Why Chloë Moretz is focusing on a relationship with herself: 'You can give so much of yourself to other people'

Chloë Moretz has been in the spotlight since she was just 7 years old, making appearances in a variety of TV shows and movies. But you have yet to see the now-21-year-old star quite as unfiltered as this.

Taking part in the latest global campaign for luxury skin care brand SK-II, Moretz is going makeup free for the #BareSkinProject. Although it’s not something new for the actress, who often wears little to no makeup when she’s not in character, she admits that going au naturel is more nerve-racking when she’s in front of the camera.

“Well, I think it’s one thing to be bare skin in front of someone right beside you. But to do it with a camera in your face and know that this is a photo that’s going to be seen all over the world, it breaks down all the ideals of what beauty is,” Moretz tells Yahoo Lifestyle. “Especially in America, beauty’s kind of been chalked up to putting on different mascaras or makeup on your face, and doing all this stuff to contour you into some other person. But we forgot to say to young women that you’re beautiful as you are.”

As one of those young women, Moretz faced the struggles that many girls encounter when what they see on billboards and in magazines is so different from what’s reflected in the mirror. Although her experience might have been magnified, being on the big screen herself, Moretz compares the pressure she felt to that which any normal girl feels.

“When I was younger, it was super hard,” Moretz says, reflecting on her childhood in Atlanta. “I had to find a lot of confidence within myself. I tried to hide behind a lot of layers of makeup, a lot of filters. I wasn’t self-confident, for sure, which I think a lot of young women aren’t. Then as I grew up, I was like, if I don’t love myself first and foremost, then how could I be looking for gratification or acceptance within everyone else? That’s unfair.”

This idea of gratification comes through in the way that influencers and celebrities of Moretz’s age use social media. By posting curated content that filters out any physical imperfection, people are able to make their lives look as flawless as their retouched faces and bodies for the sake of likes and an increased popularity.

But the actress goes one step further to talk about how overcoming her lack of confidence was a “psychological” process that wasn’t displayed across her social media platforms. However, as private as Moretz tries to make these personal matters, being in the spotlight has allowed cameras to capture some of this narrative as well.

“I’ve come to find a new acceptance of myself, I think, which makes me most confident, which is the ability to be within myself and be with myself first and foremost, before anyone else,” she says. “And that’s something that I used to take for granted, especially in relationships.”

Through a nearly four-year, on-again-off-again romance with Brooklyn Beckham that officially ended this past April, Moretz was probably discovering the many obstacles that can come with a serious relationship and learning how to deal with them. Yet the true story of that romance may have been twisted by tabloids, and Moretz is opening up about her new relationship at the forefront: the one with herself.

“You can give so much of yourself to other people,” she says. “But there is something to be said about putting yourself first in a lot of ways and putting your emotions first. And listening to yourself before listening to others’ advice. And that’s OK.”

Seeing herself as she really is, makeup free, is only one part of this journey. But Moretz assures all women that it is a step in the right direction.

“That’s the Chloë that I wake up as. That’s the Chloë that I go to bed as,” Moretz says. “Confidence is within yourself and confidence is in your bare skin. And hopefully it will let other people go on their own bare-skin journey and find that within themselves.”

Read more from Yahoo Lifestyle:

• Kylie Jenner’s makeup-free moment with Stormi is giving fans ‘baby fever’
• Gisele Bündchen makes history with a makeup-free Vogue Italia cover
• There’s a deeper meaning behind Christina Aguilera’s new makeup-free look

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