Latest news with #ChloéHayden
Refinery29
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Refinery29
Chloé Hayden Wants A World Where Women Aren't Told They're ‘Too Much'
Heartbreak High star Chloé Hayden is unapologetically herself. She's open about how neurodivergence makes her "different, not less", and is a fierce advocate for disability rights in Australia. However, the world wasn't always a safe space for the author when she was growing up. After being told off by "almost every teacher" at school, being given detention for "correcting teachers on misinformation", being called "dramatic and difficult" when classroom lights were overwhelming, Hayden began to "shrink" herself to fit a mould. "Grown-ups would often express concern to my parents about me not fitting in with other kids, about being too sensitive for my age, about being too different. That same sentiment was echoed by the kids around me; all considering me to be too much, too weird, too different," she tells Refinery29 Australia. "These experiences led me to mask, trying desperately to fit into a mould that was never meant for me. For years after that, I tried to shrink myself, but you can only silence your sparkle for so long." Hayden is now partnering with LEGO Australia on the She Built That initiative, and is acting as a mentor for three young Aussie girls challenging the status quo and building a more inclusive future. "In Australia, women are marginalised and undermined in almost every aspect you can think of; and young girls are not immune to that — they see it, they hear it, they soak it in. It is so far beyond time now that we rewrite the narrative, and that young girls soak in that they can do anything they put their minds to," Hayden says. ' It is so far beyond time now that we rewrite the narrative, and that young girls soak in that they can do anything they put their minds to. ' The actor is nominated for a Silver Logie for Best Supporting Actress this year, after portraying Quinni in Heartbreak High for a second season. Her success in the Australian media industry has meant a great deal to those in the disabled community, especially with the historical lack of representation. "Growing up, I never saw people like me on screen, and it made me feel like I wasn't supposed to be here. Being nominated for a Logie is proof that disabled people do belong in this industry," she says. "I hope there's a little girl that's just like little Chloé, and I hope a spark goes off in her brain that makes her say, 'Huh, if she can do that, I bet I can, too!'" So, aside from representation in Australian media, how can we encourage girls and young women to embrace what makes them unique? Hayden believes it comes down to viewing differences as "strengths" rather than "deficits". "This involves educating ourselves and others about neurodiversity, promoting inclusive environments, and challenging stereotypes. By celebrating individuality and encouraging self-expression, we can create a society where everyone feels valued and understood," she tells R29. "It so deeply saddens me to think about the sheer amount of young women and neurodivergent girls who were not given an opportunity for greatness because of a society that condemns difference." Parents of daughters, teachers, and community leaders have a role to play, too. Young girls can be impressionable, and it's important to be aware of what messages you're putting out to the world. Hayden says girls need to learn their voices are important, especially if they aren't following a traditional path. "By fostering confidence and resilience, you're empowering them to make a difference in the world," she adds. "Kids are so much more intelligent in every way than we give them credit for. God, I want a 10-year-old girl for Prime Minister." It's clear Hayden is passionate about her latest partnership, because she wants a world where all women have the freedom to be themselves. "When we force people into narrow boxes of what's 'normal' or 'acceptable', we risk losing the richness of diverse perspectives. And often, diversity is where greatness stems from. No one ever made greatness happen by being like everyone else," she says. "She Built That is a platform for girls, that tells them they can be themselves wholly from day one, and that they don't need to change at all. That's a world I want to live in."
