This is what Matilda looks like, 21 years after the film

Sometimes it's hard to get your head around child actors getting older.

But - however much it may hurt our precious nostalgia - they must one day become adult actors.

Or playwrights. Or writers.

Or all three if you're Mara Wilson, who starred as Matilda way back in 1996.

In the minds of many, she is still that young girl with a red ribbon in her hair.

But here she is in 2017:

Picture: Getty Images / Jason Kempin / Stringer

Wilson has written an autobiography about her childhood stumble into fame - a move that Matilda would be proud of (and would probably read too).

Wilson also made a worthwhile point about people's shock at her change of appearance.

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