Hollywood can be a tough time for a lot of actors out there, and getting to be a recognizable face doesn’t exactly eliminate a lot of the anxieties around success. Danica McKellar was a household name in the United States after playing Winnie Cooper on The Wonder Years from 1988 to 1993. For five years, she was basically the modern TV template for a “school aged crush” for a lot of Gen X viewers. However, McKellar left Hollywood after The Wonder Years concluded.
Just a couple of days ago, the actress sat down with Hey Dude… The 90s Called! to talk about her life’s work in and out of Hollywood. McKellar told Christine Taylor and David Lascher that math became her true calling and that Tinseltown just wasn’t in the plans for her. That’s actually perfectly fine with The Wonder Years star.
McKellar mused that she needed to find some personal meaning beyond just being Winnie Cooper. She talked about people constantly asking her, “Aren’t you that girl, Winnie? Aren’t you that girl from TV?”
“You’re trying to figure out who you are as a teenager, and everyone else is telling you who you are, and it’s like a thing that doesn’t exist anymore.” McKellar elaborated. “You guys are aware there’s all the insecurity that comes from having a lot of success early on, and then you don’t have that thing anymore. And you’re like, ‘Who am I now? Where do I get my validation?’”
Hollywood isn’t for everybody and that’s okay
Stories like the one McKellar tells here have become super commonplace over the last 5 years. People taking a step back from their careers, no matter what they are, to reassess and plot out what their future plans. There’s nothing quite like things being upended by things that you can’t control to trigger some introspection. (Some of it good, and some of it…well…not so great!) But yeah, there’s room for everyone when it comes to finding out what your purpose is and pursuing that! In fact, we should probably applaud that entire process more than we do currently.
During the podcast, the Winnie Cooper actress shared how a hard exam at UCLA changed the course of the rest of her life. Basically, McKellar believed that she had bombed the test pretty hard. When in actuality, the exam was designed to see who in the class was the most prepared for the rigor of a Math degree ahead. Despite posting a seemingly low score, she got the highest marks in the class. It felt good for the Wonder Years star to have some sort of triumph that had nothing to do with her time on TV. And, she leaned into numbers and never looked back.
“The math books have kept me sane for the last twenty years because it’s something that I can do something about,” McKellar mused. “Like, I can actually write a book and then have it published and then help kids with math and then make some money from that. It’s a thing that I can do that’s not like the business.”
It’s nice to read stories like this because there really is a life out there for all of us. No matter how niche the pursuit seems on the surface, there’s something that your special talent can do for another person. Even if it seems obscure, there’s someone waiting to hear what you have to say, look at your art, or discuss the work you do everyday. That’s where our true purposes come into play. It probably feels amazing to be recognized as the math author as well as Winnie Cooper. It’s all a matter of perspective when you really drill down into it.
(Credit: ABC)
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