Madison Pettis Learned to Love Her Natural Curls After Always Straightening Her Hair for Auditions (Exclusive)

"I never booked a single audition with straight hair, which is a testament of what makes you special," the actress tells PEOPLE

Viewers who watched Madison Pettis grow up on screen may instantly recognize her now from one quality that sets her apart: her curls.

Known for her cutesy characters on Disney’s Cory in the House and the 2007 feel-good film The Game Plan, the 24-year-old tells PEOPLE that “a lot of people say I'm one of the first they saw having curly hair on screen."

"It made them want to embrace it, and that literally means the world to me,” she adds.

Becoming someone who was looked up in this regard wasn't “intentional” for Pettis when she was little. It just so happened that she was fortunate enough to be able to embrace her natural hair for her projects early on.

That changed as she got older. “I remember a bunch of times when I was in my early teens, I straightened my hair for a lot of auditions because I thought it would help me get certain parts,” she says.

She quickly learned, though, that it didn't end up working in her favor.

“I never booked a single audition with straight hair, which I think just is a testament of embracing your natural features and what makes you special.”

She also looks back at the time of her life and feels “fortunate” to have been able to shine while wearing her curls. "A lot of people say I'm one of the first they saw having curly hair on screen. It made them want to embrace it, and that literally means the world to me,” she adds.

Related: Madison Pettis Says She ‘Felt More Comfortable’ with Her Acne on Camera as a Teen (Exclusive)

Hair texture wasn’t the only quality distinguishing Pettis in Hollywood — she was one of the few teens of color in kids' television at the time.

“The ethnic best friend trope was always a thing growing up,” Pettis, who is biracial, explains of her experience in the auditioning process as a minority actor. "I would read a script and the main character was white and then she had her ethnic best friend — the ethnic person (and they could be any other ethnicity that wasn't white) was never the lead. That stayed with me for a long time.”

That inherited back-burner mentality became so normal that she was shocked to hear a callback for the leading part in the 2020 comedy American Pie Presents: Girls’ Rule. “I was like, whoa, that has never happened before. It doesn't have to be that way.”

Even now, Pettis looks back on shows of the early aughts and their lack of diverse casting with a bit of astonishment. But she’s appreciative of the work that’s being put into progressing the industry these days.

“I feel so proud to see how far we've come and how much more representation there is in kids' programming and adult programming. I think there's always room for improvement and we're not in a perfect place, but it really is getting better year by year.

“It makes me extremely proud to be part of that change,” she adds.

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Though there was good to come out of her onscreen work, Pettis admits that being in front of the cameras so early on in life had its limitations, especially in her personal life.

“Growing up as a child actor, there is a lot of pressure to be perfect. People see you in this childlike way and then, once you're an adult and you start doing more adult things — [portraying] adult roles, dressing differently — they can kind of be like, ‘We wanted you to be a child forever.’”

The Deltopia star reminds herself there’s “room to age” and to grow in many ways. “I think it's important that people that grew up as child actors get the space to be able to evolve alongside their fans that are the same age.”

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Read the original article on People.