NEED TO KNOW
Genevieve Hannelius doesn’t quite understand why she was ever compared to Beyoncé.
The actress and singer, whose debut EP Girlhood is out now, once sported a black-and-white striped Topshop dress to the 2014 Young Hollywood Awards at age 15. Beyoncé happened to wear the same ensemble around the same time, and a magazine decided Hannelius wore it “best.”
The unexpected comparison became a meme online, and it’s followed Hannelius to this day. “Now that is the thing that people come up to me and say, ‘Queen wore it better,'” she tells PEOPLE. “I’m like, ‘No, no.'”
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At the time, the magazine claimed Beyoncé’s dress “pulls a little around the middle,” while Hannelius’ version “fits her perfectly.” [In Queen Bey’s defense, the outlet printed a photo where she appeared to be in motion. Hannelius, on the other hand, was posed on a red carpet.]
But even back then, the whole ordeal left Hannelius puzzled. “I was like, ‘This is ridiculous? Why are they comparing this icon to a [15]-year-old girl?’ First of all, it makes no sense,” she reflects. “It’s just so ridiculous.”
Unfortunately, the two women haven’t been able to discuss the moment in person. “I’ve never met her. There’s no way she’s seen this,” says Hannelius. “But it is hilarious. It’s just kind of this funny lore.”
In August 2025, Hannelius poked fun at the moment by rewearing the dress for an outing on the New York City subway and tagging Beyoncé in the caption. “is this reckless enough?” wrote the former Disney Channel star on Instagram at the time, referencing her song “Reckless” from Girlhood.
Hannelius is able to look back on the Beyoncé comparison and laugh, but there are other moments from her years as a child and teen star that she finds a little more embarrassing — particularly the 2015 photo of her wearing a large brimmed hat, which appears at the top of her Wikipedia page.
“If someone could get the fedora photo off the internet, I would be very thankful,” she quips.
Ally Chen
Since her first television acting roles in 2009, Hannelius feels like she’s built up “a tolerance for embarrassment” and rather looks back on some of these moments fondly.
“Now as you get older, you’re like, ‘I almost appreciate that it’s out there.’ I’m like, ‘Wow, I grew up,’ and that’s so sweet,” she says. “But it’s just the fedora photo that really bothers me.”
Now that Hannelius is an adult, what would she tell her younger self getting started as a child actor? “I think I did a lot of wishing away my younger self. I wanted to be older, and I wanted things to be different,” she admits. “I would just say, ‘Be yourself, be authentically you,’ because I think people can feel that.”
