After casually throwing together a hugely impressive essay on intersectionality earlier this year, 14-year-old Rowan Blanchard has already cemented her status as a young feminist icon. The Girl Meets World actress has clearly and coherently spoken out against homophobia, police brutality and the violence faced by trans POC, in a way that gives you a belly-warming hope for our future.

Now though, she’s shining a light on a more subtle form of everyday sexism: being told to “smile”. In an exasperated series of tweets, Blanchard took on the trolls who had been accusing her of being too miserable and “depressed” in her selfies. “Stop telling me to smile on Instagram,” she wrote on Sunday evening.“I'm going insaaannnneeee.”

“I post on my Instagram what I like. if I want to smile I will!! Nothing more than that.”

The actress also addressed the offensive nature of these kinds of comments, noting that they spread unhelpful myths about people who actually do suffer from mental illness. Given that 20 per cent of us actually do experience depression as a teenager, this feels like a very important point. 

“Depression is a serious a personal thing that affects a ton of people,” she added. “Funny how people think my Instagram means I'm depressed, yet when people who are actually depressed talk about their depression people make light of it and say that they are ‘overreacting’”.

See all the tweets below: