If you’re one of Anne Hathaway’s 12.9 million Instagram followers you’ll know that the Ocean’s 8 and The Princess Diaries actress is an active user.
From selfies celebrating milestones for her acting projects and posting red carpet pictures, to calling out injustice and raising awareness of issues that are important to her – Hathaway is no stranger to a long thought-out caption and a powerful hashtag.
And it turns out Hathaway has what sounds like a very healthy relationship with Instagram. In a new interview with Town and Country Magazine, Hathaway reveals that she only spends 15 minutes on Instagram per day, and tries to use the platform as a way to control the media conversation about her.
‘Having the ability to do something on my own terms has been good for me,’ she explained. ‘It has allowed me to calm down and communicate in a way that’s more clear.’
Hathaway is able to be so calm because she writes her captions and sends them with the photo or video to someone on her team who holds on to them for an hour so Hathaway can deliberate, and then sends them back to her for final approval. This distance means she doesn’t get caught up spending hours reading hurtful comments, and has time to really consider the words she’s using.
If stress does build up in Hathaway’s life, she has a unique way of dealing with it; she writes down all the things that are making her anxious, and then burns it. No, really.
‘Set a timer on your phone, have a candle nearby, and write it all down,’ she told Town and Country. ‘You spew it all out. You do not read it. The timer goes off, you tear it out of the book, and you light it on fire. Literally on fire. All of this energy, this angst, this rage—everything is smoke.’
Perhaps not the most eco-friendly solution, but it does sound therapeutic!