Jennifer Love Hewitt has worked consistently in Hollywood since she was 10, but it wasn’t until photos of her at the beach surfaced that she became “insecure” about her body.

In an interview with Vulture published on Friday, July 18, Hewitt, 46, recalled becoming a sex symbol in her late teens and early 20s due to roles in 1997’s I Know What You Did Last Summer, 1998’s Can’t Hardly Wait and 2001’s Heartbreakers.

“It bothers me more now than it did at that age because I was in it,” Hewitt told the outlet. “Before I even knew what sex was, I was a sex symbol. I still don’t know that I have that fully defined for myself because it started so weird.”

However, it wasn’t until 2007 when photos surfaced of the actress frolicking in the ocean wearing a bikini with the headline, “Stop Calling Me Fat!” that she felt hyper aware of her body.

Jennifer Love Hewitt has been a bonafide Hollywood starlet since the 1990s — and she’s opening up about the unrealistic expectations that come with being in the spotlight for decades. “I feel like fans pick this age that they love that they think represents you, and you’re never supposed to grow beyond that,” Hewitt, 45, […]

“I was having the time of my life,” Hewitt told Vulture of the moment the photos were taken during a trip to Hawaii with then-fiancé Ross McCall. “I had made up the dumbest song about eating snacks and playing in the ocean, and I was singing it to my boyfriend out loud, doing some weird dance move, and they got the picture and then it was on the cover.” (Hewitt and McCall split in December 2008.)

The 9-1-1 actress was gutted after seeing the headline — and how it framed her mental state. “I don’t think I was ever really insecure until that cover,” she confessed.

Hewitt explained, “And then when it happened, I don’t know that I’ve ever recovered from it. Because there’s a part of me that’s always like, ‘Is this version going to be good enough, or is that going to happen again?’ Where somebody’s going to be like, ‘Hey, this is her without makeup at the cleaners. She looks 59.’”

The Ghost Whisperer alum thought about why those photos in particular struck such a chord with her after decades in the industry. “Because that was me,” Hewitt concluded. “I think that’s why the insecurity carried on. I don’t know if I’ve even ever put that together for myself other than right now.”

Hewitt, who was eating a Wetzel’s Pretzels treat during her interview, let out a laugh. “It’s the pretzel. The pretzel is helping,” she joked. “I think I was like, ‘Oh, my God, I was myself one time, and this is what happened.’”

After seeing the photos and the body shamming that went along with them, Hewitt recalled turning to her mother for support.

“She was like, ‘You don’t get it. You can’t win. This is just people having a problem with the version of you they think belongs to them,’” Hewitt said of her mom’s advice. “And she said, ‘Take your power back. Belong to yourself, and don’t worry about it.’”

Hewitt persevered despite constant talk around her body, having a decades-long career that many actors would kill for. The actress, however, told Vulture her latest role as Maddie Buckley on ABC’s 9-1-1 has finally turned the corner for her — at least when it comes to her body being the focus of the conversation.

Jennifer Love Hewitt has spoken out regarding ongoing speculation about where she stands with original I Know What You Did Last Summer costar Sarah Michelle Gellar. “I honestly don’t even know what that was or how that all came to be. I just think people don’t want the narrative to be easy,” Hewitt, 46, told […]

“I get to be, not ugly, but raw in a way that doesn’t matter. I get to put all those little things into her that maybe I didn’t notice or get to pay attention to along the way and heal them,” she said of the TV role. “I give that to Maddie constantly.”

Hewitt concluded that 9-1-1 marks the first time since her Party of Five days (which ran from 1995 to 1999) that the audience is more excited about her performance than her appearance.

“It was the work and then it was the body. And not the body of work,” she added. “Now we’re getting back to the work part of it.”