Are the Olsens Misanthropic or Simply Introverts Forced Into the Spotlight?

To begin with, a quick reminder: Mary-Kate and Ashley didn't choose fame, fame chose them.

Which is to say, the Olsen twins didn't become child stars because they were charismatic and outgoing tykes with a knack for memorization and voices like angels. Nope, not at all. The first (and last, at least in Ashley's case) audition went as such: "The producers held us and we didn't cry," Mary-Kate shared. That's it.

At all of nine months old, the Olsen babies did end up crying on set a lot, which almost led to John Stamos getting them fired from Full House. And though they grew into their role, the girls were force-fed lines by their baby-wrangler and Ashley was initially too scared to do most scenes.

These kids were not "naturals" when it came to show business. They were just flaxen-haired cuties that came with the marketable packaging of being duplicates.

From the days of Full House, Mary-Kate and Ashley constantly had people in their face.

Again for the people in the back, that means since they were nine months old. And an early '90s TV profile on the twins alludes to how claustrophobic their space is. "Mary-Kate and Ashley are thoroughly used to playing Michelle tag-team style," the narrator monotones. "On production days they're chauffeured to Lorimar studios, and met by their nanny, drama coach, and best of all make-up artist."

Yeah, I'm looking at that 4-year-old Olsen's expression and that does not scream "best of all." Like even with their current reputations as fashionistas, I can't buy a child loving their quality time with a blending sponge. Moreover, the narrator fails to mention MK & A's quality time with their baby-wrangler, biological parents, studio audience, butcher, baker, and candlestick maker.

To further that, all of their early interviews show that the girls are not at ease.

We're going to get into this a lot later, but to preemptively touch upon this, it says a lot that they even had to be given responses to recite. The twins just look very stiff and uncomfortable, and we can't blame them. How many times do you think they had to answer, "Which one's Mary-Kate, and which one's Ashley?" over the course of their career?

The Olsen twins became quietly wary of their fans from the get-go.

An early interview has the sisters in questionable brown outfits looking lethargic and a fraction grumpy as the interviewer asks if they're regular girls. They give an unconvincing "no," reminding us all that the twins are not great actresses. But wait a minute, when asked what their fans commonly say to them, they put on amazing impressions. "Can I have your autograph, can I have your autograph," Ashley mockingly says in her tiny voice, while Mary-Kate disdainfully adds. "Take a picture."

That is f–king hysterical. And also kind of dark.

Fan fascination with little Mary-Kate and Ashley grew on as the girls grew up…and took a scary turn.

An interview with the then-teenage Olsens parallels their earlier discomfort with fans, but they've now learned to laugh at it. Even though, as Mary-Kate elaborates, their fanbase has gotten intensely perverted.

"Like the big creepy men who like follow you everywhere who are like, 'Can I have your picture?'" Mary-Kate explains. "And they're like 40 years old and they're like sweating and they have these pictures of us when we're like 12."

Ew, stop.

Mary-Kate and Ashley have been bombarded by paparazzi, and have never learned to ward them off gracefully.

Or wait, pause. I want to go on the record saying I couldn't imagine how you "ward them off gracefully." All I'm saying is that despite being subjected to flashing bulbs since infancy, the girls have never gotten used to that bombardment. Things got worse, not better, when they reached adulthood. While they attended NYU, their life became a constant reel of getting photographed with Starbucks

"Honestly, I’m a wreck," Ashley confessed "Every time I see a camera, I’m a wreck. I don’t tend to react as though 'I have to do this, it’s my job.' I am reacting as a woman who is 5- foot-1 whose space is being invaded by a bunch of men whose aggression I can literally feel."

The Olsen twins, particularly Mary-Kate, have a reputation for shrinking in the spotlight during sit-down interviews.

The girls are both very cautious about how their words will be interpreted in the media and don't try to betray too much. There's one fascinating piece in The Guardian from 2006 that makes much-to-do about Mary-Kate's skittishness. "So I've been talking to the public relations people, and their main thrust has been that I should go easy on Mary-Kate," it reveals. "One woman told me that she was like — I forget the exact wording — an animal: easily spooked. When spooked, she might close down entirely."

The article also makes a point to say that MK is not only diminutive in form but "has the air of being painfully shy, perhaps a little frightened, or maybe just zoned out." And it is so scary thinking about this teensy creature constantly dodging the constant attention.

Despite their commitment to being businesswomen, they desperately need their alone time.

Although I'd argue that the Olsen twins never get sick of each other's company, they do need a break from everyone else in order to recharge. "I ride horses on the weekends," Mary-Kate said in an interview with The Edit. "You find the thing that helps you relax and if you don't have it, you have to look for it. Or you get burned out and then you’re not productive."

Fear of social burn out; stars, they're just like me! You know, except for that whole horse riding thing.

And despite their commitment to The Row and Elizabeth & James, they feel insecure when they have to attend fashion shows.

That sounds wildly inconvenient given their whole career change, and yet we can understand that the crowd could just be their least favorite part of a bigger picture. "I don’t like going to shows, it’s so overwhelming," Mary-Kate confessed to Nylon in 2008. "I want to be there to enjoy the clothes but don’t want to have to worry about the way I look or the chaos."

Today, Mary-Kate and Ashley don't have social media, which can be interpreted in one of two ways.

In her own words, Ashley reinforced that lacking an online presence is very much a choice. "We don’t dive into that world [of social media]; we don’t have Instagram or Facebook," she explained. "So we’ve never been connected to our customers or our fans in that way. We’ve stayed quite sheltered."

Basically, you could look at that as a declaration that Mary-Kate and Ashley don't feel they owe their fans another sneak peek into their private lives. After years of being pried and poked at, they want, they need to keep some things to themselves.

Or, you could take them shunning social media as a way to shut out the constant presence of others in their lives. Without falling into various networks, Mary-Kate and Ashley can truly disconnect from the world, and that must be freeing to them.

And let's talk about Mary-Kate and Ashley's infamous hand squeezes.

We've talked about this before, but to recap, Mary-Kate and Ashley were caught rhythmically grasping each other's hands at a showing of The Row's Fall 2018 collection. It was later uncovered via an old E! interview that this is the Olsens' way of saying "I love you" to each other.

There might be a bit more insight into this via a circulated Mary-Kate quote, "When Ash and I are at a premiere and they’re taking photos of us, she squeezes my hand 3 times to say ‘I love you’ and I squeeze her hand back 4 times to say ‘I love you too!’"

I think its telling that the girls are always hand-in-hand on the red carpet and that they have this secret signal. It's definitely a message of support or encouragement for when either of them is feeling anxious and overwhelmed, and with 30+ years of fame, that insecurity is still there.

Final verdict: The Olsen twins have always shown signs of shyness, but time and terrorizing is what made them reclusive.

You know what, though? I really think they've earned the right to be shut off to the world after literal decades of public scrutiny. These girls were never given a choice — or not a real choice — to be anything but a brand. That's even the case with their fashion career, when that brand extended to labels like The Row or Elizabeth and James. They had to force themselves to become media-savvy, which is only successful because the Olsen twins are intelligent, not outgoing. So it's natural that now, with more control over their lives than ever, they only allow people in on their terms. It makes further sense that the only company they thoroughly relish is one another's.

That's as I can spin yarn after yarn about the Olsen mystique, and will probably do so as long as there are bills to pay. That's just the reality of my life. But the reality of their life, of what it means to be an Olsen twin, can only be understood by an Olsen twin. At the end of the day, Mary-Kate and Ashley are the only ones who know what the other has gone through because they did it together. And hopefully, they'll be holding each other's hands through whatever's to come next.

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