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Madeline Zima is entering a new chapter.
Over 30 years after her breakout role in the ‘90s sitcom The Nanny, the former child star reflected on getting older, sharing a rare selfie as she marked her 41st birthday.
“Well, another trip around the sun,” Zima wrote on Instagram Sept. 16, “and somehow I’m 41.”
“Age is a strange thing,” she continued. “Some days I feel like an awkward teenager who has somehow been allowed to make important decisions, and other days I feel approximately 100 years old and would like everyone to please stop asking me to download another app.”
The Californication actress emphasized, “But one thing I do know: I love getting older.”
While celebrating her special day, Zima gave a glimpse into her life now, sharing a stunning photo of herself lying down in a bed.
In the shot, the Subservience star—who wore a black long-sleeved top—posed for the camera with one hand in her hair as her light brown locks flowed down her shoulders onto the pillows.
And Zima, who’s also appeared in A Cinderella Story, Grey’s Anatomy and High Potential over the years, is approaching her new era with curiosity and gratitude.
“I’m genuinely curious about who I’ll become, how I’ll change, how I’ll grow, and, naturally, what brand-new mistakes I’ll find to make,” she continued in her caption. “I’m learning to let parts of myself go—the rigid parts, the overly responsible parts, the very Virgo parts that want desperately for this world to be better more kind and beautiful more perfect but if we were perfect we wouldn’t be here.”
“I’ve had dreams come true. I’ve had dreams fall apart,” she added. “I’ve gotten things I was absolutely certain I needed, only to realize later that I really, really did not. And now I’m strangely grateful for some of the things that never arrived, because apparently the universe occasionally knows me better than I know myself.”
And while the Breaking the Girls actress is focusing on what’s ahead, she’s not forgetting her roots.
After all, Zima announced she’s attending 90s Con to honor The Nanny, in which she starred as youngest Sheffield sibling Grace on the show’s six seasons from 1993 to 1999.
“If celebrating one of the greatest comfort shows of all time makes a whole bunch of people happy,” she wrote in an Oct. 12 Instagram post, “then I think that’s a pretty lovely reason to show up.”
To see what more child stars are up to now, keep reading…
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