In a new interview with Wonderland,
actor Amandla Stenberg has come as lesbian.
The 19-year-old Stenberg is best known
for playing Rue in The Hunger Games and Madeline Whittier in
Everything, Everything.
In 2016, Stenberg came out as
non-binary – saying they prefer “they/them” pronouns. In a
Teen Vogue interview the same year, Stenberg came out as
bisexual. In a later interview, they said that pansexual might be
more “accurate.”
Stenberg said that they were “overcome”
with a sense of relief at discovering their sexual orientation.
“I was so overcome with this profound
sense of relief when I realized that I’m gay – not bi, not pan,
but gay – with a romantic love for women,” Stenberg told
Wonderland. “All of the things that felt so internally
contrary to my truest self were rectified as I unraveled a long web
of denial and self deprivation.”
“Like oh, maybe there’s a reason
why I kissed my best friends and felt ashamed growing up. Or watched
lesbian porn and masturbated (and more) with my friends at
sleepovers. Or stifled a scream of horror the first time I saw a
penis and had to convince myself with much internal strife that I was
enjoying what was going down. Or could only find attraction towards
gay men and femme boys who damn near had the sensibility of a woman.
Or developed earth-shattering, all-consuming crushes on… GIRLS!”
she
added.
Stenberg's latest project, The
Darkest Minds, opens on August 3.