Ariel—also known as The Little Mermaid—once asked, “What’s a fire and why does it—what’s the word—burn?” I don’t know the answer to that question but what I do know is that there is a fire burning inside of the actress who will be portraying Ariel in the upcoming live-action film—Halle Bailey.
Who often ignites that fire? Anyone who tries to come for her big sister, Chloe.
On Tuesday, Halle promptly gathered a Twitter user by their edges (she probably used a dinglehopper to do the gathering!) after they made the following now-deleted tweet, “I feel like Chloe Bailey is cute but y’all be overhyping shawty.”
Halle replied, “Girl let’s not start 😇😇😇😇😇😇😇😇🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫🤫be blessed!! God loves you too!!!” and thus sparked her going-up-on-Twitter-on-a-Tuesday status.
Unless you’ve been living under a social media rock lodged deep under the sea (heh), you’ve probably seen Halle go full “Goon Squad” for her sis. And she will defend Chloe against anyone who tries to shade her in the slightest—even Matthew “Beyoncé’s father” Knowles.
Things especially got heated when Chloe (who is self-admittedly more sensitive than her little sister) started making content on her separate social media account, which garnered quite a bit of attention (especially her Buss It Challenge entry!). Particularly, many people critiqued the 23-year-old entertainer for leaning into her sexual expression.
It all came to a head when Chloe directly addressed the attacks on Instagram Live, where she ended up becoming very vulnerable about her insecurities and cried. Naturally, Halle wasn’t having it.
“[Chloe] is so beautiful, and I’m so proud of her confidence in herself and her body and inspiring other women to do that as well, because that is so important. And anybody who hates on that can talk to me,” the 21-year-old singer-actress-professional-goon told the Los Angeles Times in March.
Watch out world, she’s a grown goon now!
Halle has been on the other end of social media attacks as well, and she handles it just as gracefully.
“I feel like I’m dreaming and I’m just grateful and I don’t pay attention to the negativity,” Halle said about the online attacks she received from racists who were upset about her being cast as Ariel, after previously remaining silent on the matter for a while. “I just feel like this role was something bigger than me and greater and it’s going to be beautiful. I’m just so excited to be a part of it.”
Overall, even though the two girls are growing up and working on their own separate projects, the Bailey bond is brolic, so don’t even try to come between them...unless you want this smoke.