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Chlo Grace Moretz says alcohol isnt cool anymore
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Chlo Grace Moretz attends the press conference for "Brain on Fire" on day 9 of the Toronto International Film Festival at the TIFF Bell Lightbox on Friday, Sept. 16, 2016, in Toronto. (Photo by Arthur Mola/Invision/AP) - photo by Herb Scribner
Chlo Grace Moretz has a message for America drinking culture is done.

Over the weekend, Moretz, a 19-year-old American actress who started her career when she was 7, told Elle magazine in an interview that the drinking culture isnt really a thing anymore for millennials. Moretz said she doesnt feel like her friends or those in Hollywood spend time hitting the bottle anymore.

Hardly anyone drinks anymore, she said in the interview. If they do drugs, its usually legal marijuana, and not many people smoke, especially in L.A. But I feel like New York is still smoking. Its a New York vibe. In L.A its so clean now. Everyones super clean now and they all drive Priuses.

In fact, Moretz said that Hollywood and general American culture has replaced heavy drinking with fitness and exercise. Yoga, time in the gym and getting fit are all activities that young Americans embrace instead.

Moretz herself puts off wine for the sake of the gym grind.

It is, Moretz told Elle. It's the 80s again in the sense that we're all doing fitness classes again. You have Body by Simone, you know you have Y7 for yoga, which is fun. I think what's cool is they're integrating the club culture with working out, which is smart. I think we're a super-fit culture; our generation is super fit right now.

Moretz has her critics, of course. Lisa Ryan of New York Magazines The Cut said that the 19-year-old actress cant even drink legally, so its not like shes an authority on the subject.

Moretzs comments arent all that surprising, though, when you consider that modern social scenes dont ask you to BYOB anymore. Well+Good, a health and wellness news website, recently published a long-form piece about how modern social scenes now emphasize sober lifestyles. This change, according to the article, comes from the desire to be more healthy.

Even on todays healthy living scene, beer yoga, workouts-and-wine, and mindful cocktail nights foster engagement in what many love to call healthy moderation, according to the website. But in a number of wellness circles, people are calling time on casual drinking, simply because it makes them feel like, well, crap, the website continued. Or because the 12-step model of addiction isnt really a fit for these abstainers who are looking to lead a high vibe life without substances. Which is why a new crop of sober social events and venues have emerged in cities across the country and the pond."

Weve seen this new sort of culture pop up this year. As our own Brittany Binowski wrote in April, a number of individuals decided to stay home from Coachella, a music festival that often encourages a party atmosphere, so they could embrace a new form of the event #Couchella, where fans could watch the event from their homes.

This was for a number of reasons. For one, the cost of Coachella alone exceeds $1,000 between festival tickets, flights and anything people purchase at the actual event. Others cited issues theyve had with friends and colleagues, who would spend time taking drugs.

"He promised me a weekend of great tunes and non-stop dancing at Coachella, but what I really got was three days of his friends doing so much cocaine and weed at his grandmothers insanely gorgeous Palm Springs pad that they had no desire to attend the show," Shaunna, 29, of Brooklyn, told the Revelist.

The Coalition Against Drug Abuse actually agrees that theres a correlation of drug use within the festival. Just based on an Instagram post, the coalition found that Coachella had the third highest amount of drug mentions at their event, just ahead of the Tomorrowland, Summerfest and Bonnaroo festivals.

Still, some festival attendees didnt mind staying sober.

"Believe it or not, some people actually go for the music, and that's the case with most everyone involved; they're psyched about the opportunity to see acts like The Cult, The Knife, Nicole Moudaber, Disclosure, Toy Dolls and the Replacements," the Houston Press wrote about the meetings in 2014. "And just because there's a bunch of drunk and high idiots running around isn't going to stop them."

Similarly, those yearning for a sober social scene have also found club soda bars, where they can casually sip non-alcoholic drinks and engage in conversations. There are also yoga classes, like Yoga for Recovery and She Recovers, that keep people away from the bottle.

As Dawn Nickel, co-founder of addiction support network She Recovers, told Well+Good, this new sober social scene can help to improve lives and build better relationships.

In my own experience [with giving up alcohol], Ive found way more clarity, calmness, and confidence in every area of life; increased commitment to personal, wellness, and professional goals; better relationships, she said. Honestly, the simple fact that I never wake up hung over is utter, utter bliss.
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