There probably hasn’t been a more famous pair of twins than Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, who first rose to fame at the tender age of 9 months, after they appeared in the hit sitcom “Full House.” After they spent much of their childhood and teenage years starring in movies and shows, they left the limelight for a while before they reappeared as bonafide fashion designers. No longer acting, the twins are instead fixtures in the fashion world with their incredibly successful labels The Row and Elizabeth and James.
Although they were probably the most famous child actors of the ’80s and ’90s, Mary-Kate and Ashley have a sibling who might not be as famous as them but has worked just as hard in the acting world. That sibling is their younger sister Elizabeth Olsen, who is three years younger than the twins. Mary-Kate and Ashley had a huge head start as they began acting at younger than 1-year-old while Elizabeth eschewed acting as a child and instead got her start as a young adult. But that doesn’t mean she’s lacking in talent. In fact, Elizabeth has built a very respectable career for herself after getting started in the theater. She’s even won various awards and really proven herself as a talented actress in the last 10 years.
But while it might seem like being the sister of very famous siblings has its perks, which we’re sure it does, Elizabeth revealed in 2021 that at one point she actually considered changing her name so that her family connection wasn’t so obvious. But despite that and the fact that we don’t get to see much interaction between the sisters, that doesn’t mean they aren’t close. Let’s take a look at their famous family.
Mary-Kate And Ashley Olsen’s Rise To Fame
Hailing from Sherman Oaks, California, Mary-Kate and Ashley were born in 1986, and as their surname might suggest, have Norwegian and Danish roots. Ashley is the older twin of the pair as she was born just two minutes before Mary-Kate. What some people might not know is that the girls aren’t actually identical twins but fraternal, which means that they only share some of the same genes and actually could have turned out looking much more different.
After they auditioned for “Full House” when they were just 6 months old, the girls were cast in the role of Michelle Tanner. The show aired from 1987 to 1995 and was a huge success — audiences fell in love with them and the world got to see them literally grow up in front of their eyes. Although now it’s well known, at the time the producers wanted to keep it secret that Michelle was played by twins, so they were credited simply as “Mary Kate Ashley Olsen.” The reason it helped that twins played the one character was to comply with child labor laws.
But while the girls brought happiness to viewers, years later, Mary-Kate told Marie Claire magazine that it wasn’t all positive from their end. She described them as “little monkey performers” in reference to their youth spent in front of the cameras. She added:
“I look at old photos of me, and I don’t feel connected to them at all… I would never wish my upbringing on anyone…”
It’s sad knowing that the twins weren’t truly happy with their childhood in the spotlight, but at least they’ve been able to make choices to lead more private lives as they’ve gotten older.
In 1995, when “Full House” stopped airing, their parents divorced, which also made an impact on them. But instead of slowing down with the end of the show, their work schedule ramped up, as they founded and became CEOs of their own company Dualstar, which they are still in charge of today. This period saw them shoot nearly 30 movies, record albums, make music videos and release a book series. By the age of 10, they became the youngest self-made millionaires in American history, according to The Telegraph. Less than a decade after “Full House” ended, the girls shot their last movie together in 2004, titled “New York Minute.” It was a critical flop and soon after the girls said goodbye to Hollywood.
But one door closing led to another opening — known for their incredible sense of style since a young age, the girls moved their focus to fashion, and created two fashion labels called The Row and Elizabeth and James, the latter of which was named after their two siblings. Speaking with British Vogue in 2019, Mary-Kate said, as reported by Elle:
“We’ve been there, we’ve done that, we started out that way. But this is the way we chose to move forward in our lives: to not be in the spotlight, to really have something that speaks for itself.”
These days the twins rarely attend public events, but considering they spent their entire childhood in front of the camera, it’s no surprise they’d want some privacy now, and they definitely deserve it.
After they left acting to pursue their careers in fashion, Mary-Kate and Ashley spoke to Vogue in 2011 about the change in direction. On the topic of their career switch, Ashley explained:
“I am so proud of what we did. We made kids smile every day. But we had done the most we could do.”
When asked if it was frightening to stop, considering they had acted since before they were less than 1 year old, Mary-Kate admitted, “There was a fear, but also, an exhale.” Another major change around this time that helped Mary-Kate and Ashley achieve more privacy was making the move from Los Angeles to New York. Ashley told Vogue in the same interview:
“The press here in New York respect you more. It was the worst in Los Angeles when we got our license. They would follow us. They knew where we lived. And you don’t know who these people are. People just out of jail.”
In the same interview, Mary-Kate admitted that the situation had made them “paranoid.” It’s no wonder the Olsen twins wanted to get out of the entertainment industry and L.A. if it affected their personal lives and wellbeing so much. At least they got out when they did, instead of soldiering through and potentially ending up in bad situations — something that isn’t uncommon for child actors.
And while acting didn’t prove to be the twins’ lifelong passion, one of their siblings took over the reins in the family — their younger sister Elizabeth. Let’s take a look at her journey to where she is today.
Elizabeth Olsen’s Early Life
Mary-Kate Olsen, Ashley Olsen (2002), (Annamaria DiSanto/WireImage/Getty Images)
Born on Feb. 16, 1989, just three years after Mary-Kate and Ashley, Elizabeth arrived into the Olsen family while her older sisters were already famous for being on “Full House.” Although she did appear in small parts in her sisters’ films and shows, including “How the West Was Fun” and “The Adventures of Mary-Kate and Ashley,” she didn’t go down the same path her older sisters did for a reason.
In conversation with Parade, Elizabeth explained that she loved Frank Sinatra musicals and always knew she wanted to act, but that her parents were direct with her about what acting from a young age would mean. She told the magazine:
“What happened was my parents said, “OK, well if that’s what you really want to do, then you have to know that you are going to risk not being a part of the sports team, you’re going to have to risk not being a part of ballet after school.” And so, I did that for three months of my childhood, but it wasn’t worth it to me to work for a living.”
She goes on to say that what she “saw (her) sisters do was work, not play.” After her father asked her to write a pro and cons list about whether she would continue acting while still a child when she was in the fourth grade, Elizabeth came to the decision that “it was more important for (her) to be able to do extracurriculars.” It’s a very mature approach and perhaps the Olsen parents even learned a thing or two after the unprecedented success of Mary-Kate and Ashely’s childhood acting careers.
After having a regular childhood, Elizabeth then struggled with the decision of pursuing acting once again. She explained to Parade that since she’s from L.A., it’s kind of expected to want to become an actor and she felt it was “embarrassing,” especially since she was a very academic student. She then figured she’d do something like becoming an accountant as she was good at math.