Some television characters are so iconic that the actors who play them will forever be known for that role. That’s definitely the case for Jodie Sweetin (and probably the rest of the Full House cast, too). While Sweetin was merely 5 years old when she first portrayed Stephanie Tanner on the ABC sitcom, it’s a role that has followed her for nearly 40 years, and I love her positive take on how she came to terms with that.
Jodie Sweetin has appeared on the Hallmark schedule several times in recent years with projects like The Jane Mysteries, and she starred in the Lifetime movie Dateless to Dangerous: My Son's Secret Life, which premiered on the 2025 TV schedule in June. No matter how many TV movies she does, though, Sweetin knows the truth. She told People:
I will be Stephanie Tanner forever. And I've come to be really okay with that over the last 20 years.
Stephanie was the middle sister on Full House, falling between Candace Cameron Bure’s DJ and the Olsen twins’ Michelle. Part of what endeared audiences to the saccharine-sweet sitcom was being able to watch the young actresses grow up literally in front of our eyes over the course of eight seasons (which can be streamed with either a Hulu subscription, Disney+ subscription or HBO Max subscription).
However, that also made them kind of synonymous with those roles, for better or worse. For Jodie Sweetin, she’s decided it was for the better, and she explained how reprising the role actually led her to branch out in her career:
I kind of walked away from the business at some point in my late 20s and was working in other fields, and I was totally fine. I was happy. I would've continued on that, but getting the chance to come back and do Fuller and bring Stephanie back to life was amazing and wonderful. It also gave me the opportunity to do other things because I think finally people were like, ‘Oh, you're an adult now.’
Fuller House featured much of the same cast (but notably not Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, for good reason) and centered around a recently widowed DJ and her three sons. According to Jodie Sweetin, giving people the chance to see her as an adult — even if she was still technically Stephanie Tanner — kick-started a new chapter in her acting career.
In addition to some TV movies and reality competition shows, Jodie Sweetin has also started a rewatch podcast with Full House and Fuller House co-star Andrea Barber, which has even further deepened her appreciation for the fans who continue to show interest in the Tanner family after so many years.
Jodie Sweetin likely can’t do anything to change the fact that she’ll always be known as Stephanie Tanner, but she can control how she feels about her childhood character following her into adulthood. I love how she’s chosen to embrace it.
In addition to Full House being available to stream on multiple services, Fuller House can be accessed with a Netflix subscription.
