Emma Watson is remembering how photographers lay on the ground to photograph her skirt as soon as she turned 18 in 2009.

The feminist activist was speaking in New York to kick off HeForShe Arts Week, which will promote gender equality at art venues around the city. Watson launched the HeForShe campaign with the United Nations in 2014, calling for men to join the fight for gender equality.

Emma recounted the unsettling paparazzi incident during a candid gender equality interview alongside Forest Whitaker. Watson remembered the alarming photographic presence she was confronted with during her 18th birthday celebration.

Emma said: “I remember on my 18th birthday I came out of my birthday party and photographers laid down on the pavement and took photographs up my skirt, which were then published on the front of the English tabloid [newspapers] the next morning. If they had published the photographs 24 hours earlier they would have been illegal, but because I had just turned 18 they were legal.”

Emma Watson also discussed how her journey into womanhood varied from that of her Harry Potter co-stars, pointing out that her male counterparts were not exposed to the same paparazzi harassment.

“Obviously Dan [Radcliffe] and Rupert [Grint], who were my male co-stars, don’t wear skirts but I think that’s just one example of how my transition to womanhood was dealt very differently by the tabloid press than it was for my male colleagues.”

In this month’s issue of Esquire UK, Emma also talked about previous instances she’s been discriminated against because she’s a woman. “I’ve had my [ass] slapped as I’ve left a room. I’ve felt scared walking home … I don’t talk about these experiences much, because coming from me they’ll sound like a huge deal and I don’t want this to be about me, but most women I know have experienced it and worse… this is unfortunately how it is. It’s so much more pervasive than we acknowledge. It shouldn’t be an acceptable fact of life that women should be afraid.”

Emma’s recent participation at the HeForShe event comes only a few months after Watson revealed that she would be taking a year off from acting to focus on her activism and “personal development.”

Emma Watson told Paper Magazine about her plans, “I almost thought about going and doing a year of gender studies, then I realized that I was learning so much by being on the ground and just speaking with people and doing my reading.”

“I was learning so much on my own. I actually wanted to keep on the path that I’m on. I’m reading a lot this year, and I want to do a lot of listening,” Emma added.