Shailene Woodley has come a very long way since her breakout role in The Secret Life of the American Teenager . Since then we have seen her in The Fault In Our Stars , Divergent , Adrift , and, thankfully, more roles to come!
But here are a few facts about her that fans may not know yet!
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1. She prefers not to wash her hair.
Nowadays, it’s becoming more and more common for people to avoid using shampoo by washing their hair as infrequently as possible, and Shailene is one of those people.
She told Into The Gloss that the oilier her hair is, “the better.”
2. She hates *Twilight*.
“‘Twilight,’ I’m sorry, is about a very unhealthy, toxic relationship. She falls in love with this guy and the second he leaves her, her life is over and she’s going to kill herself! What message are we sending to young people? That is not going to help this world evolve,” she told Teen Vogue .
3. She eats clay every day.
While this may sound bizarre to you, there are (apparently) some health benefits to eating clay — in small quantities of course.
After a taxi driver told her that some women in Africa eat clay to stay healthy, Shailene hopped on the bandwagon as well. She eats it daily .
4. Up until she landed her role in *The Descendants*, she was working at American Apparel.
In an interview on Chelsea Lately , Shailene revealed that even though she had already gained some clout from her role in The Secret Life of the American Teenager back in 2008, she decided to continue working her regular, retail job until she got cast in The Descendants .
5. She almost turned down her part in *Divergent*.
“I said no, and everybody was shocked,” she told Teen Vogue .
“I asked Jennifer Lawrence, ‘Are you happy with your choice to take on The Hunger Games ?,’ And she said she wouldn’t change it for the world,” which is what ultimately led to Shailene accepting the offer.
6. Whenever she needs a boost in morale, she listens to old Disney songs.
She admitted in an interview with E! Online that she finds the lyrics in Disney music to be uplifting, and to contain positive, inspiring messages.
“If you listen to the lyrics, they actually have incredibly valuable lessons for human beings to learn,” she said.
7. She was named after a random person’s license plate.
“My name came from a license plate, actually. My mom was driving when she was 18, she was in traffic on the freeway, and the car in front of her the license plate said ‘Shai,'” she told Just Jared .
“And then it had a bunch of numbers,” she went on.
“She doesn’t even know if it was supposed to be pronounced as Shai, but she created that in her mind.”
What a unique baby-naming method! Maybe more people should be doing that.
8. She does not use microwaves.
“I was 14, and my grandma is a naturopath, and she took my blood—she does live blood and cell analysis. She was like, ‘You should probably eat more vegetables, and microwaves are not great for you,'” she told BlackBook .
“And so I started doing research, and I haven’t used a microwave since. And that kind of kicked off eating vegetables.”
9. She thinks learning through life experience can be more valuable than going to college.
In an interview with Vanity Fair back in 2012, she revealed that even though she did have every intention of eventually going to college, she wants to play things by ear.
She wants to spend some time gaining life experience through new hobbies, traveling, and building things by hand.
10. She doesn’t consider herself to be a “girlie girl.”
“I’m not a girlie girl at all. I never wear dresses. I’m always in either long, baggy skirts that I can still do ‘crisscross applesauce’ in, or blue jeans,” she told Malibu .
“I’m very lucky to work with a stylist who cares about fashion, because I don’t at all,” she added.
“And I’m very lucky to have a makeup artist and hair guy who are really good at what they do, because I would go to events with no makeup and no hair and in pajamas if I could. “
11. If she weren’t an actress, she believes she would still have a very happy, successful life doing something else that she loves.
In an interview with Marie Claire , she explained that, while she loves acting, if it had never panned out she would have most likely pursued a career as an herbalist instead.
12. She prefers to live off the land.
Unlike the majority of us who drink our water from the tap and buy our food from the grocery store, Shailene would much rather gather her own spring water from the mountains and farm her own food.
13. She aspires to be a “drifter.”
“I’m so young, and I’m single, and I just want to drift. I’m just going to be a drifter,” she told Elle .
“I want to do something totally different before Insurgent. Maybe I’ll work in a tea shop. Or live in Amsterdam. Or be a nanny. Life experience only helps us as actors. I need new experiences to draw upon.”
14. She’s not happy about the direction *The Secret Life* took.
Shailene told Bustle , “There were a lot of things that were written into the scripts that not just me, but a lot of the cast, disagreed with,” and claimed she didn’t like the pro-abstinence stance much of the show took.
15. She has some interesting tanning habits.
Shailene has revealed that she fights off yeast infections by tanning and getting sun on her…lady parts .
I hope she doesn’t end up with an unfortunate burn, like Josh Brolin did !
16. Shailene can control her dreams.
Shailene has revealed that she partakes in lucid dreaming, which is a type of dreaming where one maintains full control over the plot and actions of the dreams.
I’m pretty jealous!
17. She makes her own toothpaste.
Shailene prefers to make her own toothpaste with a very natural recipe and says that one of the bonuses of this method is that you can swallow the toothpaste when you’re finished “to get a dose of minerals.”
18. Shailene had scoliosis when she was younger and had to wear a back brace.
Shailene said she was able to laugh off the stress after a friend pointed out her spine didn’t look quite right when she was younger . Her case was not severe enough to require surgery and eventually, a brace corrected the issue.
19. She’s hard to get in contact with.
Shailene revealed that she doesn’t really own a home phone or a cell phone permanently and, according to the interviewer, prefers “to couch-surf at her friends’ houses,” rather than have her own stable place.
20. She gives strange hugs.
An interviewer revealed that Shailene had a unique style of hugging, writing, “With every stranger, she embraced the right side of the body and then the left, to give equal time, as she sees it, to both sides of the heart.”
21. She’s not married to the idea of monogamy.
Shailene revealed that she’s had many styles of relationships , saying, “Listen, I’m someone who has experienced both an open relationship and a deeply monogamous relationship in my life, and I think we’re in a day and age where there should be no rules except for the ones designed by two people in a partnership — or three people, whatever floats your boat.”
