Actress Emma Watson doesn’t like dealing with the stress of having the perfect life and is not a fan of being called “single.”

The 29-year-old “Harry Potter” star reflected on “all these ideas” she had about where she would be by this point in her life, setting off a collective social media eye-roll when she told British Vogue that she actually considers herself “self-partnered,” and not single.

“I was like, ‘Why does everyone make such a big fuss about turning 30? This is not a big deal,'” she said in an interview with the magazine for a December cover issue.

“Cut to 29, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God, I feel so stressed and anxious.’ And I realize it’s because there is suddenly this bloody influx of subliminal messaging around,” she explained. “If you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby, and you are turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career, or you’re still figuring things out … There’s just this incredible amount of anxiety.”

The star of “Beauty and the Beast” and the upcoming “Little Women” film has had her share of relationships, such as with tech entrepreneur William ‘Mack’ Knight and Oxford University rugby player Matthew Janney. She shared that she is dating and her friends often set her up on dates as well.

“I am dating, as in not one specific person, but I am going on dates … My friends are really good at setting me up,” Watson said. “Even things that haven’t worked out romantically, some of my best friends are people I’ve gotten set up on a date with.”

But as she approaches her 30th birthday in April, the actress and activist said she is comfortable just being in a relationship with herself, using the self-empowered term she said she has coined to describe her status.

“I never believed the whole ‘I’m happy single’ spiel,” she said. “I was like, ‘This is totally spiel.’ It took me a long time, but I’m very happy [being single]. I call it ‘being self-partnered.'”

Watson, who was picked out of a lineup of children to star as Hermione Granger in the “Harry Potter” film at just nine years of age, also spoke to British Vogue about her insecurities and how her sudden fame at a young age sent her into therapy.

“That’s another thing I’ve sat in therapy and felt really, really guilty about to be honest is like, why me?” she said. “Somebody else would have enjoyed and wanted this aspect of it more than I did. I struggle with, I’ve wrestled a lot with the guilt around that. I should be enjoying this more. I should be more excited, and I’m actually really struggling.”

But it was her “self-partnered” phrase that garnered instant attention on social media, though the concept is not apparently a new one.

Australian author and “healer” Melanie Tonia Evans wrote about “self-partnering” in a blog a few years back, describing it as “Being with ourselves (our emotions) unconditionally … warts and all.”

A Seattle mother of two followed up a painful divorce by changing her name and spending thousands of dollars a few years ago to marry herself under the Eiffel Tower in Paris. And Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow used the phrase “conscious uncoupling” in 2014 after her divorce.

Twitter users weighed in on Watson’s self-love and the need for a new way to describe being single:

And that’s why she is single.

— Marc C (@MarcNYY618) November 5, 2019

I’m not in denial I just refuse to acknowledge reality

— Red Head Freddy (@fredheadred) November 5, 2019

“What do unlovable people say?” for $800, Alex

— MACK Austere Podcast (@MiddleAgedCool) November 5, 2019

Single is fine
These millennials are crazy about finding new complicated words to describe simple things
Partner already implies a pair of people engaged together in a same activity
so self partnered is super narcissistic

— Neydablack (@EaneidaBlack) November 6, 2019

Like, I’m all for labelling yourself however you want…. But that doesn’t mean I understand why people create new trendy names for EVERYTHING lol. More power to her tho

— Kiepomas (@Kiepomas) November 5, 2019

Celebrities

Sheesh

— Doug Steward (@doug_steward) November 5, 2019

Thanks to Emma Watson the term ‘self-partnered’ will now be over-used on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/ZiKgdIXfFi

— Alex Newman (@23Newms) November 5, 2019

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GONE MAD!

— Extreme Polls® – #MAWGPFI (@justvoteimo) November 5, 2019

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Frieda Powers

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Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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