Zooey Deschanel was teased as a girl, wants her Hello Giggles website to help young women

Here’s your feel-good moment of the day: actress and singer Zooey Deschanel has founded a website, Hello Giggles, to promote positivity and self-esteem among young women. The New Girl star discusses the website in the April 2013 issue of Cosmopolitan UK, saying she was inspired to begin the website partly because of her own childhood bullying experiences, saying, “‘People really teased me. It was really bad… Nothing could be as hard as middle school. There were insecurities that I think I would have worked through a lot faster if I’d had certain tools and could have connected with certain people earlier.”

Zooey founded the website hellogiggles.com with two of her friend at first for fun, but now sees the site as having the potential to achieve greater things. “I feel like I’m on a mission to make it a thing that helps other women… If there had been a place like that for me when I was 13, I would have felt so much less alone.’

Hello Giggles mission statement, as listed on the website, is: “HelloGiggles is a positive online community for women (although men are always welcome!) covering DIY and crafting projects, beauty, friendship, sex & relationships, pop culture, pets, television & movies, nostalgia, fandom, tips on savvy and stylish living meant to inspire a smile. Founded by Zooey Deschanel, Molly McAleer and Sophia Rossi. Reader contributions are welcome and published daily.” Current article topics range from “nails of the day” to articles about relationships with parents to articles about turning negative experiences into positive ones. Zooey says, of the website, “‘I was so tired of every site having these comment sections that were pure, pure toxic energy. I put myself out there; it’s part of my job, and I get it: people will attack me. At first I was thrown off, but now I have a pretty thick skin about it. But if someone were to do that to one of our 13-year-old bloggers, I would kill them!”

This is not the first time Zooey has spoken out experiences that young women go through. In the July 2012 issue of Cosmopolitan UK, she said, ““It makes me sad [when girls are bitchy]. Girls get competitive, as though there’s only one spot in the world for everything ­ but that’s not true. We need to stick together and see there’s more to life than pleasing men. It’s important not to cut yourself off from female friendships. I think sometimes girls get scared of other girls, but you need each other.”

In addition to promoting positivity among young women, Zooey is busy with her successful acting career. Her hit sitcom New Girl was just picked up for a new season and returns next Tuesday, March 12, at 9/8c on Fox.

(Photo via WENN)