A '90s star is opening up about the struggles she faced in her own personal life. Body shaming almost made her leave acting for good.
Videos by Wide Open Country
Danielle Fishel starred as Topanga on Boy Meets World at an impressionable age. She was dealing with teenage problems while having the world focused on her. People body shaming almost made her leave the industry.
"I was aware, even if nobody said it to me directly . . . that as far as the people in power were concerned, my body was a problem," Fishel, 44, said in an interview with Us Weekly. "I remember around the time of [1998's] prom episode being aware that they didn't want me wearing something sleeveless."
It led to difficulties with her own self image. She didn't feel "attractive" because she put on weight.
"I just so did not want to be there; I was uncomfortable on set every day," she said. "There was this feeling that I was no longer attractive, because I had gained weight. I just wanted to be anywhere other than on set. I was probably a curmudgeon."
Body Shaming Became an Issue
Things got even worse when executives wrote an episode where Topanga dealt with the insecurities of weight gain during the last season. The entire ordeal made Fishel want to leave the industry over body shaming.
"I feel some cognitive dissonance because I'm aware that what my eyes are seeing doesn't match up with the way I feel watching," she admitted. "It just doesn't feel good. The season 7 episodes are tainted with the feeling of incredible insecurity and fear of being on camera, which was hard for me to shake and probably why I didn't really want to go forward with a career on camera."
"I wouldn't say or do [anything] differently other than be more accepting and loving of myself," she added.
Fishel said that her mom always supported her through her career. She told Fishel that she could quit at any point she wanted to.
"'If you don't want to do this anymore, you just say the word, and I will whip this car around so fast your head will spin,'" Fishel remembered. "My mom would remind me that this was, at one time, a dream for me. And if it no longer becomes a dream, then let it go. And then I would think to myself, 'Is this still a dream? No, it's still a dream.' And you just keep going."
