“Little House on the Prairie” star Melissa Gilbert explains why she “had to leave” Los Angeles

Melissa Gilbert, 60, talks about her decision to leave Los Angeles over a decade ago.

The Our little farm Star recently said People about why she felt she needed to escape Hollywood's “see and be seen” culture and its unrealistic beauty standards “in order to grow older.”

“I was under all that pressure,” recalls Gilbert, who landed the role of Laura Ingalls Wilder at age nine. “Living in Los Angeles, it's like living in a mall while you work there. Literally everyone is in that business. When you go into a restaurant, everyone turns to see who's come in. Everyone is always looking, curious, competing, and that's really difficult, especially for an actress. It puts a lot of pressure on you to stay slim and young, and it makes it really hard to be comfortable in your own skin because [of] the aging process.”

“No matter how much we delay it, it's inevitable,” she continued. “So are you going to age comfortably and happily? Are you going to fight it, live unhealthily, and feel like there's something wrong with aging and that you're defective because you've gotten older?”

Gilbert left Los Angeles and moved to Michigan with her husband, Timothy Busfield, in 2013. She soon stopped dyeing her hair and getting Botox and facial fillers, and had her breast implants removed in 2015.

“I had to get out of there [L.A.]because I felt like I wasn’t authentically myself,” said Gilbert People“In the five years I was at Michigan, all of that stopped. … I dropped everything and just focused on being as physically and emotionally healthy as I could. And I think that shows, 'Yes, I'm aging, but that's not a curse – it's a blessing.'”

Gilbert and Busfield now live in upstate New York.