Long before she landed a starring role on ABC's Modern Family, Julie Bowen didn't always feel as if she truly belonged in Hollywood.
"I worked on a soap early on. Women in Hollywood are tiny, but women in soap operas are the tiniest people alive!" Bowen tells Parade's Healthy Style. "I have laid eyes on Susan Lucci, and if she turns sideways, you can't see her."
Bowen says it was discouraging to go through a wardrobe fitting only to discover she wouldn't be thin enough to wear the sample sizes.
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"All the clothes were designed for girls with tiny waists and boobs. I was the exact opposite," she says. "I'm a normal-sized girl, and no matter how skinny I get, I don't have a waist. It gave me a lot of insecurities."
These days, the 40-year-old mom of three (Oliver, 3, and twins John and Gus, 1) says she's much more confident in her appearance.
"There are days when I'm like, 'Hey, you look pretty good.' But I work with Sofia Vergara. You can have your very best day, and then you walk in and look at her and you go, 'Okay, now that's just superhuman,'" Bowen says. "She's extraordinarily beautiful, smart and funny. I don't look bad, but I don't look like Sofia Vergara, and that's okay."
