Perhaps it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise that within days of telling a follower that “gender is whatever” when asked about whether she’s into men or women, Ava Phillippe is already having to address the proliferation of trolls on her feed.
Earlier this week, the 18-year-old daughter was asked if she likes “boys or girls,” to which the daughter of Reese Witherspoon and Ryan Phillippe replied, “I’m attracted to… people! (Gender is whatever).”
Almost immediately following this message, Ava jumped on her Instagram Stories with a “quick reminder” for her nearly one million followers, as captured by People.
“I can & will block profiles commenting bigoted/hateful messages under my posts,” she posted. “My Instagram profile is not a place for cruelty/hate speech & I intend to do what I can to keep it that way. Peace & Love.”
Ava did not call out any profiles by name, nor did she offer any specific examples, but it’s not too hard to imagine the type of commentary she’s been subjected to. With that many followers, we can imagine there’s been a bit of time investment in filtering out the garbage to curate her feed into a more tolerant and respectful space.
Ava has been involved with Owen Mahoney since at least 2019, as that’s when things became Instagram official, after meeting at UC Berkeley. Since then Mahoney has even gotten Reese’s approval after he joined the family on their tropical vacation.
During her impromptu Q&A session, Ava also revealed her perspective on having famous parents after a fan asked her what it was like to grow up with celebrity parents.
Phillippe confirmed that her life would be “very” different without the celebrity status of her upbringing although she wouldn’t change her parents for the world.
“That said though, I wouldn’t change a thing. The good and the not so good all made me who I am and gave me so many amazing opportunities. And my parents get to do what they love which is super cool,” she stated.
Reese also spoke about raising her children in the spotlight, which was a far cry from her own childhood experience, in a cover interview with Instyle Magazine last November.
“It’s an odd situation because I didn’t grow up famous,” she noted. “So [Ava is] living an experience that I did not have, and so are my sons. We are lucky enough to have friends who grew up in Hollywood and can help give them advice on how to navigate.”
“Ava is so down-to-earth. She wants to do great things in the world,” Reese continued. “She’s studying and learning and trying to find herself. It’s a big thing in life to try different things and figure out what is really your path.”
While Ava may still be figuring out what path she’s going to follow, we at least know she’s committed to keeping it clean of garbage and trolls. That’s a pretty good start.
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