America's Sweetheart All Grown Up

Actor, director, podcast host and mom Danielle Fishel talks to Us about the way her early experiences in Hollywood shaped her and how she's flipping the script for young people today

- by CARLA SOSENKO & AMANDA WILLIAMS

Danielle Fishel was just 12 when she stole our hearts — and Cory Matthews’ too — as Topanga Lawrence on Boy Meets World in 1993.

Recently, the Dancing With the Stars contestant has been open about the less joyful aspects of that era in her life. “My body was a problem,” she tells Us about the criticism she faced in the final seasons of the sitcom. “Those episodes are hard to watch.”

Now 44, Fishel is rewriting the rules. She talks to Us about sons Adler, 6, and Keaton, 4, with husband Jensen Carp; her directing career (including episodes of Shifting Gears and Lopez vs. Lopez); surviving breast cancer and life in the spotlight as a teenager in the 1990s.

After 2025's DWTS with partner Pasha Pashkov, Fishel joined the live tour.

On your podcast Boy Meets Pod, you talk about beauty standards when you were younger. Can you say more?

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... I remember around the time of [1998’s] prom episode being aware that they didn’t want me wearing something sleeveless.

Rider Strong, who played Shawn, has said you were hard to be around during season 7, the series’ last.