Genevieve Hannelius reflects on when people thought she was better dressed than Beyoncé (Exclusive)

Genevieve Hannelius doesn’t really understand why she’s being compared to Beyoncé.

Actress and singer Hannelius, whose debut EP Girlhood is currently out, previously wore a black and white striped Topshop dress at the 2014 Young Hollywood Awards when she was 15 years old. Beyoncé also happened to be wearing the same ensemble at the same time, and one magazine decided that Hannelius “worn it best.”

This unexpected comparison became an online meme that continues to follow Hannelius to this day. “Now people come up to me and say, ‘The Queen wore it better,'” she tells PEOPLE. “I’m like, ‘No, no.'”

At the time, the magazine claimed that Beyoncé’s dress was “a little pulled in the middle,” while Hannelius’ dress was “perfectly fitted.” (The paper came to Queen Bey’s defense, publishing a photo in which she appeared to be in motion, while Hannelius posed on the red carpet.)

But even at the time, Hannelius was perplexed by the whole ordeal. “I thought, ‘This is ridiculous? Why are you comparing this icon to a (15)-year-old girl?’ First of all, it doesn’t make sense,” she recalls. “That’s really ridiculous.”

Unfortunately, the two women have not been able to speak directly about that moment. “I’ve never met her. There’s no way she’s watching this,” Hannelius says. “But it’s hilarious. It’s just like a funny legend.”

In August 2025, Hannelius put the dress back on for an outing on the New York City subway and tagged Beyoncé in the caption, making a joke of the moment. Is this still reckless? The former Disney Channel star wrote on Instagram at the time, referencing Girlhood’s song “Reckless.”

While Hannelius can look back and laugh at the comparisons to Beyoncé, there are other moments from her childhood and time as a teen star that she found a little more embarrassing. Specifically, the 2015 photo of her in a large-brimmed hat that appears at the top of Wikipedia.

“If someone could get me a picture of a fedora off the internet, I’d be very grateful,” she jokes.

Since her first TV acting gig in 2009, Hannelius feels like she’s developed a “tolerance for embarrassment” and instead looks back fondly on some of those moments.

“Now, as I get older, I start to think, ‘I’m almost grateful that there is that in the world.’ I think, ‘Wow, I’ve grown up,’ and I’m really happy about that,” she says. “But the only thing that really bothers me is the fedora photo.”

Now that she’s grown up, what would Hannelius tell her younger self when she started out as a child actor? “I think I had a lot of wishes to get rid of my younger self. I wanted to get older and change things,” she admits. “I just want to say, ‘Be yourself, be who you are,’ because I think people can feel that.”