If you were a teen or young adult in the 1990s or early 2000s, Melissa Joan Hart was undoubtedly a part of your world. From her iconic role as the titular Sabrina in Sabrina the Teenage Witch to Clarissa Explains it All, to her more recent work in Netflix’s No Good Nick, Hart has solidified her status as sitcom royalty. In the years since Hart’s career began, the New York native has been equally busy behind the scenes, raising her three sons.
Nowadays, “mom” is Hart’s most treasured title. Her recent partnership with AbbVie’s annual Science of Skin event—aimed at raising awareness for chronic skin conditions such as eczema and psoriasis—was inspired by one of her own son’s struggles with eczema. After an incredible night of fireside chats featuring doctors, influencers and patients, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Hart to talk about her experience as an eczema caregiver and all things beauty, from her Sabrina days to now.
You are an eczema caregiver as your son struggles with the chronic condition, and you mentioned your siblings have, too—could you tell me a little bit about what his first symptoms were and what your day-to-day looks like now to manage your son’s symptoms?
“For him, [Editor’s note: Hart didn’t specify which of her sons deals with eczema] it was a rash on his legs. Our boys were very outdoorsy kids. They were always in the woods and whatnot, so at first, we were thinking it could be anything—poison ivy or something like that. After a little while, when it didn’t clear up, we started to get concerned. I joke that we used to always say, “Just rub some dirt on it,’ whenever we had a rash or something like that, but thankfully in this case I did keep an eye on it. It’s so easy to tell yourself, ‘It’s fine,’ or to chalk it up to not having the time to deal with things like that. In this case, we were really lucky I kept an eye on it because it was really bothering him. He was very frustrated with it—it was incredibly uncomfortable, just constant itching day in and day out. He was not sleeping because of it.
When we realized it wouldn’t go away and was really persisting, I knew we needed to see a doctor right away. We didn’t try any of our own treatments for the most part. We may have tried a few things, but it became obvious quickly that nothing was working, and now we know why none of it worked. So, we went to the doctor, got a pretty quick diagnosis, and luckily, we were able to start a treatment plan. I feel like we’re really lucky in a lot of ways that we took the right path because so many people don’t. It takes forever to get diagnosed a lot of the time, and now, with almost college-aged kids, I’m thinking about how they could be ignoring signs of different health issues. I remember ignoring things like that in college, and I don’t know how I survived. For me it was a plantar’s wart, I think. I went to school with a banana in my shoe instead of seeing a dermatologist.”
As some of our panelists said, bullying is unfortunately common when it comes to tweens and teens with skin conditions. Has your son experienced this at all? How have you prepared him to face negative people, especially in the age of social media?
“I think every kid goes through a certain level of things that they are uncomfortable about or teased about, but luckily, he has controlled eczema now, and it’s not in an area people can see. It’s pretty much just on the back of his leg. He hasn’t had to deal with the bullying, but I’m glad to hear about our panelist’s experiences because you never know what could happen. You never know when it could start. I often think about if it’s going to affect his dating life. You never know all those things, so it’s something to look out for as a parent.”
Has your son’s journey with eczema taught you anything about your own skin-care needs or changed your perspective on skin care in general?
“Honestly, the main thing was it got me to start going to the dermatologist regularly. I don’t know that we had a dermatologist before his diagnosis. We never thought about going to the dermatologist—we saw it more of an ‘if you see something, you go’ kind of thing rather than a regular appointment. It never occurred to me that this was something we needed to do. Now, we go for yearly visits as a family. I made sure everyone got checked for everything, whether it’s the backs of their ears because of bad sunburn or just new freckles. In fact, we have a funny tradition where we name all of our kids freckles, but I’ve actually found it to be really helpful in tracking any abnormalities. Because of it, we can be like, ‘Megatron looks like it got bigger, we should get that checked out.'”
You’ve been in the television industry pretty much your whole life—how has your beauty and self-care routine changed from the days of Sabrina to now?
