Life as a 90s Sex Symbol (w/ Danielle Fishel)
Why Won't You Date Me? with Nicole Byer
Headgum & Nicole Byer
4.9 • 16K Ratings
🗓️ 3 April 2026
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Actor and director Danielle Fishel (Boy Meets World, Girl Meets World) joins Nicole for a chat about how it felt to be treated as a "sex symbol" in the 90s before she was even an adult. Danielle talks about the gross public countdowns to her 18th birthday, and the trauma of being mocked on her own show for being "fat" at a size 4.
She shares what it was like taking Lance Bass to her high school prom during the absolute peak of *NSYNC, having Sabrina Carpenter and John Mayer in her wedding party, and details a 3-day nightmare date from her matchmaker era that might just be the worst dating story we've ever heard on this podcast. Plus, the sweet story of marrying her high school acquaintance after reconnecting on Twitter 18 years later.
Watch this episode on our YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@WhyWontYouDateMePodcast
Want more Danielle? Check out her many podcasts!
Teen Beat - The show where she interviews other child stars and actors about their upbringings and experiences in the industry.
Pod Meets World - Fishel rewatches Boy Meets World and shares behind-the-scenes stories with her co-stars.
American Idol Official Podcast - Fishel Interviews the eliminated contestants.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Want to watch this episode? |
| 0:01.3 | Catch the full video on YouTube. |
| 0:03.3 | Just hit the link in the episode description. |
| 0:07.0 | This is a headgum podcast. |
| 0:10.9 | So the third date, he says, I was training for a half marathon at the time. |
| 0:15.7 | He goes, you're training for a half marathon. |
| 0:17.6 | Let's go for a run tomorrow and then get dinner. |
| 0:26.0 | Okay. And I say, okay, when I tell you that he was very proud of the fact that he ran track and field in high school and thought his mission on this |
| 0:31.7 | date was to be my marathon coach and was literally running beside me, clapping me along, hand on the small of my back, |
| 0:40.3 | pushing me along to run faster. And then when I was like, I do just want to remind you, |
| 0:46.8 | I told you that I do not run fast. I am new to this. I need to run at my pace. He was like, |
| 0:52.6 | all right, fine, I'll just run ahead of you. |
| 0:55.4 | And then did. |
| 0:56.9 | Then just ran ahead of me. |
| 1:02.5 | Would then stop, turn around, jogging place, wait for me to catch up to him, hand on the small my back occasionally. |
| 1:04.2 | Finish our run. |
| 1:05.9 | We're going to go get sushi. |
| 1:08.1 | And he stops and says, some of my friends are nearby at a bar. Do you want to stop in |
| 1:18.2 | and say hi? Why? No. I didn't. No. But I did. And they were all wasted. One of them was shirtless. |
| 1:28.9 | And the other one was wearing a NASA foam helmet. |
| 1:34.0 | I said hello and tried to be as polite as possible. |
| 1:37.4 | I'm like, can we please just go get sushi? |
... |
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