Writer and child star Mara Wilson has opened up about what it was like to grow up with fellow actor Michelle Trachtenberg in a heartfelt essay for Vulture.
Trachtenberg, perhaps best known as the titular Harriet the Spy, and later for her role on Gossip Girl, passed away suddenly on February 26 at just 39 years old.
In her essay, Wilson, who played the title role in Matilda and also starred in Mrs. Doubtfire, said she and Trachtenberg had fallen out of touch by the time of her death.
But she vividly remembers Trachtenberg as "my cool friend Michelle" from when they were in school together in Los Angeles in the '90s. And in her essay, Wilson recalled that Trachtenberg was constantly bullied at their middle school.
In the essay, Wilson described how she and Trachtenberg quickly bonded over their shared kid-actor lives, and she remembered her classmate as kind, smart and down-to-earth.
"Not only was she nice, I realized, but she was remarkably intelligent."
"Yet she managed not to be condescending and didn't try to impress with big words, the way other kids (including me) might have. She was smart, but she was also self-possessed, and didn't need to show off."
So Wilson was surprised when one day, Trachtenberg approached her in tears to ask if their fellow classmates were as cruel to Wilson as they were to her.
"'Are the kids here mean to you? Because they are to me... They call me Harriet the Slut, Harriet the B----, Harriet the B----y Spy... and so much worse. They never stop."
Wilson said because of her fame, Trachtenberg had quickly developed a reputation at school for being mean and "stuck up" herself, which Wilson said was wholly inaccurate. And in the wake of her death, this struck Wilson as a heartbreaking twist.
"So much of being a child actor is about making everyone happy. It felt cruelly ironic to be so hated when our raison d’être was getting people to like us."
On social media, Wilson's heartfelt tribute to her friend deeply moved people.
Trachtenberg opened up about the bullying she suffered back in a 2020 Instagram post, offering a message for kids in a similar situation in her caption:
"I write this to every child, teen, person, out there who is bullied. You are something."
"Do not put your value in someone else. Not letting them win, is your win."
Authorities have ruled Trachtenberg's cause and manner of death as "undetermined," though she was believed to have been suffering from health problems for quite some time before she passed.
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