Parenting & Family Quote by Elle Fanning

It lands like a small confession that doubles as a quiet protest against the idea that growing up is a clean break from make-believe. Elle Fanning isn’t selling a quirky “I’m so random” persona; she’s describing a deliberate private ritual: going home and choosing play, choosing softness, choosing a world where she controls the story after spending her day inside someone else’s script.

The specificity matters. “Baby dolls and strollers” reads like the most coded, culturally loaded set of objects in the toy aisle: caretaking, rehearsal for motherhood, the old pink-aisle expectations. Then she swerves: “stuffed animals” and “pretend like they’re real dogs.” That detail is the tell. It’s not about performing femininity for anyone else; it’s about companionship without stakes, love without the mess of adult logistics. A “real dog” comes with vet bills, time, responsibility, and a schedule that doesn’t care about call times. A stuffed dog is affection you can pause.

As an actress who has been working since childhood, the line also reads as self-preservation. Child performers are often pressured to be prematurely composed, prematurely wise. Her insistence on an unmarketed, off-camera childhood act suggests boundaries: this is play that isn’t content, not a brand extension, not a behind-the-scenes anecdote engineered for relatability. It’s a reminder that imagination can be a recovery tool, and that the safest version of “real” sometimes is the one you get to pretend into existence.