- - Drew Barrymore Tearfully Recalls Public Criticisms of Her Weight at Just 10 Years Old: 'Not a Comfortable Feeling'

Staff AuthorJanuary 16, 2026 at 5:15 AM

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Bertrand Rindoff Petroff/Getty; Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

Drew Barrymore in 1985 (left) and today -

Drew Barrymore talked about the scrutiny she faced as a child actor during the Weds., Jan. 14 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show

The actress, 50, revealed that criticisms of her weight were leveled at her as young as age 7

Barrymore spoke to a photo of herself at age 10 and shared a message for anyone who has struggled with their body image

Drew Barrymore is sharing a message to anyone who has ever felt uncomfortable in their body.

On the Weds., Jan. 14 episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the 50-year-old opened up about how people began to criticize her body when she was just 10-years-old, remarking she didn’t “look how you did in E.T.," which she starred in at 7.

Displaying a photo of her 10-year-old self, Barrymore said, "This picture… It just breaks my heart. I was 10 years old and I just was told by everybody, ‘You don’t look how you did in E.T. You’re too heavy. You’re not blonde enough. You’re not old enough. You’re too young. You’re not tall.’ And everybody just started getting involved in the way I looked."

Valerie Bertinelli, a guest on the show, shared how disheartening it was to learn the criticism the young actress faced.

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"It’s like, I don’t know what I’m supposed to be for other people,” Barrymore said. "And you don’t know yourself at 10. What I’m so relieved about now is that it’s four decades later, I’m 50… I do know what’s important now, and the look in my eyes is so clear.”

Barrymore continued, "It's nice to know that no matter how low it gets, or how much pressure we feel, or how unproud of ourselves, or how we are not pleasing to someone else, or we’re not fitting into some mold someone created for us… that real, true happiness is just this choice we make.”

That said, she acknowledged the journey toward that happiness was not easy for her, and that is the case for most in her situation.

“It’s a battle and a beautiful, internal war that we fight on the front lines, day in and day out, to get to a place where we can actually say this sentence and believe it, which is: ‘I deserve happiness.' That, if it takes you a long time to figure out, it’s okay. As long as we learn it at some point.”

Darlene Hammond/Hulton Archive/Getty

Drew Barrymore in 1985

The daytime host shared a message for viewers who also "feel pressure to be a certain way."

"You are not alone. I have been there with you, and it is not a comfortable feeling," she said.

"Somehow, some way, on the other side of that is like... kind of adulthood, and a personal freedom, and a desire to stop pleasing everybody else and start realizing what it’s gonna take for you to feel good about yourself, no matter what you look like or feel like."

on People

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”