Reese tells of her pain, then and now

Reese Witherspoon is no stranger to the dangers of child stardom.

The “Big Little Lies” powerhouse, who made her screen debut as a teen in 1991’s “The Man in the Moon,” admitted to Vanity Fair that it is indeed risky for a child to work in a world meant for adults.

“Bad things happened to me,” Witherspoon, 43 (inset), told the magazine in an interview published Tuesday. “I was assaulted, harassed. It wasn’t isolated.”

The “Little Fires Everywhere” star and executive producer said she recently spoke about it to a journalist, who then asked why she hadn’t spoken up sooner.

“And I thought, that’s so interesting to talk to someone who experienced those things and then judge them for the way they decide to speak about them,” she explained. “You tell your story in your own time when you’re ready. But the shame that she tried to put on me was unreal, and then she wrote about how selfish I was for not bringing it up sooner.

“There wasn’t a public reckoning 25 years ago when this stuff happened to me,” the multihyphenate explained, pointing to #MeToo and the downfall of powerful men like Harvey Weinstein. “There wasn’t a forum to speak about it either. Social media has created a new way for people to express themselves that I didn’t have. That’s the great strength in power and numbers. I think we have a lot of judgment, and that’s unfortunate because we’re all tenderfooted in these new times. We’re trying to find our identity.” When asked about highlighting one’s sexuality when discussing consent, she said, “I can tell you what my daughter would say. … You should be able to be sexual, to display your sexuality, because consent is consent, no matter what.”

She acknowledged it isn’t “how I grew up … but things are changing.”