Tiffani Thiessen Says the Key to Looking Good at Her Age Is ‘Self-Love’ and 'Not Giving a S---'

The actress and cookbook author says it’s not “realistic” to expect to look the way she did when she was a teen star

As she looks forward to turning 50 next January, Tiffani Thiessen says she’s feeling “confident” — and it might have to do with “not giving a s—t” about what people say.

The actress and author, 49 spoke to dietitian Shira Barlow on her podcast, Good Instincts, about Thiessen's second cookbook, Here We Go Again. The book focuses on how to avoid food waste and “get our food to last,” which Thiessen says she learned from her mother.

“This book is…a love letter to my childhood,” Thiessen said, as the conversation turned to her teen roles as Kelly on Saved by the Bell, and Valerie on Beverly Hills, 90210.

“That age group…that’s a big chunk of changing,” said Thiessen, who was 15 when she began filming Saved by the Bell. “To do that in front of the camera is kind of crazy.”

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When Barlow brought up that Thiessen was “every guy’s crush,” the actress said it didn't really hit her at first. “At the very beginning it didn’t really resonate with my brain,” she said, until she and her costars began appearing in teen magazines and meeting adoring fans.

She admits to feeling the “added pressure of what people were saying” about her appearance back then. But now as she ages, “I think people will say things, you know, and maybe expect me to look a certain way, yes, but I mean, it’s just not realistic. I can only age the way I’m going to age, right?”

“I’m the best I can be and I’m taking care of myself and doing things that I know will benefit the outside exterior of myself that people are seeing. But yeah, those people don’t know what’s happening on the inside, right? Because that’s what actually helps the outside.”

Related: Tiffani Thiessen Reveals the Cover of Her Second Cookbook That's All About Using Leftovers

And she’s approaching her 50th with a different mindset than she held at her last milestone birthday ten years ago.

“When I was turning 40, I feel like I had more personal pressure on myself to look the best I could,” she said.  “I feel so much more at ease now than I did even ten years ago. I don’t know if it’s me just not giving a s—t.”

She does say that when she was 40, “I just wasn’t set yet…my confidence wasn’t 100-percent,” attributing her mindset at the time to having her children — son Holt Fisher, 3, and daughter Harper, 13 — in her late 30s and early 40s.

“My body was changing so much hormonally and mentally," the actress said.

Related: 'Saved by the Bell' Cast: Where Are They Now?

Now, though, she's got it figured out.

"I’m at a good place now. My main concern is raising happy, healthy kids that are going to do well for themselves and society.”

She adds that she does make an effort to stay healthy and “take care of myself.”

“I’m doing it for myself, I’m doing it for my kids, my husband [Brady Smith],” she says. “I want to be around for as long as possible of course, to be able to see my kids grow up and have kids of their own, and all those things that are much more important to me now.”

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