Thanks to her days on the Disney Channel, Ariana Greenblatt has always understood the power of an online presence. Now 18, and many roles—including BARBIE and the upcoming NOW YOU SEE ME: NOW YOU DON’T—and millions of followers later, Ariana is still learning how to navigate life in the digital age.
Featured now on the cover of COSMOPOLITAN’s Online Issue, Ariana was photographed on location at The Bowery Hotel in NYC by artist, documentarian, and GIRL CULTURE author Lauren Greenfield and interviewed by internet sensation and leading voice of Gen Z Jake Shane, who brings their virtual friendship IRL to explore what it’s like for Ariana growing up in the public eye and being extremely online—and sometimes wishing she wasn’t.
On bonding with her Now You See Me: Now You Don’t costars:
“The whole cast are my favorite people in the world, especially Justice Smith and Dominic Sessa. Dominic and I were next-door neighbors when we were filming in Budapest. He would usually wrap later than me, so I’d make him mac and cheese and leave it in his house for him. For some reason, I was always making sure he was eating. Justice is like an older brother to me. There were so many times when I was like, ‘I don’t know what this scene means,’ and he’d really sit with me and break it down. Jesse [Eisenberg] has always been one of my favorite actors, and he couldn’t be sweeter. Dave Franco was truly another mentor of mine.”
On her evolving relationship with social media:
“I miss the few years when I didn’t have social media. Growing up, it felt natural to want all the apps and to be on top of every trend. When I was on the Disney Channel, actually, they were like, ‘You need social media,’ and my dad didn’t let me….I technically got social media when I was 7, but I didn’t talk to the app. I didn’t control or look at it until I wanted to be perceived as cool, probably when I was 13. But then I eventually hit a point where I thought, I don’t know if this is actually benefiting me. I deleted TikTok off my phone a week ago after having to wean myself off of it.”
On social media as a drug:
“It’s fully a drug. I deleted TikTok because of its algorithm and because I’ve never really had a healthy relationship with knowing when to turn it off. I’ll see one thing about me, I’ll click the blue comment, and suddenly I’m scrolling through a feed of posts that are all negative. I’ll go from having a great day to seeing five videos and truly feeling sick to my stomach—the rest of the day is ruined. It’s crazy how one scroll can completely change my mood and even the physical state of my body.”
On how she views the difference between TikTok and Instagram:
“With TikTok, the negative comments go to the top, but I have to work a lot harder to find negative things on Instagram. I love posting on Instagram Stories. Creatively, I like creating stuff like that. I have so much content from Now You See Me: Now You Don’t that everyone’s going to be so sick of it. I’m going to be spamming uncontrollably.”
On how social media has influenced her:
“I found myself caring so much about how I look because social media takes scenes I’ve acted in and edits them. That’s the last thing you need in acting, all of the extra opinions. There’s a negative term online for absolutely everything. ‘Instagram Face’ is the latest I’ve seen….I’m a big overthinker, so I can easily see something and allow it to take over my body.”
On still discovering who she is:
“I feel like probably until I’m in my 20s, I’m not going to fully know who I am. I just watched interviews back from even five months ago and I’m like, Wow, I’m a completely different person now. And I was so sure in that interview that that was who I was. Now every video I post becomes a file for other people to use to reinforce another idea of what type of person I am.”
On hanging out with other teens and the paranoia that comes with her fame and influence:
“When I’m in environments with other teenagers, I immediately fall into fight or flight. I went to a couple house parties and they all sucked. I had the constant paranoia of phones being out and me looking stupid. I got paralyzed with fear. And also just knowing how other teens treat each other. I’d be in a group and they’d show me their phones, how they made an Instagram account about a person….
“I never wanted to be near anything that could look bad because I’m not the type of person that indulges, generally. My brain goes: Okay, I could be near a bottle of alcohol, and they could Photoshop the bottle of alcohol into my hand. And then that goes online, and then I let down young girls….So I never had the freedom to enjoy those types of parties. I did go because I wanted to see what it was about. But in the back of my mind, I was always looking at where their phones were.”
On always thinking about how she’s perceived:
“I think I’ll always be thinking about that. I just love people so much and having conversations with people so much that the last thing I would want is for them to think something negative. But you can’t control that. I need to just alert myself that I can’t control everything and that’s okay. And I don’t want to be so self-indulgent in what people think of me or how I look. I feel like my mental health is getting the slightest bit better not seeing a bunch of stuff all the time.”
[Photo Credit: Lauren Greenfield for Cosmopolitan Magazine]
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