Michelle Trachtenberg didn’t have it easy as a kid.
The actress, who was found dead Feb. 26 at age 39, was severely bullied in middle school, according to original “Matilda” star Mara Wilson.
Wilson, 37, recently wrote an essay for Vulture about her friendship with Trachtenberg. They attended the same middle school in Los Angeles.
One day, Trachtenberg approached Wilson and asked her, “Are the kids here mean to you?”
Trachtenberg told Wilson through tears, ‘Because they are to me… They call me Harriet the Slut, Harriet the B—-, Harriet the B—-y Spy… and so much worse. They never stop.”
At the time, Trachtenberg found fame from starring in the 1996 comedy movie “Harriet the Spy.” Wilson played the titular role in “Matilda” that same year.
“I had never seen Michelle cry before,” Wilson wrote in her essay. “I’d never seen her anything other than perfectly composed and confident. That’s what it was, I realized. That’s why they said she was ‘mean.’ Because they were mean to her first, then when she went on the defense, they called her a b–h.”
Wilson said that other students would say “they’d heard [Trachtenberg] was mean, full of herself, a total b—h,” so she defended the “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” star and would tell them, “She’s not. I’d say, every time. ‘She’s really nice!’”
“Every time I even heard someone say ‘Michelle Trachtenberg,’ a kid would jump in to say that they’d heard she was mean, full of herself, a total b—h,” Wilson recalled.
But from Wilson’s perspective, Trachtenberg was nothing but a joy to be around.
“Not only was she nice, I realized, but she was remarkably intelligent,” Wilson shared about the “Ice Princess” star. “Yet she managed not to be condescending and didn’t try to impress with big words, the way other kids (including me) might have. She was smart. but she was also self-possessed, and didn’t need to show off.”
Wilson recalled that people trashed Trachtenberg when she was in college, too. On one occasion, an acquaintance said to Wilson that Trachtenberg “just has to be a b—h in real life.”
Trachtenberg was open about the childhood bullying that she faced.
Around Valentine’s Day 2020, Trachtenberg shared a throwback photo of herself and recalled, “Back in my day all the kids had to write a bulls–t Valentine’s Day card to everyone in the class. I never got one on purpose, everyone got a valentine card. No one ever gave me one and they thought I didn’t need the attention. The kids and staff all laughed and thought everyone else should get one, being an actress since I was 3, apparently I didn’t need one.”
“The kids were cruel… I still have scars from being thrown down stairs and slammed into lockers head first,” the actress continued, before noting, “There is no need to harp on the past… I write this to every child, teen, person, out there who is bullied. You are something.”
The Post exclusively confirmed the news of Trachtenberg’s death late last month.
Sources said the “Gossip Girl” alum had undergone a liver transplant within the last year, suggesting that her body may have rejected the organ.
The insiders also claimed she died of natural causes; however, her cause of death was ruled “undetermined” after her family objected to an autopsy.
Some of Trachtenberg’s former co-stars paid tribute to her after her death, including Sarah Michelle Gellar and Kenan Thompson.
