Jodie Sweetinestablished her career as an actress at a very early age when the first season of the beloved ABC sitcom, Full House, premiered in 1987.
Sweetin, who was just four years old when she began playing Danny Tanner’s (Bob Saget) middle daughter Stephanie Tanner, opened up about childhood stardom in her 2009 memoir, unSweetined. Fans of the actress can listen to the new audiobook version of said memoir once it’s released on August 19.
Sweetin, who narrated the upcoming audiobook that features new exclusive content, shared her advice to her younger self during the process of recording unSweetined.
“One piece of advice that I would give my younger self is that this is all so short, this whole life thing. Don’t let other people’s opinion of you dictate who you get to be. It’s not worth it,” said Sweetin in the behind-the-scenes video.
Sweetin opened up about maintaining a sense of normalcy while starring in a popular television series in a February 2025 interview on The Vault Podcast.
“It’s because I had very normal parents. My mom was with me on [the Full House] set everyday. And she wanted none of the fame. Neither of my parents wanted to perform or speak in public. Nothing. So they knew it was something I loved when I was really little. I said I wanted to do it,” said Sweetin in the interview.
In addition, she said that she “never thought it was a big deal that [she] was on TV.”
“I just thought I was like everybody else. So it was an interesting way to grow up. Because so many people assume something about you before they meet you,” said the actress.
Sweetin said, however, that she struggled with her sense of identity after Full House ended in 1995. She also noted that she was adopted when she was under 2 years of age, which contributed to said concerns about her identity. In addition, Sweetin referenced that she had struggled with addiction in adulthood before her eventual recovery.
“I think that sense of I think all teenagers go through of like who am I, where am I, who do I look like, what do I act like?” said Sweetin, who reprised her role as Stephanie in the 2016 Netflix reboot Fuller House, during the podcast interview. “Like the sense of identity at 13, I lost the show and I was sort of trying to figure out who I was in comparison to my parents who were raising me, versus what I knew about my biological family. So I had a lot of stuff going on anyway. I always say that I think I would have had some of my struggles regardless if I was on TV or not. But it definitely added a whole other thing to it because of ‘Who am I outside of who people think I am?'”
