Lili Reinhart
Riverdale’s Lili Reinhart regularly shares her anxiety and calls out toxic behaviour – here she tells Stylist what it’s like to be Hollywood’s most ‘outspoken’ leading lady
words: billie bhatia
Photography: Giampaolo Sgura
If the walls of West Hollywood’s crumbling (but impossibly chic) Sunset Tower Hotel could whisper, they would fill books with scandal, intrigue and salacious gossip. During my brief stay, I overheard mumbled nuggets from producers, casting agents, actors and, my personal favourite, a young Brit who had moved in for three months because the shower in his apartment had a leak. Among the hushed conversations however, Sunset Tower was ironically housing a guest that has amassed a reputation for speaking up and speaking out. I first came across Lili Reinhart – not on TV but on Instagram – in 2018, when a clip of her passionately speaking out about body image and the industry’s toxic beauty standards’s Women of the Year Summit landed on my phone. “My point is, I didn’t think anything was wrong with my body until I was in an industry that rewards and praises people for having a smaller waist than I will ever have. It felt unfair to think that I would never have an industry-perfect body, just because I wasn’t genetically built a certain way.” These words, coming out of a young person’s mouth, stopped me mid-scroll, and by the end of her speech I was in tears. Four years later, the Cleveland, Ohio native has amassed an impressive CV. Most of her fans will know her from her breakthrough role as Betty Cooper in the hugely successful series, or from Netflix romantic comedy , or from her memorable part in alongside Jennifer Lopez, Lizzo and Cardi B to boot. Off screen, Lili is the author of a book of poetry, , the CEO to her own production company, Small Victory Productions, and most recently the recipient of Women in Film’s Max Mara Face of the Future Award. But beyond those accolades, it’s the 26-year-old’s emotional intelligence, self-assuredness and overwhelming empathy that remains her greatest success.
