If you are a red blooded male who grew up in the 80s, you compared every possible girlfriend to Gwendolyn “Winnie” Cooper, Kevin Arnold’s love interest on the hit ABC series “The Wonder Years.” She was sweet, smart and loyal, and if you dont agree, you may not have a pulse. The character was created by Carol Black & Neal Marlens, but was brought to life by Danica McKellar.
Brace yourselves: That idolized teenager turns 37 today. And we here at UnderScoopFire are proudly celebrating.
After the series ended in 1993, Danica continued to act, spending most of the 90’s doing guest spots on cable and network television shows. She enjoyed a return to the spotlight for her 8 episode arc on The West Wing in 2002, and has since been on episodes of “How I Met Your Mother” and “The Big Bang Theory.”
We always knew Winnie was a smart girl on The Wonder Years. Who knew Danica was even smarter? She graduated from UCLA summa cum laude with a degree in Mathematics and coauthored a scientific paper. She has a theorem named after her!
She has also written three books about Math, all which have been on The New York Times children’s best sellers list! The books are targeted at middle school girls, encouraging them to take interest in math.
Currently, she can be heard voicing M’gann Morez/Miss Martian of the superhero animated series “Young Justice.”
Enjoy your day Winnie, er Danica! We salute you.
Follow Danica on Twitter @danicamckellar