“I’m a mom now—I’m middle-aged, and there’s a lot of things that I had more time for when I was younger. During the Sabrina years, I had a lot of time for self care, and now I’m trying to squeeze it in. But it’s funny because I also wore a lot more makeup back then and it was every day, so I think my face care routine has actually gotten simpler over the years. It used to be so complex. I also used to work out diligently when I had the time. Then that went away. I’m back on a great workout program now, though.
I’ve always been terrible at hydrating, but now I’ve got that big Stanley Cup thing, and I feel like I’m finally properly hydrated. Those have been the biggest changes, but it’s also funny how I do things now, like sleep on my back because I don’t want chest wrinkles. But really, my skin-care routine has gone from being extremely complicated to a much simpler version. I think that’s also because I had late-onset adult acne in my thirties, and I was trying to navigate that while I was doing Melissa and Joey. I was wearing a lot of makeup and breaking out, and then [makeup and breakouts] are just a back-and-forth system. But I feel like I’ve simplified my whole health and beauty routine in a way. I try to make sure I moisturize, though. It’s funny because I remember an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where Patricia Heaton’s character puts lotion on her elbows before bed, and that became part of my routine. I was like, ‘We have to put lotion there?!'”
What has your life-long career in acting taught you about how you understand beauty and how you see yourself?
“It’s interesting; there used to be a more restrictive standard of beauty back when I started acting between the supermodel days and the television and movie stars. There was an expectation to look a certain way and be a certain way, but I feel like, in recent years, we’ve let a lot of that go. I think it has a lot to do with the fact that my fan base is awesome because I’ve gained weight and changed, and I was always waiting for the negative comments to come, but they never did.
I was scared that when people thought of me, they’d think of their teens and 20s, so they’d think I should still be in my twenties. I kept waiting for it to happen, especially when I had a newer show—a Netflix show called No Good Nick—and when that came, I was thinking about ‘I’m middle-aged now, I’m playing the mom of teenagers, I’ve gained a little weight. When is the hate going to start coming at me?’ I was really ready for it. I knew it was going to happen, and I was going to ignore it, and it was going to be fine, but it didn’t happen, at least not in the way I thought it would.
I really chalk that up to the fan base, though, and them feeling protective of me. There’s this nice thing about people that have grown up with me. While they don’t want me to be older—they all freaked out when I was playing a grandma in a movie last year—they don’t want me to get older because it means they’re older, but they’re still nice to me. I think they’re about it because they’re going through it. It’s relatable. I think everyone else is going through the same things, whether it’s perimenopause or starting to head towards menopause if you grew up at the same time as me. It’s an interesting experiment.”
I know I made my fair share of beauty mistakes as a teen, whether it was dying my own hair or making my own face mask. As a child star, were there any big beauty mishaps you made as a teen or things you wish you’d maybe never experimented with?
“Yes and no. I recently looked at my wedding photos, which is 21 years ago now, and I was asking one of my best friends, who’s one of the most award-winning makeup artists in the world and did my makeup at my wedding ‘is there anything in this picture that tells you that I got married in 2003?’ It was my eyebrows. I over-plucked them, of course. In the 90s and 2000s, I definitely over plucked them. And that’s literally the only thing. We weren’t doing lashes yet, lips weren’t plumped like they are now. Everything was very natural, just highlighted. But yeah, if you pluck your eyebrows too much, they’re not coming back.
My mom’s thing when I was growing up was always to do not over your lashes. She’d always tell me that once they’re gone, they’re gone, and you’re going to want them. I didn’t wear mascara at all until I was in my twenties. I still never wear it when I’m not working. It was probably the best beauty advice my mom ever gave me: don’t mess with your eyelashes. But nobody said anything about the eyebrows. You can’t win them all.”
If you had to pick one piece of wisdom you hope your boys learn from you, what would it be?
“Be fearless and know who you are. Learning to be okay with yourself is huge because then what you think about yourself won’t be dependent on how other people feel about you. I feel like it’s common, especially growing up in the arts, for kids to need validation, but if you’re comfortable with yourself and comfortable in your own skin, you won’t need all that. And just be nice to people. Even if they’re not nice to you back, if you’re nice to people nothing else matters.”
