In her own words, life is a lot of fun right now for Danica McKellar, who is most recognized for playing Winnie Cooper, Kevin Arnold’s girl-next-door, on The Wonder Years television series.

McKellar is a very passionate person, specifically about acting, charities and mathematics. Her focus for the last two years has been writing her book aimed at middle school girls entitled, “Math Doesn’t Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math Without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail.” It hit bookstores in early August.

“It’s been so exciting to see all the support for the book. I’ve been getting so many wonderful emails from teachers, parents and kids who just love the book and are getting help from it. It feels so good!” says McKellar, who spoke with Paul and Byron of andPOP recently.

“I hope my book helps individuals gain confidence in their math abilities. I want to make math more accessible. It’s got a lot of bad PR. It’s got a bad rap and it’s not fair. People are missing out. I wanted to put a friendly new face on math.”

The guide’s purpose is to make math easier and more relevant. With further info available on www.mathdoesntsuck.com, it features tips and tricks, example questions and detailed answers, all to help its readers excel on assignments and tests. It also shares tools for outside of the classroom.

“Math has the reputation of being this dark scary evil subject, but really, the only scary thing is that it’s a foreign language. You aren’t going to speak it right away. It takes practice. Kids think that they are supposed to automatically understand things. You don’t sit down in your French class and think that you will automatically speak French. There’s a learning curve and it takes time to learn the new concepts. Sometimes kids think if they can’t get it, then they will never be able to get it. Those are two completely different things. You might not get it now but you may get it in five minutes!”

McKellar was once in the same confused spot as many of her readers. She later become a double major in Film and Math at UCLA, helped to prove a key published math theorem and spoke to the United States Congress in regards to women in mathematics.

As for other acting projects on the go, this recognized mathematician stars as the title role in the Inspector Mom format on Lifetime Network, which includes movies and a webisode series available on lmn.tv.

“They offered me the part of a young crime solving soccer mom. It was a really fun concept because there are dual parts. I play the loving mom and wife and then also a mischievous crime solver who just can’t quite keep her hands out of places where they shouldn’t be. If something is dangerous, she will be dying of curiosity. They asked me to be a producer and contribute to the writing as well.”

She finds the added roles of producing and writing very well suited for her as they utilize her creativity to problem solving skills.

Another project on the go is Daily Dose of Dharma, a DVD project featuring McKellar and her mother Mahaila who has been a meditation instructor for over ten years. Mahaila taught her daughter how to meditate.

“I always have a few different things going. I’m about to start shooting an episode of How I Met Your Mother, have all the math stuff and I’m going to be writing a few blogs for my publisher Penguin Books. What helps me to not lose my mind is to take little breaks throughout the day. Even five or ten minutes can make a big difference. Just stopping whatever I’m doing and meditating or doing some yoga really does re-centre and reenergize me. It makes me much more able to tackle multiple things. I wanted a product, something that would guide me through a ten or twenty minute break whether it was meditation or yoga.”

McKellar is very appreciative of her mother’s presence throughout her career. This time instead of being a supportive mother, they decided to produce this project together. It was shot at The Four Seasons in Hawaii with a small crew and will be available later this summer. Further info is available on danicamckellar.com

McKellar has a great fondness for the Dr. Laura Schlessinger Foundation My Stuff program, which assembles bags of items that little kids would need if they were suddenly without a home and in a foster situation.

“There is something about helping kids that are really troubled. You’re helping the future of the country. These kids need to know at a young age that somebody cares about their welfare. Often kids that really benefit from organizations like that will turn around and later in life work for organizations like that, start their own or give back in some way because they know how much it means.”

McKellar goes to the events, helps to stuff bags and assists financially. She recommends the book Passionaries: Turning Compassion Into Action which tells people’s stories about how they’ve given back and the charity work that they’ve done. “I’ll read a chapter, and I’m always crying, I go right online and find a charity to give money to! It’s so amazing what they are doing, and it’s so easy for me to help.”

In her spare time, McKellar loves to dance. She proclaims it as her biggest hobby, which is also a great form of exercise. “I will get a private coach, or take a group lesson. I did cardio salsa this weekend. It’s a blast. My mom was a professional dancer before she had kids so there has always been dance around in my life. When you’re trying to attain a certain thing, like a specific turn, it’s like sports, you’re focused on the goal and not thinking about how hard you’re working.”

With respect to music she is a big fan of Billy Joel. “In terms of contemporary music, Fergie and Maroon 5 are at the top of my iPod. I love Fergie. I think she’s so fun and versatile.”

As for TV, she isn’t a fan of the abundance of exploitive reality programs. “I like reality TV that is some sort of game show format where people are being challenged, having fun, playing a game and that includes American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, shows where people are having a good time, learning, and getting real opportunities.”

As for her most recognized TV role, she is very grateful for it. “It was a wonderful show with interesting, good and real messages. It made kids feel like they weren’t alone in their problems. It made adults remember how far they’ve come. It was just such a wonderful nostalgic show and when you’re on a show like that, especially when you’re a kid, I thought that all TV was that good. Now I realize we were sort of unique.”

For those that are just catching up on The Wonder Years, unfortunately a DVD release isn’t likely coming soon due to the music rights. They weren’t taken into account when the music contracts were first written for the series, which ran from March ‘88 to May ‘93. This makes it prohibitively expensive to get the music licenses for a DVD release.

“There were so many unbelievable songs on every episode. Its part of what made the show so good. Some shows like Dawson’s Creek had that problem as well. I heard that they put new music on the episodes and I hope that they never do that with The Wonder Years because it would change the show dramatically. Somehow that would be too sacrilegious.”

“My character meant a lot to a lot of people. That might be part of why I feel a responsibility or duty to be a good person in a way because there are people who expect that of me and who I mean so much to that I couldn’t possibly imagine letting them down.”

While Danica McKellar is very passionate about acting, charity work and mathematics, its clear that she derives her satisfaction from the effect her efforts have on others.

“It’s such a great interaction with the fans, thanking me for something that I love to do which is Math and to help kids not be afraid of it – it feels so good!”

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