“So, to be known globally for this thing that’s not really me, it was just like, What the f–k am I doing?” Jennette continued. “How do I even find myself when I’m 19, and I’ve been famous for all the years that I would normally be stumbling through finding myself, yet I’m known as a thing that I’m not. It just was—’hellish,’ I think, is not too intense of a word.”
The former star of Netflix’s Beyond went on to share that her representation, including agents and managers, tried to talk her out of saying goodbye to acting.
“Everybody around me was advising me not to do, and telling me that I shouldn’t throw this away and that I’m insane for wanting to, so that was its own rebirth,” Jennette added. “‘How can you walk away from this? Are you kidding, do you have any idea how many people want you have?’ But it didn’t matter. I didn’t want it—it wasn’t true to me. And walking away was really difficult, but it was something that I needed to do for my mental health and for my overall peace, and it was difficult. I didn’t know what to do with myself when I didn’t have things that always dictated my identity around anymore.”
Ultimately, she found that once she stopped “living this lie,” she felt “a million times better.”