The former Nickelodeon child star was recently seen during a quiet grocery run in Calabasas, her first public sighting in months. Despite the ordinary setting, the outing ignited renewed attention around her image and lifestyle.
Carrying a shopping bag outside Erewhon on Thursday, Amanda Bynes looked focused and unbothered as she made her way through the upscale market. Though she didn’t acknowledge onlookers or speak to the press, the sighting was enough to cause a stir online.
Now 39, Bynes appeared casual with long, bleached-blonde hair featuring blunt bangs and visible roots. She wore a gray hoodie, black skinny jeans, and high-top Vans sneakers, holding a designer quilted purse on her shoulder.
Several viewers expressed surprise at her latest appearance. One user wrote, “Goodness me, what happened to her!?” while another commented, “She use [sic] to be so beautiful and natural. Now I would never know it was her.” The reactions kept coming, with one post declaring, “Poor girl is unrecognizable,” and another asking, “Are we sure that’s even her. Looks nothing like her [sic].”
Other remarks questioned the transformation more bluntly. One viewer said, “She doesn’t look the same at all,” while another posted, “No way that’s her.” One more insisted, “This looks nothing like her.”
One user, pointing to concern rather than criticism, urged others to stop commenting altogether: “Leave her alone! She is obviously not well.” Another fan reflected, “So weird seeing her not smile bc [sic] she was always so funny.”
Bynes had previously talked growing her bangs out. “What’s up everybody? I wanted to make a post that I finally grew my bangs out. I’m so excited right now, oh my god I can’t believe it,” she said in one of her Instagram highlights.
She also shared that she and her best friend, Dylan, had gotten matching tattoos to celebrate their ten-year anniversary. She said, “I wanted to post that my best friend Dylan and I have been best friends for ten years, and to mark our best friend anniversary, we got matching Roman numeral X’s for the number 10. I got it on my finger; Dylan got it on her rib cage. So excited about that too.”
Bynes has also experimented with hair dye. In one of her recent stories, she explained that she had been inspired by a girl with green in her hair and thought the color would complement her own green eyes. She showed the dye while it was still setting and later returned with the finished look.
“So, like my best friend Dylan said, ‘it’s giving off watermelon vibes,'” she said. “I like it, but I don’t love it. I think I might eventually go back to Oliver blonde.”
The photos of her recent outing surfaced just months after Bynes co-hosted an art event in December 2024, her first semi-public appearance in years. On that occasion, she wore a fitted black crop top with long sleeves and high-waisted trousers, completing the look with slicked-back platinum hair.
Noah Cyrus, Miley Cyrus’ younger sister, was among those in attendance, as well as Liam Poulsen, a best friend of Bynes, who congratulated her on his Instagram page.
The renewed public attention has revived conversations about Bynes’ journey since her years as a child star. She began acting at age three and rose to fame in the late 1990s with roles on “All That” and “The Amanda Show.” She made her film debut opposite Frankie Muniz in “Big Fat Liar” and continued to earn fan-favorite roles in “What a Girl Wants” and “Hairspray,” often winning Kids’ Choice Awards.
But by her late 20s, Bynes was facing significant challenges. In July 2013, she was placed under a 72-hour involuntary psychiatric hold after starting a small fire in a stranger’s driveway. Authorities later confirmed there was no damage and no arson charges were filed, but the incident marked a critical point.
Bynes was hospitalized for evaluation, and shortly after, her mother Lynn was granted temporary conservatorship. That conservatorship became permanent in October 2014.
In 2022, Bynes released a formal statement after a judge ruled to terminate the conservatorship, which had lasted nearly nine years. “Following today’s decision by the judge to terminate my conservatorship, I would like to thank my fans for their love and well wishes during this time. I would also like to thank my lawyer and my parents for their support over the last nine years,” she said.
She continued, “In the last several years, I have been working hard to improve my health so that I can live and work independently, and I will continue to prioritize my well-being in this next chapter. I am excited about my upcoming endeavors — including my fragrance line — and look forward to sharing more when I can.”
Her years out of the spotlight included a significant redirection. In 2014, Bynes enrolled at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising (FIDM), inspired by seeing Lauren Conrad attend the school on “The Hills.” She graduated in 2019.
