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Emma Watson's Facebook-streamed HeForShe Q&A session rolled on Sunday, and it contained an hour's worth of wisdom from the UN Women Goodwill Ambassador herself. Among some of the most inspirational moments, Emma addressed the fallout from her UN speech. "Within less than twelve hours," she said, "I was receiving threats." She explains how these threats only proved the urgency of gender equality:
There was a website that was set up threatening to release naked photographs of me, you know, with like a countdown and whatever else. I knew it was a hoax, I knew the pictures didn't exist. But I think a lot of people that were close to me knew gender equality was an issue, but didn't think it was particularly urgent.
The online aggression didn't set Watson back. If anything, it made her more determined. She says, "I was just, raging, it made me so angry that I was just like 'This is why I have to be doing this.'"
Watson also attributes her drive to solve the problem of gender equality to her mother, who raised her to know what is most important is not one's appearance:
I think she instilled in me, particularly in my teenage years, when I was feeling very insecure and confused about what my purpose was, she really instilled in me that what I was thinking, and what I was doing, and what I was saying were ultimately, infinitely more important than my physical appearance. Even when the world was really telling me the contrary.
The full, hour-long stream is available above.