News.com.au
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- News.com.au
Chloé Hayden on the end of Heartbreak High, her Logie nomination and what's next
While her portrayal as an autistic young woman in the Netflix series Heartbreak High has earned her attention from all corners of the globe, Chloé Hayden is thrilled to get homegrown recognition after being nominated for the Silver Logie for Best Supporting Actress. As a self-confessed 'fangirl' of the Logie Awards, the actor says just being able to once again attend the ceremony – she was also nominated for Most Popular New Talent in 2023 – is exciting enough. 'I grew up watching the awards. I was that teenager who would camp out in front of the red carpets so I could maybe make eye contact with my favourite singers and actors,' the 27-year-old tells Stellar with a laugh. 'The first event I ever went to as someone in the industry, I saw a security guard there who I had met multiple years previously, but I had been on the other side of the fence then. 'And he looked at me, now on this side of the fence, and he's like, 'How the hell did you get in here?' I was like, 'I don't know, man, I'm just as confused as you are.' 'Just being in the same room – and getting to have a fun night with all of my friends – that's amazing.' Those friends include the rest of the cast of Heartbreak High, all of whom have formed a close bond with one another across the five years they spent filming the show, which is set to conclude with its upcoming third season 'We get told all the time by people in the industry how lucky we are and how rare it is to be able to go to work with a group of people who you genuinely love so, so much. 'These people aren't even my friends; they're my family,' Hayden says. 'Wrapping season three was one of the hardest things I ever had to do. But look, it's a small industry. 'I know we'll all be together again in one way or another. It's been incredibly bittersweet.' Saying goodbye to her castmates has been as hard as saying farewell to her character, Quinni. Hayden, who was diagnosed with autism at 13, tells Stellar that Quinni 'has changed me and shaped me and will stay with me in every way. I grew up never having any autistic characters on screen that I could relate to'. 'The closest thing that we had to autism representation when I was little was What's Eating Gilbert Grape? and Rain Man. 'So having teenage girls be able to see themselves in a character like Quinni – who is nuanced and imperfect, who is like them, and who they can relate to – is life-changing.' More recently, Hayden took on a different kind of role as official ambassador for Lego Australia's new 'She Built That' campaign, which encourages young girls to redefine and reclaim what it means to be a builder, and celebrates their creativity. The campaign also champions Australian girls who are making strides in their communities, like Aurora Iler, 14, a filmmaker, writer, actor and Youth Oscar winner; Abbie Jane, 14, an LGBTQIA+ activist, author and founder of the Rainbow Shoelace Project, and Charli Hately, 15, a surfer, artist and musician. 'Growing up as someone who was always told I was too much – too loud and too weird – it's really exciting to be seeing young girls being told that their 'too much' is actually exactly what they're supposed to be,' Hayden tells Stellar. 'They're building incredible things now, and for their futures. They are enough. This campaign is really helping showcase that in themselves, and I think in turn, being able to showcase that to other young girls around Australia who maybe haven't been taught yet that their version of different is a good thing. 'A lot of girls are taught to hide their 'muchness'. But your difference is what makes you powerful.' For more on Lego Australia's 'She Built That' campaign click here. See the full shoot with Chloé Hayden in Stellar today, inside The Sunday Telegraph (NSW), Sunday Herald Sun (Victoria), The Sunday Mail (Queensland) and Sunday Mail (SA).
The Guardian
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Heartbreak High's Chloé Hayden: ‘I left the op-shop bawling my eyes out'
In a bunker in Sydney's north-west, the Heartbreak High actor Chloé Hayden poses on a white circular plinth. Pink Pony Club by Chappell Roan – one of Hayden's favourite artists – is playing on repeat, and the revolving floor beneath her is surrounded by objects: an old wooden rocking horse, a tattered teddy and a pair of embroidered suede Miu Miu boots. Hayden is filming a video for a new exhibition at the Powerhouse museum, one she has co-curated about textural objects. Every object in the exhibition has been selected by the 27-year-old from the Powerhouse's vast collection. 'All of the objects here represent me in some form – the cows are my favourite,' she says, referring to ornate miniature cattle dating back to the 1870s, made from papier-mache, beeswax and cow hair. 'It's very common for autistic people to build connections with inanimate objects, and these cows are very similar to the toy animals I have at home.' The fragile figurines will be on display in a new exhibition series titled Powerhouse Materials. Hayden is the inaugural guest curator for the series, which showcases a fraction of the items from the 500,000-plus objects in the museum's collection. Hayden was given the theme 'textiles'; later in the year, children's author Andy Griffiths will curate an iteration with the theme 'paper'. Sign up for the fun stuff with our rundown of must-reads, pop culture and tips for the weekend, every Saturday morning Hayden spent a month working with the museum to whittle down a long list of objects to 17 items, including a child's Annie Oakley costume from the 1950s and a silk chiffon Barrier Reef dress and accompanying seaweed cape by the fashion designer Linda Jackson. It's Hayden's first time working with an institution on a project of this scale. 'Chloé is an activist and advocate for many things, including her personal style and sensibility,' says Clare Holland, director of program at the Powerhouse. 'Her unique way of engaging with the world has shaped the materials she has chosen.' Hayden, who is nominated for a silver Logie this year for best supporting actress as Heartbreak High's Quinni, frequently shares TikTok videos of her colourful and textural outfits, as well as her experiences with autism, ADHD and chronic illness. Quinni has been a 'huge part of my identity', says Hayden, 'but it's one facet'. 