Actress Shailene Woodley, who plays Hazel Grace Lancaster, the 16-year-old cancer stricken protagonist in The Fault in Our Star, occasionally likes to go au naturel and let her underarm hair grow out.
The May/June covergirl for Natural Health magazine discussed her passion for environmentalism, herbalism and sustainable living, as well as all things natural and Earthly in her interview with the magazine.
“I find myself living in two worlds sometimes -- being this person who can walk a red carpet in a huge, fancy-ass ball gown, high heels and mountains of makeup, but also being the girl at a hippie festival in the middle of the forest with war paint on my face, dancing around with hairy armpits,” Woodley told Natural Health.
“I exist so well in both, and I used to feel like I had to choose one or the other. I struggled with that up until doing The Fault in Our Stars. I have one life to live, and it could end any minute, so I'm going to appreciate every single moment. I'm going to own my day before my day owns me," the 22-year-old naturalist added.
Woodley first became interested in environmentalism when she was in high school. She would see the pine trees around her school during lunch and look down at the ground and see the litter of trash and realized that there was something wrong with the way nature was being treated and decided she wanted to devote her life to it, according to Natural Health.
The actress who forged for wild leeks in Maine last year, has learned to eat directly from the Earth, she told Natural Health.
“I think it’s important to be a sovereign human in today’s world because there are so many things we don’t know... the fact that we are not allowed to know what’s in our food is huge. For me, having my basic necessities covered and being able to take care of myself is reassuring. If the power goes out, I know how to make a fire and where a water source is and how to find my own food,” she said.
The Divergent star is also a herbalist. She relies on the wilderness near her home in Southern California to provide her with natural, wild plants that she can gather and gather and create medicine with by herself. When Woodley first started researching and learning about herbalism she told Natural Health, “I was in control of my body and I could feel what was happening. It was eye-opening.”
According to Into the Gloss, Woodley also eats clay. ABC News stated the habit of eating clay is called geophagy. “It is possible that the binding effect of clay would cause it to absorb toxins,” said Dr. David L. Katz, nutrition expert at the Yale School of Medicine.
Mineral contents in clay vary depending on region but may contain high levels of calcium, iron, copper and magnesium which are essential for the human diet, stated ABC.
Woodley also told Into the Gloss, “Another thing I like to do is give my vagina a little vitamin D.”
It is great for preventing yeast infections and other genital issues, Woodley discovered when reading an article about herbalism.
She added, “If you’re feeling depleted, go in the sun for an hour and see how much energy you get. Or, if you live in a place that has heavy winters, when the sun finally comes out, spread your legs and get some sunshine.”
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