Moore Freckles

SLJ speaks to actress Julianne Moore about her first children’s book, Freckleface Strawberry (Bloomsbury, 2007)—and how she came to grips with her own freckles.

Your book has a nice message about self-acceptance. Did you hate having freckles?

Yeah, and I still hate them! So many books, not just kids’ books but adult novels, talk about there being something about yourself that you don’t like or you’re uncomfortable with. You grow up, and either it goes away or you just learn to love it. I have a family and I have a job and I have things that I love in my life, so it goes to the bottom of the list. It’s not as important anymore.

You're writing a second Freckleface story.

It’s called Freckleface and the Ball, about Freckleface Strawberry and her fear of balls [on the playground]. My manager started to laugh at me. She said, “So you’re just going to work your way through each childhood trauma?”

Were you a reader growing up?

I spent a lot of time in libraries as a kid. We moved constantly. So the first place my mother brought us to was the library, and I basically spent all my free time there as a kid.

Do your kids have freckles?

Not like I do! That’s why the dedication says “to my own little, not-so-frecklefaced strawberries.”