Lili Reinhart says her bisexuality was never a secret.
In a recent interview with Flaunt magazine, the Riverdale star got candid about her attraction to women – and explains her decision to publicly announce her preference.
“I knew full well that I was attracted to women from a young age,” Lili admitted. “I felt that since I’ve exclusively been in hetero-normative relationships, it would be too easy for any outsider, especially the media, to vilify me and accuse me of faking it to get attention.”
“That’s not something I wanted to deal with. But to my close friends, and those in my life, my bisexuality has been no secret,” she added.
As a refresher, last June, Lili went on social media to promote a LGBTQ+ for Black Lives Matter protest happening in West Hollywood, California, writing, “Although I’ve never announced it publicly before, I am a proud bisexual woman. And I will be joining this protest today. Come join.”
In the interview, she attributed her decision to come out to how she felt when she attended her first BLM protest alongside the LGBTQ+ community – the feeling of solidarity. “It was incredible to be surrounded by so many people who are actively fighting against the injustices that are happening right now,” she said. “Enough is enough and hopefully we’ll see real change from the actions that are now being taken.”
Lili, who has been open about her struggles with anxiety and depression, shared that quarantine had been a time for self-reflection for her.
“I’m not the same person I was when I flew back from Canada to get back into the States when the borders closed,” she shared. “The past few years have been so hectic. I often refer to it as a whirlwind. I’ve been using this time [in quarantine] to let my mind, body, and soul catch up with one another because they can get really muddled. Everything just happened so fast since I started my career that I didn’t have the time to process much.”
A part of it has been taking the time to learn more about handling a very emotional experience – grief.
“What I’ve learned from losing a family member and my pet is that grief is the hardest human emotion to experience,” she reveals. “I’ve been taking this time to read a lot of self-help books and articles. People often find ways to distract themselves in order to not feel pain. So, I took the road less traveled, and wanted to feel everything that I needed to feel in my grieving process.”
The emotion is at the heart of her character in her upcoming movie, Chemical Hearts – a girl who’s grieveing the death of her ex-boyfriend. “For so long, I wanted to do a film that’s really raw and emotional, and act in a role that would push me in a way I haven’t been pushed before,” she says about working on the film. “I actually allowed myself to fall into a depression to really tap into my character in the film.”
But that’s not the only thing that’s got her very much in tune with her emotions. Lili is also about to release a book of poetry entitled Swimming Lessons next month.
“It’s almost weird for me to call myself a poet since I’m not what you would call a ‘classical poet,” she explains. “I don’t f–king rhyme, or have perfectly metered haikus, or anything along those lines. It’s more an exploration of human emotions with pretty words.”
