Danica McKellar is honoring her son Draco’s milestone 16th birthday with a nostalgic Instagram tribute.
The former “Wonder Years” star, 51, posted a slideshow of more than a dozen photos Monday tracing her only child’s life from newborn to towering teenager. The collection opened with the very first picture she ever took with him — a hospital snapshot from September 2010 showing McKellar cradling baby Draco, wrapped in a white blanket and matching hat, as she gazed down at her newborn son. The final image captured the present day: Draco now stands head and shoulders above his famous mother in a selfie that underscores how much has changed.
“How is my baby 16?? 🥲❤️,” McKellar wrote in her caption. “Here’s the first picture I ever took with you, and the most recent, and then lots of pictures in between!”
She continued, “Draco, I love you so much and I’m so proud of the (tall!) young man you’ve become!! Happy birthday!!!!”
McKellar shares Draco with ex-husband Mike Verta, a composer. The couple married in March 2009 and split in June 2012, with their divorce finalized the following year.
The actress has been candid over the years about how motherhood transformed her perspective. Speaking to People in 2013, she described the shift in emotional terms.
“You tap into this love that you didn’t even know was possible. I thought I knew what love was, but it’s crazy,” she said. “I love Draco with everything that I am — there’s no question about it.”
When Draco turned 13, McKellar spoke with Route magazine about her determination to stay present through his childhood.
“I refuse to believe that this incredible time in our lives is going to fly by,” she told the publication. “I still feel like he was two just yesterday, but I also remember all of that stuff in-between – and that helps me to not feel like I missed it, or like it passed me by.”
The birthday tribute arrives as McKellar marks her third year living far from the Hollywood spotlight. She relocated her family to a rural homestead outside Nashville in 2022, leaving behind the Los Angeles life she had known since her breakthrough role as Winnie Cooper on the ABC coming-of-age series.
During a 2024 appearance on the “Hey Dude.. The ’90s Called” podcast, McKellar traced the roots of her departure to the professional frustration that followed the show’s 1993 conclusion. She recalled feeling pigeonholed by the role that had made her famous.
“Everywhere I went it was, ‘Hey aren’t you that girl you know that played Winnie? Aren’t you that girl from TV?'” she recounted.
McKellar also acknowledged wrestling with insecurity after the series ended. She enrolled at UCLA partly to escape the entertainment industry’s narrow expectations, and found validation in an unexpected place.
“It was the greatest feeling… It was just me,” she shared, describing how classmates recognized her academic abilities rather than her acting credits.
That academic detour eventually led McKellar to publish multiple mathematics books for children, establishing a second career that flourished away from film sets and red carpets. The Tennessee move represented the culmination of a gradual retreat from celebrity life that began with her college years.
The homestead setting now frames her parenting approach. While she occasionally returns to acting — including a string of Hallmark Channel films — McKellar has constructed a life centered on family rather than fame, a choice she has increasingly referenced in public reflections on motherhood.
Her Monday Instagram post drew no explicit mention of Hollywood or Nashville, focusing instead on the visual evidence of sixteen years of maternal devotion. The progression from hospital bed to height-reversal selfie offered its own narrative of time’s passage, rendered in the intimate format of a family photo album shared with her social media following.
The actress has not announced any upcoming projects tied to Draco’s birthday milestone.