Julianne Moore Responds to Trump Administration’s Decision to Remove Her Children’s Book from Some Schools

“I can’t help but won­der what is so con­tro­ver­sial about this pic­ture book that cause it to be banned by the US Gov­ern­ment.”

Actor Julianne Moore has respond­ed to the news that her chil­dren’s book, Freck­le­face Straw­ber­ry, was among the titles being reviewed and poten­tial­ly removed from some schools under the admin­is­tra­tion of Don­ald Trump. The Depart­ment of Defense report­ed­ly issued a memo last Mon­day, as report­ed by The Guardian, indi­cat­ing that cer­tain books in Pen­ta­gon schools serv­ing mil­i­tary fam­i­lies were being scru­ti­nized for con­tent “poten­tial­ly relat­ed to gen­der ide­ol­o­gy or dis­crim­i­na­to­ry equi­ty ide­ol­o­gy top­ics.” Julian­ne’s 2007 book, which encour­ages self-accep­tance and cel­e­brates indi­vid­u­al­i­ty, was flagged for “fur­ther review.” It remains unclear whether the book has been per­ma­nent­ly removed or is still under con­sid­er­a­tion, but the deci­sion could impact approx­i­mate­ly 67,000 chil­dren.

On Insta­gram, Julianne shared her reac­tion to the news, express­ing her dis­be­lief and dis­ap­point­ment. She explained that Freck­le­face Straw­ber­ry is a semi-auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal sto­ry about a sev­en-year-old girl who learns to embrace her freck­les and accept her unique­ness. Julianne wrote, “It is a book I wrote for my chil­dren and for oth­er kids to remind them that we all strug­gle, but are unit­ed by our human­i­ty and our com­mu­ni­ty.”

The Oscar-win­ning actress also high­light­ed her per­son­al con­nec­tion to the Depart­ment of Defense schools, not­ing that she attend­ed Frank­furt Amer­i­can High School in Ger­many as the daugh­ter of a Viet­nam vet­er­an and U.S. Army offi­cer. She expressed pride in her father’s ser­vice but lament­ed that chil­dren in sim­i­lar cir­cum­stances might now be denied access to her book. “I am tru­ly sad­dened and nev­er thought I would see this in a coun­try where free­dom of speech and expres­sion is a con­sti­tu­tion­al right,” she con­clud­ed.

Celebri­ties, includ­ing Halle Berry, Bel­la Thorne, and Dylan Mul­vaney, voiced their sup­port in the com­ments, with many echo­ing Julian­ne’s con­cerns about cen­sor­ship and the impact on young read­ers. The sit­u­a­tion has sparked broad­er dis­cus­sions about the impor­tance of diverse voic­es and sto­ries in chil­dren’s lit­er­a­ture.