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If there’s any actor we’d gladly take words of wisdom from, it’s the ever-soulful Oscar winner Viola Davis. She’s a performer who is as capable of being a fount of warmth in The Help (even if she has good reason for regretting that role) as she is a force of nature in The Woman King.
The acting legend offered up some sage advice through a recent Instagram post, in which she posited this question to her 12 million followers:
You meet your 18 year old self, you are allowed to say 3 words…what do you say?
The 58-year-old star captioned the post with her own answer: “You are worthy,” and the fan-favorite Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes star was far from the only celebrity to respond to the wistful prompt, with many taking to the comments section of Davis’ Instagram post with their own advice for their younger selves.
Many echoed Viola’s heartful sentiment, with Davis’ United States of Tara co-star Toni Collette offering herself an all-caps reminder:
I. LOVE. YOU.
Grammy-winning R&B singer SZA added the always-helpful admonition:
It’s not personal
And Trigger Warning actress–slash–baby brand mogul Jessica Alba referenced how the passing years can help soften those youthful dramas and disappointments.
Time always heals
But other commenters took the more comedic route, with quips about everything from SPF to student loans:
- “Don’t marry Greg” – @glendahorodyski
- “NO STUDENT LOANS” – @tonybaker
- “Don’t overpluck eyebrows” – @gailyhyl70
- “Always wear sunscreen!” – @alicia.b
- “You are gay” – @itsmeabesh_
- “Slow down, Sparky” – @spencergarrett1
- “Listen to adults” – @cassiecrumps
- “Wear the condom!!!!!!” – @glauciamarolla
Celebrity stylist and costume designer Karla Welch, who dresses everyone from Olivia Wilde to Tracee Ellis Ross to Justin Bieber, had a particularly hilarious addition:
That’s enough mushrooms 🍄
But even better was the hilarious response from The Roots drummer and The Tonight Show bandleader Questlove, who replied to Welch:
Never enough mushrooms
Along with that reply, Questlove (a.k.a. Ahmir K. Thompson) added his own advice for young Ahmir, jokingly writing:
INVEST IN UBER!!!!!
Given that the multimillionaire musician-filmmaker has scored an Oscar alongside a slew of Grammys, we think Quest is doing pretty well with or without those Uber investments.
Things are clearly going well for O.G. poster Viola Davis, too, with the actress having several upcoming projects in the can, including the upcoming action thriller G20, the animated flick Kung Fu Panda 4, and the DC Comics-based TV series Creature Commandos, which will reportedly hit Max later this year.
Prior to her stirring Instagram post, David previously discussed what she would tell her younger self while chatting to ET’s Kevin Frazier about her memoir Finding Me:
I thought I was everything those boys called me. I thought I was the poverty, I thought I was the bedwetting, I thought [the domestic violence] was because of me. I didn’t have a lot of people at that time telling me that I was beautiful [and] that there were possibilities for my life, you know. I think that people automatically assume that kids have that language and we don’t. We cannot deal with anything in the abstract. I wish I had the imagination to see the future, you know?…I would tell the young Viola to hold on.
Given the powerhouse that Viola Davis would grow up up to become, we’re all glad she did!