“Little House on the Prairie”'s Alison Arngrim Says It Was 'Hard' Being 'Very Famous' as a Child Actor (Exclusive)

The actress also tells PEOPLE how she learned to "embrace" the vitriol once aimed at her because of her iconic character

When Alison Arngrim was 12 years old, she became one of the most famous young girls in America starring as Melissa Gilbert’s onscreen arch nemesis on Little House on the Prairie. But for the child actress, fame proved to be a double-edged sword.

The actress, 62, opened up to PEOPLE at the Little House on the Prairie 50th Anniversary Cast Reunion and Festival in March about her experiences on the show. When the cameras weren't rolling, Arngrim says she and Gilbert were "like sisters," even going as far as choreographing their fight scenes together from the first year they began working together in 1973.

"It's so completely bonkers," Arngrim jokes, adding, "Here's Melissa Gilbert and I playing mortal enemies, beating each other senseless all week. And then on the weekends, we'd go to each other's house for a slumber party, and we were hanging out."

Related: Little House on the Prairie’s Alison Arngrim and Melissa Gilbert Were Close Despite Playing ‘Mortal Enemies’ (Exclusive)

But being a child actor on a popular show like Little House also presented unique challenges many of her non-celebrity contemporaries would never have to deal with.

“When you look at what an adult goes through — going into show business, sudden loss of privacy, becoming very famous, stalkers, craziness — think about that happening when you're nine,” she explains. “You're still learning. Imagine you haven't gotten to long division yet. You're learning basic math and learning to read, and you now need to deal with what the National Enquirer thinks about you.”

When Arngrim departed Little House at 19 after seven seasons, she found it wasn't so easy to leave her role behind. The “bad girl” character had become so lodged in the cultural zeitgeist that many weren’t able to separate fiction from reality.

"People hated me. They hated me, hated me," the actress says, adding, “When the show ended, as a young actress, I like most normal actors was like, well, now the show's done. We'll go on with our lives and everyone will talk about something else. That didn’t happen. Because then the show did have cable … and then there were DVDs, and then there was nostalgia, and it got bigger and bigger and bigger.”

Related: Little House on the Prairie’s Alison Arngrim and Melissa Gilbert Were Close Despite Playing ‘Mortal Enemies’ (Exclusive)

Someone once threw a cup of orange soda in Arngirm’s face while at a Christmas parade, which she took with good humor.  (“I was a moving target, and they hit me, so I’m kind of impressed,” she says.) Another time, a woman confronted the actress at a Little House fan event and simply said, “I forgive you,” before walking out.

While it would have been easy for her to merely internalize all the vitriol, she “embraced” it and turned it into something more meaningful. Arngrim published a bestselling memoir in 2011 entitled Confessions of a Prairie Bitch: How I Survived Nellie Oleson and Learned to Love Being Hated. She also embarked on comedy tours in the U.S. and France, poking fun at her life.

With the gift of time, many viewers have come to see Nellie (and now Arngrim) in a new light, and the actress is now one of the most celebrated Little House cast members. At the show's 50th Anniversary Cast Reunion and Festival in March, fans waited hours in line for a photo with her, which was “mind-blowing.”

“I don't get it myself, but all I know is somehow it has worked out that now being on Little House and having been Nellie Oleson works for me as opposed to being a curse, a burden. It's now something that has helped me in my life,” she says, adding, “I must be doing something right.”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer​​, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

All nine seasons of Little House on the Prairie can be streamed on Prime Video and Peacock.

For more People news, make sure to sign up for our newsletter!

Read the original article on People.