I have grown up alone. I’ve taken care of myself. I worked, earned money and was independent at 18.

In this statement Bergman frames her early adulthood as shaped by self-reliance rather than protection or privilege. The emphasis on being “alone” and “independent at 18” highlights a formative ethic: work as a route to autonomy and dignity. Read against her public image as a glamorous star, the quote functions as a corrective—asserting competence, discipline, and practical responsibility as the foundation beneath celebrity. It also suggests a psychological stance: having learned to provide for herself early, she presents independence not as a later achievement but as an identity established at the threshold of adulthood.