The Wonder Years star Danica McKellar opens up about escaping Hollywoods superficiality

Danica McKellar found stardom as the girl next door, Winnie Cooper, on “The Wonder Years” as a teenager, but by the time the show was over, the actress knew she needed a break from Hollywood.“When I finished ‘The Wonder Years,’ I went to UCLA to get a degree in mathematics,” the 50-year-old told Closer Weekly. She continued, “I stopped acting for four years.I just needed to find out who else I was.

For me, the way I could find out was just to do something else and really exercise my brain and let go of all the glamour and superficiality of Hollywood.That was really empowering to me.”After college, McKellar returned to her acting roots on shows like “Love Boat: The Next Wave,” “Even Stevens,” and former “The Wonder Years” co-star Fred Savage’s late ’90s show “Working.” But she said when she returned to the industry, she felt like she was trying to “catch up.”“I was doing all these independent films that weren’t very good,” she admitted.

“Then I started getting some traction.I did ‘The West Wing’ for a season.”McKellar told Closer that even though she knew she “had to” take a break from acting during college, “I was still worried about it.

What if I can’t go back to acting? What if I don’t pass the math test?”Along with “The West Wing,” McKellar also did episodes of “NCIS,” “NYPD Blue,” “How I Met Your Mother,” and “The Big Bang Theory” before she began to find her stride as a Christmas movie princess.Last fall, McKellar told Fox News Digital that she was excited about her latest holiday movie with Great American Family, “A Cinderella Christmas Ball,” because it’s the first time she’s gotten a writing credit on a movie. “This is a wonderful experience for me.It’s been amazing because I got to write the script with someone else, but it’s the first time my name is on the script for one of these movies, and it’s really gratifying,” she said.

“Plus, I get...