Melissa McCarthy has expressed her belief that inclusivity is crucial as she graces the cover of People magazine’s 2023 Beautiful Issue.

Starting off with disbelief at being the cover star for People, Melissa first joked, “Did my mom and my dad have the two main votes?”. 

However, the Little Mermaid actress then elaborated on the significance of this recognition to her.

“I thought the younger version of myself or everybody out there who isn’t the youngest or whatever… I felt like it was saying something really lovely to my younger self, to my 20-year-old self,” she says. “And maybe to other people, too.”

She rememberd how she tried the trends of her time to fit in but it didn’t work out because she wasn’t cut out to be that way.

“And then came the Mohawks and the blue hair. I mean, on the outside, I was a really good punk and gothic kid, but then I was terrible because I was really chatty. So I looked like I was going to maybe get into a fist fight. And then I was like, ‘Hi! What’s your name?'”

Melissa also said that for her, inclusivity is “not just wonderful, we need it. We crave it. It’s like everybody just, you want to be loved. I want to be loved,”

The actress, now 52, has one simple rule of life: Just be kind.