Emma Watson: Why I Really Left Brown University

USMagazine, Tuesday, June 7, 2011, 11:27am (PDT)

Contrary to reports, Emma Watson's decision to leave Brown University in April had nothing to do with being bullied over her superstar status. In fact, the 21-year-old "Harry Potter" star says none of her fellow co-eds cared much about her professional life.

"It made me so sad when all this stuff came out that I left Brown because I was being bullied," she told Sunday Times Style Magazine. "It made no sense at all. Brown has been the opposite."

"I've never even been asked for an autograph on campus. I threw a party for nearly 100 students and not a single person put a photo on Facebook," she said. "Anyway, even if I was being given a hard time, I wasn't going to wuss out of university because someone said 'Wingardium leviosa' to me in a corridor, or 'Ten points for Gryffindor.' I've been dealing with the media since I was nine. If I can't stand up to a few people giving me a hard time, it's a bit pathetic, really. I've had so much worse."

So why did Watson decide to drop out of college? "I was in denial," she explained. "I wanted to pretend I wasn't as famous as I was. I was trying to seek out normality, but I kind of have to accept who I am, the position I'm in and what happened."

Though she tried creating a normal life for herself, Watson admitted she didn't have much luck in the dating department.

"I say to my friends, 'Why hasn't X called me? Why doesn't anyone ever pursue me?' They're like, 'Probably because they're intimidated.' It must be the fame wall," she said. "It must be the circus that goes around me. Me, as a person, I find it hard to believe I would be intimidating."

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