Mara Wilson Displays on Bullying Michelle Trachtenberg Confronted as a Teen: ‘Harriet the B–ch’

In an emotional tribute shared to Vulture Tuesday, Wilson described how she and Trachtenberg — who was discovered useless in her New York Metropolis residence on February 26 on the age of 39 — grew to become mates within the ’90s after she starred in Matilda and Trachtenberg in Harriet the Spy.

Wilson recalled how she, Trachtenberg and different baby stars, together with Jerry Maguire‘s Jonathan Lipnicki, shaped an in depth friendship group and would typically hang around.

“Not solely was she good, I noticed, however she was remarkably clever,” Wilson wrote. “But she managed to not be condescending and did not attempt to impress with huge phrases, the best way different children (together with me) may need. She was good, however she was additionally self-possessed, and did not want to point out off.”

She additionally recalled how Trachtenberg was there for her after her mother died.

“That April of 1997, whereas we have been on the movie pageant, marked one 12 months since my mom had died,” she continued. “Being with the group in New York felt protected, the one place my mom’s absence did not hang-out me. Nonetheless, on the anniversary of her loss of life, I burst into tears. Michelle and everybody else rallied round me, giving me hugs and doing no matter they might to make me snort.”

The pair would later go on to attend the identical center college in Los Angeles, the place she stated the Buffy the Vampire Slayer star pulled her apart in the future and requested, “‘Are the children right here imply to you?'”

In tears, Trachtenberg continued, “‘As a result of they’re to me… They name me Harriet the Slut, Harriet the B–ch, Harriet the B–chy Spy… and a lot worse. They by no means cease.”

Although Wilson remembers that “all people fell in love with Michelle Trachtenberg,” it was her fame and that uber-friendly demeanor that triggered her to be misunderstood at school.

“Each time I even heard somebody say ‘Michelle Trachtenberg,’ a child would leap in to say that they’d heard she was imply, filled with herself, a complete b–ch.”

Wilson stated she typically got here to her protection, telling the merciless children: “‘She’s not… she’s very nice!'” writing that she discovered it tough to “reconcile” the names Trachtenberg was being referred to as “with the Michelle I would identified, the one who was by no means something however heat and type.”

Wilson had “by no means seen Michelle cry earlier than” the day she confided in her in school, which led her to the conclusion: “A lot of being a toddler actor is about making everybody pleased. It felt cruelly ironic to be so hated when our raison d’être was getting folks to love us.”

Trachtenberg shared her expertise with bullying earlier than her passing, taking to Instagram in 2020 to open up concerning the challenges that she confronted rising up as a child in Hollywood, and the way that impacted her relationships in a while in life.

As an grownup, Trachtenberg was open about her expertise of childhood bullying, and concerning the challenges that fame poses to interpersonal relationships at the same time as you age.

Sharing a photograph of herself throughout her Harriet the Spy days, Trachtenberg wrote, “Again in my day all the children needed to write a bulls–t Valentine’s Day card to everybody within the class. I by no means acquired one on function, everybody acquired a valentine card. Nobody ever gave me one and so they thought I did not want the eye. The children and employees all laughed and thought everybody else ought to get one, being an actress since I used to be 3, apparently I did not want one.”

“The children have been merciless… I nonetheless have scars from being thrown down stairs and slammed into lockers head first,” she continued. “However summoning the brave optimism that outlined a few of her greatest characters, resolved, “There isn’t any must harp on the previous… I write this to each baby, teen, individual, on the market who’s bullied. You might be one thing.”

Whereas she was stated to be combating issues from a liver transplant, an actual explanation for loss of life for Trachtenberg remains to be unknown, because the actress’ household objected to an post-mortem.

Trachtenberg is survived by her dad and mom, her sister and her boyfriend, Jay Cohen.