A few years ago, Sydney Sweeney told Variety that people feel entitled to talk about her body however they want because they believe, in her words, that she’s “signed her life away.” She said it makes her feel like she’s not on a human level anymore — just because she’s an actor.
Last month she launched a lingerie brand. She announced it by climbing the Hollywood sign at 2am and hanging her own bras across it, without permission from the Chamber of Commerce that owns the image rights.
Put those two facts side by side and the obvious read is hypocrite. She complained about being reduced to her body, then built a business doing exactly that on purpose. I don’t think that’s what happened. I think she looked at a conversation that was never going to stop — no matter what she did — and decided to be the one who owns it instead of the one it happens to. Forty-four sizes. Institutional money from Coatue. She’s the creative lead, not a licensed face. Her own handwriting is stitched into the newest collection. That’s not surrender. That’s someone buying the rights to a story that was always going to be told about her.
