“I Was A Size 4”: “Boy Meets World” Star Danielle Fishel Just Recalled The Moment Producers Told Her That She’d Gained So Much Weight They Were Turning It Into A Storyline

This article mentions body image struggles and disordered eating.

Danielle Fishel was just 12 years old when she landed the life-changing role of Topanga Lawrence on the ABC sitcom Boy Meets World , which ran for seven seasons between 1993 and 2000.

Suffice to say, not all of the memories have been positive. Danielle, Rider, and Will have all admitted to feeling uncomfortable filming intimate scenes when they were on the show, and Danielle has also been open about the huge “pay disparity” between her and her male costars for the entire seven-year run.

And on Monday’s episode of Pod Meets World , Danielle opened up about another troubling aspect of growing up on the show, with the star revealing that the heavy focus on her body still impacts her to this day.

Speaking to Rider and their guest, Full House star Candace Cameron Bure , Danielle opened up about a Season 7 episode of Boy Meets World where Topanga and Eric discuss feeling “fat.”

The episode is called “She’s Having My Baby Back Ribs,” and is about Topanga being self-conscious about her body. In the very first scene, she directly asks Eric: “Do you think I’m fat?” to which he bluntly replies: “Yeah,” after he had to dramatically unbutton his pants to sit down.

Eric then reflects on the fact that he is “70% flab,” and when Topanga tells him that he’s not alone, he says: “That’s right, you’re fat, too!” Eric then refers to them both as “pigs” and goes on to stuff an entire slice of pizza in his mouth.

Later, Topanga is shown struggling to zip up her pants, and her husband, Cory, starts to speculate that she is pregnant as she and Eric try to stick to a diet.

The episode ends with Topanga opening up about how she is feeling to her friends and husband, and being assured that she is beautiful just the way that she is. The episode’s ultimate lesson is a reflection on society’s “unrealistic expectations.”

But this is pretty ironic considering how Danielle and Will were made to feel when producers invited them to a meeting and told them that a storyline focusing on their real-life weight gain was in the works.

“So, I remember thinking: ‘Wow, these people think I've gained enough weight we have to write an entire episode about my weight gain, and right now I have to say I'm fine with it because they didn't even present to me another alternative,’” she recalled. “And even if they did, I probably wouldn't have felt comfortable being like: ‘Yeah, I don't want to do that.’”

The National Eating Disorders Association helpline is 1-800-931-2237; for 24/7 crisis support, text “NEDA” to 741741.

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