Amber Tamblyn was told she needed to lose weight to become successful after she had already star

• Amber Tamblyn, one of the key women involved in the "Time's Up" initiative, has been vocal about her experiences with sexism in Hollywood.
• The 35-year-old actress and author recently opened up about being told that she would need to lose weight in order to be successful.
• "I remember my agent saying to me and she was a woman, 'You have a real choice here. You can either be Nicole Kidman or you can be a character actress,'" she recalled.
• According to Tamblyn, this conversation occurred when she was 21 years old — after she had already starred in the popular "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" films.

Amber Tamblyn has become a leading voice in Hollywood's push for gender equality. As a key player in the "Time's Up" initiative, Tamblyn has been vocal about "predatory" men working in the film industry, as well as more subtle and pervasive forms of sexism that she herself has experienced.

Most recently, the "Any Man" author opened up about body-shaming and unrealistic expectations forced upon actresses. During a conversation with New York Times journalist Jodi Kantor, Tamblyn recalled being told that she needed to lose weight in order to be a successful actress.

"I think at that point I was 128 pounds and I'm 5'7". I remember my agent saying to me and she was a woman, 'You have a real choice here. You can either be Nicole Kidman or you can be a character actress,'" Tamblyn said, according to E! News. "And at that time, I was like 21 years old, so if you look at that and use that as an example and imagine that for over two decades, forms of that from when you're a child to all the way up, it does something to you."  

Tamblyn clarified that this conversation came on the heels of her starring role in "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2," the second installment of the deeply popular franchise.

"They were always different forms of being shut out of conversations or being boxed out of different places in which I know my voice should exist or being told under certain circumstances I had to look a certain way or I was going to fail," she continued when Kantor asked how Tamblyn had been "violated" in her career, according to E! News.

At 21 years old, Tamblyn had already starred in the long-running soap opera "General Hospital," scoring the role at just 12 years old — which was followed by her role as the titular character on the prime-time series "Joan of Arcadia," for which she received Primetime Emmy and Golden Globe nominations. After the "Sisterhood" films, Tamblyn continued her impressive acting career and went on to co-write and direct the 2016 film "Paint It Black."

Tamblyn's recent comments recall an op-ed she penned for the New York Times in January, in which she wrote about a director asking her to lose five pounds before they began shooting. 

"He said the film studio would provide a trainer and a meal plan for me," she wrote. "Women have always had to carry the burden of molding the shapes and sizes of our bodies to the trends and tastes of others, at any cost. We are assigned a look. We don't get to choose."

It's encouraging that Tamblyn, along with her "Time's Up" cohorts and powerful women in many industries, have responded to the #MeToo movement with by sharing their stories and by pushing for a more equal and tolerant society.

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