Alyson Hannigan Says “Dancing with the Stars” 'Terrifies' Her — but She's Doing It for Her Daughters (Exclusive)

The TV actress exclusively tells PEOPLE why she joined the long-running reality dance competition

Alyson Hannigan has never thought of herself as much of a dancer.

But when the actress was offered a spot on Dancing with the Stars for season 32, she seized it — not because she thought she would sweep the competition, but to teach a valuable lesson to her daughters Satyana "Saty" Marie, 14, and Keeva Jane, 11.

“You shouldn’t let the fear of, ‘What if I’m not good enough?’ hold you back," Hannigan, 49, tells PEOPLE in this week's issue. “I’m doing something that terrifies me. It doesn’t come naturally, but I’m going to work hard to improve every week.”

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Hannigan — who is best known for her roles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer and How I Met Your Mother — says her family has been there for her every step of the way. Alexis Denisof, her 57-year-old fellow Buffy star and husband of 20 years, has been “beyond supportive.... He wakes up early so we can talk and go over whatever’s in my head.”

Hannigan's daughters are also rooting for their mother and attended her first performance on the long-running show, which airs every Tuesday evening from Los Angeles.

"Because of it being live on the East Coast, they had to miss their last class of school to get to the set on time, so it was just the first episode," she explains. "Then my teenage daughter didn't get all her homework done that night, so we had to make the better parent decision. ... 'How many times can you email a teacher that the kid didn't do their homework because they were at a Dancing with the Stars taping?' Maybe once we could get away with it."

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The American Pie actress left some room for improvement enthusiastic salsa debut, then nailed her tango routine last week with dance partner Sasha Farber, earning praise from Carrie Ann Inaba. "That was a woman empowered," said the judge, 55, calling it a "great comeback from Alyson!" she said.

Hannigan admits the last several weeks have been "tough." With little dance experience save for one ballet lesson when she was age 3, the actress found her best path to learning new routines included watching dance videos, drawing maps of the stage, including where the stairs, judges and cameras were, as well as writing down everything — "every single step" — which then became a sort of "script" for her.

"As much as I was working on counting during the tango the night of the show, my counting went out the window," she says, referring to last week's performance. "But it didn't matter, because I knew it so well, because I had memorized my script."

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While Hannigan is still in the early days of the season, she says the experience of performing on the show has been "freeing" and "liberating."

"I can really understand why people at the end of the show say that it was 'life-changing,'" she says. "I completely already relate. It's just been such an incredible journey that I'm just enjoying every aspect of it."

For more on Alyson Hannigan, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here. 

Dancing with the Stars airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT on ABC and Disney+.

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