'I feel like I wear many faces. The one I know – that my family, husband and friends know – isn't the face the public knows. This is Chloé,' she says, gesturing to her clothing and the items around her. Since finishing filming the third and final season of Heartbreak High (out later this year), Chloé is reconnecting with her first love, horses, on her farm in regional Victoria. Hayden says horse riding was her 'whole identity' before the Netflix series. 'Now no one even knows that about me.' One of the Powerhouse collection items she has chosen to represent her country lifestyle is a men's Driza-Bone jacket, gifted to the museum in 1994. 'My first Driza-Bone was one my mum wore when she was a little girl … I wear one every winter when I ride my horse.' She competes in an equestrian sport called Extreme Cowboys. 'The best way I can describe it is like an agility course for dogs – but you're on a 500-kilo animal. You have to do the obstacles as fast as you can, as accurately as you can,' she says. Sign up to Saved for Later Catch up on the fun stuff with Guardian Australia's culture and lifestyle rundown of pop culture, trends and tips after newsletter promotion Her mother, Sarah Hayden, who wrote Parenting Different about raising neurodiverse children, runs an equine therapy clinic. In the book, her daughter writes that 'riding with a group of 'cowboys', who … only judged me on how I rode and loved my horse, gave me a time in my week to stop masking and just be Chloé'. Embracing her special interests – animals, horse riding, fashion – come through in the items she has selected, such as a skin-tight green Jordan Gogos outfit made of fabric scraps. 'I think fashion should be fun,' she says. 'We play dress-ups as kids and we forget how to play dress-ups when we grow up.' Today she's wearing an embellished halterneck and miniskirt by Camilla, created in collaboration with Wicked the Musical. Another connecting thread is toys and childhood nostalgia. For the exhibition, Hayden chose a Japanese teddy from 1927, a Mickey Mouse soft toy and a silk-printed teddy bear backpack designed by Akira Isogawa. She says she gets emotionally attached to toy animals. At home, Hayden has accumulated 140 model horses by Breyer and Schleich – a collection only outdone by her teddy bears. 'I have 150 of them,' she says. 'When I was 18 I went to an op-shop and found this mangled teddy bear deer. He was missing an eye and his ear was off, but I had to have him. 'I left the op-shop bawling my eyes out. My mum, knowing what I was like, drove an hour back to the op-shop just so I could pay the lady 50 cents and take this deer home.' She still has the op-shop deer. 'Once they come home with me they never leave, that's why I have 150.' Overall, the Powerhouse exhibition is a way for Hayden's fans to see all her passions together, in material form and not just in a 30-second reel. 'I think there are definitely things that people who don't know me intimately would go, 'That's an interesting choice' but people that know me would go, 'This is the most Chloé exhibit you could ever think of.'' Powerhouse Materials: Textiles is at Powerhouse Castle Hill from 28 June to 9 November
ABC News
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- ABC News
Actor and disability advocate Chloé Hayden is learning to prioritise what matters
Unwind with… is a regular column that explores the simple ways interesting people take care of themselves through periods of change or upheaval. Actor and disability advocate Chloé Hayden lives in regional Victoria on Wadawurrung Country. The 27-year-old stars as Quinni on Heartbreak High, with the show's third and final season streaming this year. Chloé says the entertainment industry is exciting to work in, but it's "also really difficult when you're neurodivergent and rely so heavily on routine". Chloé was diagnosed as autistic in her adolescence and lives with postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), endometriosis and adenomyosis. "I'm a lot better at looking after and respecting my neurodivergent brain," she says. "I don't yet have the same grace for a sick body." But she's learning to rest and make room for what she loves beyond work. When I go out to be with my horses is probably when I feel the happiest. Or, when I let myself relax. Not the pretend relaxing where I'm telling my body that we're relaxing but my brain is going over a million things that I must do or that I'm feeling ...when I'm just reading a book or playing a video game, truly being-in-the-moment relaxing. Since getting [the role of Quinni], my horses were put on the back burner. That was very scary and honestly caused a pretty big identity crisis. I'm a competitive horse rider and I can't train my horses up knowing that I might have to [be called back to work before a competition]. I just went,"well, I guess I just won't do anything with them because there's too much emotion and heartbreak if I have to [leave for work] again". I was then really confused when I was sad and anxious all the time. I sat down and I spoke to some people, and I realised that there was no reason why I couldn't have both. I just wasn't prioritising things that I needed to prioritise. I'm still trying to figure it out and learn when I need to stop. I'm also trying to learn when I need to accept help from other people. I know what does help is switching off and respecting when my body is giving me signals to stop and taking that time off to rest. Lying on the couch with my cats all over me and playing a video game and letting my husband look after me completely, giving in to going "you're not broken or wrong, you don't hold less value or worth because you're letting someone help you out". I can't cook to save myself, but my husband knows my safe [comfort] foods. My mum's dal recipe is a big safe food. If I'm having a shitty day, he usually knows before I do. He'll make sure that I'm eating and drinking throughout the day because it will get worse if I'm not looking after my physical body. I love being in the bush, I love having open fields around me, I love being away from everyone and being able to see the stars at night and being able to have all of my horses surrounding me. You couldn't convince me to ever live in the city.
