Danielle Fishel, the actor who played “Topanga Lawrence” on the hit Disney show ‘Boy Meets World,’ is opening up about being sexualized as a teen, and is recalling the time when a male executive told her he couldn’t wait for her to turn 18.
On a recent episode of her podcast ‘Pod Meets World,’ which she shares with co-hosts and fellow ‘Boy Meets World‘ stars Will Friedle and Rider Strong, Fishel talks the many “creepy” experiences she had on the set of the classic sitcom and outside of it.
The three stars were interviewed by the fan version of their podcast, ‘Bruh Meets World,’ and during the conversation, they are asked about their time on the show, and what it was like for some of them being sexualized as teens, specifically, being “an object of desire at such a young age.”
As mentioned above, Fishel played the character “Topanga Lawrence,” a role she began when she was just 12 years old. Fishel said that at the time, she didn’t really see herself as this desirable person on the teen sitcom, but just as a child star. However, as she got older, she said things became more apparent for her.
Looking back in retrospect, Fishel realized that she experienced more than a few instances of adult men acting “creepy” towards her, with one even mentioning how they couldn’t wait for her to turn 18 years old.
During the podcast, Fishel explained, “As a kid, I always wanted to be older. I wanted to be an adult, I wanted to be seen as an adult, so getting adult male attention as a teenage girl… I didn’t think of it as being creepy or weird. I felt it like was validation that I was mature and I was an adult and I was capable. And that they were seeing me the way I was, not for the number on a page. And in hindsight, that is absolutely wrong.”
Adding to the conversation, Fishel’s co-hosts also pointed out that she was quite emotionally mature when she worked on the show. Responding, she said, “I’ve always been able to hold a conversation with an adult. I can look you in the eye, I’ve always been those things.”
Speaking further and recalling how some men couldn’t wait for her to turn 18, she explained, “But in a romantic, male gaze sense I should not have been outwardly talked about at 14, 15, 16 years old. And I was, even directly to me. I had people tell me they had my 18th birthday on their calendar. I had a male executive, I did a calendar at 16, and he specifically told me he had a certain calendar month in his bedroom. And at the time, my first thought was a little like …oh… but the immediate thought after that was: ‘Yes, because we are peers and this is how you relate to peers.”
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