Jodie Sweetin explains why she is 'happier' in her own skin at 40: 'I don't have to give a s*** about what anybody else thinks about me'

Unapologetically is a Yahoo Life series in which people get the chance to share how they live their best life — out loud and in color, without fear or regret — looking back at the past with a smile and embracing the future with excited anticipation.

Jodie Sweetin has a message for anyone turning 40: It is so good.

“It’s important, particularly for women, to claim every day that they have been on this earth because it's not easy,” the Full House alum tells Yahoo Life. “I am so much happier in my own skin as a 40 year old woman than I have been at any point in my life. I think something happens in your mid to late thirties where you just start realizing like, 'Oh, I don't have to give a s*** about what anybody else thinks about me ... I'm not here to do anybody else's work or anybody else's job. I'm not here to live anybody else's truth. I'm just here to fully, 100% be me.' And I finally feel like at 40 years old, I'm really embracing that and loving it and enjoying it.”

The actress, author and activist — who went viral during a protest for abortion rights in June after a Los Angeles Police Department officer shoved her to the ground — says that she is using that confidence in order to speak out for others.

“My activism has come really front and center in the last few years of my life just because we are in a time now where the option to sit on the sidelines has gone away,” the A Cozy Christmas Inn star shares. “As a mom to 14 and 12-year-old girls, I want them to see that they have a mom who is out there fighting for their future. A lot of the stuff that I'm out there fighting for are things that may never directly affect me. I may be gone by the time it happens, but I have kids and I see other young people — I want to make the world different for them. I'm not a person who sits by quietly and watches injustice sort of just play out. I'm loud. I'm 40 and I don't care what people think about me, I'm just out there with my opinions and I really am feeling good about that.”

Sweetin, who is starring in the Lifetime holiday movie Merry Swissmas, adds that she knows there can be skepticism surrounding celebrities getting involved in activism. She’s heard the claims that some celebrities just get involved in order to receive a “clap on the back.” When she can, Sweetin says, she gets involved anonymously — but also notes that standing up for others when you have a platform to use can be vital to a cause.

“I am a privileged white woman and I've grown up in the entertainment business that has afforded me the opportunities to have some really wonderful experiences,” she notes. “But that doesn't mean that I can't step outside of myself and realize that the world is much bigger than my little white girl problems. When you have a platform, particularly when you have a platform that might not be the demographic that people are talking about, it's imperative that you use that platform to then bring things to people's attention.”

The mom of two has long spoken about her sobriety journey, which she chronicled in her 2010 memoir UnSweetined. Reflecting on it now, she says learning to take “accountability” for her past mistakes was a “gift” sobriety gave her. When it comes to what she’ll tell her kids about that time in her life, she jokes that the “magic of the internet” has helped fill in a lot of those gaps.

“I haven't had to share personally too much with my kids because a lot of it they find out no matter what,” she says. “But, I’ve never hidden my past really from my kids. I want them to learn from my experiences and to be able to have an open conversation with me. I have a really great relationship with my daughters now and they know that they can come to me about anything. And I think because I've been so open about everything that's gone on in my life, it's a lot less scary to put yourself out there and to talk about things.”

Sweetin is also newly married. She wed her fourth husband, Mescal Wasilewski, in July. At 40, she says she no longer seeks out a relationship that constantly feels “new and exciting” — what matters to her, she explains, is friendship, companionship and support. While her two daughters have “great” relationships with their respective dads, they love having Wasilewski as an “extra support person” in their lives.

“The thing that I find the most incredibly sexy about my husband is that he is my partner,” Sweetin gushes. “He supports me. He helps me, he cheers me on. He is my biggest fan and that for me is just really sexy. Someone who is so excited to watch you shine and be at your best without feeling that they're being taken away from or ignored. That's super hot to me — someone that can let you shine and doesn't worry that you're going to outshine them.”

The joy that Sweetin has in her life now can feel a bit bittersweet. She got engaged to Wasilewski in January 2022 — the same month that Bob Saget, her Full House dad and longtime friend, died suddenly.

“When Bob passed, it was one of the most devastating sudden losses, but what followed up shortly was these wonderful moments in my life,” Sweetin notes. “Finding the balance between the heartbreak and the joy is the great dance that we do in life, right? There's never a good time or a perfect time for anyone to pass away. Life happens and it's not stopping and waiting for us to figure it out, you know? So sometimes we go through really horrible, awful, painful things that are followed up in quick succession by some of the most joyful, wonderful things that we can ever experience. I don't think that if you're in pain and if you're mourning you don't get to feel that joy. I think you get to feel that joy and also know that because you get to feel joy so deeply that when you lose people that you love, you also feel that just as deeply.”

When it comes to what Sweetin is “unapologetic” about, the star says, “The thing I am most unapologetic for at this point in my life is being 100% exactly who I am. I’m a little loud, I'm a little inappropriate. I'm smart, I'm funny, I'm all these things and I'm unapologetic for that now.”

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