talk about the empowering women in her life and how she hopes to set a good example for her daughters — James, 2, and Ines, 6 months — whom she shares with husband Ryan Reynolds.
“My mom has always stood up to people who didn’t have a voice,” she told Us on the red carpet. “I saw that in small ways through her humanity, and she was very aware and conscious of other people. That’s why I want to stand up for children who are being sexually abused, and I’m so grateful to be able to share their story when they can’t for themselves.”
Lively added that she is inspired by women in Hollywood who are not afraid to be themselves, and are so clearly “comfortable with themselves.”
“I think it’s a shame that women are called bossy and that when a woman is in power, we refer to her as a boss because if they were just successful, we could just call them that,” she told Us. “I’ve looked up to so many women in my career, from Meryl Streep, who is always at the top of her game, to Hillary Clinton, who was almost our first female president … all those women inspire me.”
Added the actress, “It’s still a struggle for me, feeling comfortable in my own skin, so I look to those women who are so confident. Even coming here today, I felt that I don’t deserve to be here, I don’t deserve to be honored among these incredible women. And I think women have a tendency to minimize themselves. We were taught that growing up, so I look to every woman who’s comfortable in her own skin as a boss woman and I’m grateful to have examples of women who I aspire to be and also from my friends who are comfortable with them.”
