Jennifer Love Hewitt has been an icon since she found fame in the 90s, and with her rising recognition, she became known as a "sex symbol" to many.
However, the 9-1-1 actress, 46, has admitted that the added attention on her body left her feeling "insecure".
Sex symbol
"It bothers me more now than it did at that age because I was in it," Jennifer told Vulture.
"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."
© FilmMagic, IncJennifer said that she "really wanted to be a good actor," but there became so much focus on her appearance that she began "trying to outact the conversation around my body".
Jennifer started to become hyper-aware of her body in 2007 after photos of her wearing a bikini in the ocean while vacationing with her then-fiancé Ross McCall surfaced alongside the headline, "Stop Calling Me Fat!"
Body shaming
© Getty Images"I was having the time of my life. 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," she explained.
Jennifer admitted that seeing the headline left her heartbroken. "I don't think I was ever really insecure until that cover. And then when it happened, I don't know that I've ever recovered from it."
She added: "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.'"
© Getty ImagesThinking about why those photos still affect her today, Jennifer explained: "Because that was me. 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."
After experiencing body shaming following the photos, Jennifer turned 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,'" she said of her mom's advice. "And she said, 'Take your power back. Belong to yourself, and don't worry about it.'"
© InstagramJennifer certainly appears to have taken her power back and looked incredible and confident at the I Know What You Did Last Summer premiere in Los Angeles on July 14.
Jennifer confirmed in December that she has reprised her role of Julie James in the slasher series, 26 years after starring in 1997's I Know What You Did Last Summer and its 1998 follow-up, I Still Know What You Did Last Summer.
© Getty ImagesThe official synopsis for the film reads: "When five friends inadvertently cause a deadly car accident, they cover up their involvement and make a pact to keep it a secret rather than face the consequences.
"A year later, their past comes back to haunt them and they're forced to confront a horrifying truth: someone knows what they did last summer… and is hell-bent on revenge. As one by one the friends are stalked by a killer, they discover this has happened before, and they turn to two survivors of the massacre of 1997 for help."
