Danielle Fishel: A studio manager had pictures of me when I was 16 ‘In his bedroom’

Boy meets world alum Danielle Fishel became candid about the harrowing experience of being sexualized as a teenager — and how it affected her personal relationships over the years.

“I have always been able to have a conversation with an adult. I can look you in the eye. I’ve always been those things,” Fishel, 42, said during a June episode of her “Pod meets worldpodcast. “But in a romantic, male gaze, I shouldn’t have been spoken about outwardly when I was 14, 15, 16 years old. And that was me, even directly against me.”

The former child star – who played Topanga Lawrence on the ABC sitcom from 1993 to 2000 – revealed that people would often have her “18th birthday on their calendar.” In particular, she recalled that a male studio executive “specifically told me he had a certain calendar month in his bedroom” from a photo shoot she had done at age 16.

“Getting attention from grown men as a teenage girl, I didn’t think it was scary or weird,” she confessed. “I felt like it was a confirmation that I was an adult. And I was an adult. And they saw me because I wasn’t a number on the page. In hindsight, that was very wrong.”

While her cohosts, Rider strong And Will Friedel — who co-starred with the Arizona native on BMW as Shawn Hunter and Eric Matthews respectively — pointed out that Fishel was “very mature” and “sophisticated” for her age, they agreed she “should never” have been seen as an “object”. of desire” at such a young age.

Fishel – who was famous for dating Jonathan Taylor Thomas And Lance bass in the 90s and early 00s — explained that being sexualized as a teen “made her bad at boundaries”.She shared that it took her “years” before she could “connect the dots” about how it negatively affected her own personal and romantic relationships.

“I had no expectations of how you should talk to me or treat me,” she continued. “It wasn’t until I was in my late 30s that I said, ‘Okay, I’ve been in failed relationship after failed relationship and I could easily point the finger, but at the end of the day, I’m the one who picks these people and what do I do? wrong.'”

Fishel – who was earlier married with Tim Belusko until their split in 2016 – tied the knot with husband Jensen Karp in November 2018 after getting engaged earlier that year.

A month before exchanging vows with her husband, 43, the Girl meets world alum poured in Us weekly about their romance.

“I am [on] cloud nine. He is the most amazing partner anyone could ever hope for,” she said Us at the time. “And so I’m just really happy. I’m really looking forward to building a life with him.”

On their one-year wedding anniversary, Karp shared his own tribute to his wife and the life they built together. (The couple share two sons, whom they welcomed in June 2019 and August 2021, respectively.)

“One year ago today I married the best person on earth. I know people say things like that all the time, and it’s an exaggeration – but I do believe she is. She has made every day brighter, every joke funnier and every hug more comfortable,” said the filmmaker wrote via Instagram at the time. “We have been through so much in the past year, including welcoming our young Marv Albert into this world, and yet you have been able to take on the duties of mother with even more passion and highly detailed Navy SEAL-like precision than I could have expected . You have been my partner, my best friend and my wife for a year! I love you very much.”