Jennifer Hewitt doesn't look like she did in her twenties. She's just called out those who wish she did

Jennifer Love Hewitt is calling out the ageism that she has experienced in Hollywood.

The 45-year-old started out in the industry as a child actor and has grown up in the spotlight.

Now that she's reached middle-age, the Ghost Whisperer star says she has received "hurtful" criticism over the fact that she no longer looks how she did in her twenties.

"Age is age," Hewitt told Fox News Digital in a new interview.

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"And I think women really come into this like acceptance of themselves and this like comfortability in their forties that is beautiful.

"Like, I just love being in my forties, I really do."

But while she's loving life, Hewitt says she's received criticism from those who haven't come to terms with her natural aging.

"The times that it's hard for me is that I feel like there is this, Taylor Swift actually said it in one of her documentaries, she was like 'I feel like fans pick this [version of] you at this age that they love that they think represents you and you're never supposed to grow beyond that'," she says.

"And for me, it was me in my twenties, like people seem to have a really hard time accepting that I don't look that way anymore."

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Hewitt explains that this experience has been hard for her.

"That part of it's hard because as humans I think we want to evolve, like we want to have lines on our faces and have, you know, our boobs be lower from breastfeeding our children or, you know, our butts bigger," she said with a laugh.

"Whatever it is, you know, you just want to have the freedom to be whoever you are at that age.

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"And it's hurtful sometimes when people reject you as you are verbally on, you know, Instagram or the internet because they're having a hard time adjusting to it."

While it's "hurtful" to Hewitt, she also says she's conscious of keeping conversations like this away from her 11-year-old daughter Autumn.

"And because I have a daughter, I'm sensitive to it because I don't want my kids to read those things and feel that way — or worry about me being hurt by it," she explained.

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It's not the first time Hewitt has called out the ageism experienced by women in the public eye.

Last year Hewitt posted a photo of her new, much-shorter, hairdo to her 1.5 million Instagram followers and it attracted myriad comments from users about her looks with some wondering if she had had plastic surgery.

Speaking to Michael Rosenbaum in an episode of the Inside of You podcast last year, Hewitt addressed the experience.

She said she "[didn't] want to say ageing is hard" as she feels privileged to still be living life, but she did say that "ageing in Hollywood is really hard".

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Hewitt highlighted the hate she received after using a filter while she got her hair done in August, noting she did so because she "had not a stitch of makeup on".

Rosenbaum then asked Hewitt why she focuses "so much on these a------- who have nothing better to do than to put you down", to which Hewitt responded: "Because to pretend that we don't, is a lie."

"You don't want to care what people think about you, but you have to care what people think about you," the Party of Five actress said.

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