Jennifer Love Hewitt has urged young girls not to give in to criticism about their bodies while reflecting on how such scrutiny affected her early in her career.

The 46-year-old made the remarks in a new, candid interview, in which she also recalled how seeing Britney Spears face the same scrutiny helped her understand the emotional toll of constantly being criticized for her appearance.

Jennifer Love Hewitt recently returned to the screen in the sequel to “I Know What You Did Last Summer” to reprise her role as Julie from the 1997 film.

In a new interview with Vulture, Jennifer Love Hewitt reflected on the body scrutiny she faced as a rising star in Hollywood, during a time when conversations were heavily focused on criticizing the bodies of famous starlets.

She shared that the constant unwanted attention pushed her to make light of her own body as a way to cope.

“I was known as ‘the girl who laughed her way through The Tonight Show.’ I just couldn’t stop laughing,” Hewitt recalled in the interview, referencing her 1996 appearance on the talk show.

She added, “I was trying to be like, I’m not overly sexy! I’m a nerd! I’ve referred to myself a lot as a dork, and I wasn’t aware of it at that time, but looking back, that was my way of saying, ‘That’s not me.'”

Hewitt said that the focus on her body only seemed to increase as she grew older and became a household name.

As a result, even though she “really wanted to be a good actor,” she often found herself using her energy to “try to outact the conversation” about her body.

“I brought good stuff… no one was talking about it. It was just ‘Boob, boob, boob’ everywhere,” she recalled.

She also remembered how one outlet went so far as to publish photos of her in a bikini during a vacation, accompanied by the headline “Stop Calling Me Fat!”

The incident left her feeling even more insecure about herself, and she admitted that even now, she has yet to fully recover from the toll it took on her confidence.

“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,” Hewitt revealed.

Years down the line, Hewitt said she finally recognized the damaging effects of public scrutiny over appearance, a realization sparked while watching the 2021 New York Times documentary “Framing Britney Spears.”

“When I started watching it, I was like, ‘Oh, they talked to me like that. Oh.’ I started crying for her. And then I realized I was crying for me,” she noted.

Now, having been the recipient of all these, Hewitt is hoping that young girls facing such scrutiny won’t let it get to them and force them to change their appearance.

“A size 2 is not fat! Nor will it ever be. And being a size 0 doesn’t make you beautiful,” Hewitt said, per the Daily Mail. “To all girls with butts, boobs, hips, and a waist, put on a bikini – put it on and stay strong.”

After stepping onto the red carpet for the premiere of the new film in a black beaded dress, fans flooded social media with praise for Hewitt’s stunning appearance.

“She looks good. I like the fact she didn’t mess up her face with fillers and plastic surgery,” a fan wrote on X.

“Jennifer Love Hewitt looks great, people need to stop comparing people to their younger versions, we all change over time,” another fan wrote. “She’s beautiful.”

“She looks so gorgeous and refreshed. So sick of seeing skeletal Ozempians!” someone else quipped, while another added, “She should be applauded for looking normal. She doesn’t look like a space alien with plastic surgery.”

“I am a Jennifer Love Hewitt fan. It saddens me to see petty b-tches online fat shaming a woman who is 46 and has three kids,” another fan wrote. “In my opinion, she looks amazing. You get older. You gain weight. It happens. Many people look jacked up on plastic surgery. She looks great.”

Although the 46-year-old star received praise for her curves after her latest red carpet outing, she was also heavily body-shamed for her appearance.

However, sources close to Hewitt have now revealed that she maintains a “fit and healthy” lifestyle despite what detractors are saying.

“Jennifer is all about balance when it comes to her daily meals and workout plans,” a source told the Daily Mail, adding that the mother-of-three “doesn’t ever deny herself anything.”

“Rather than push herself to extreme measures, she takes it all in her stride and feels much happier and confident that way,” the insider continued. “When it comes to working out, she loves mixing things up, Pilates and yoga, and other forms of strength training.”