This 70’s mop-haired child star who played a tomboy on classic TV series was spotted near her LA home… can you guess who it is?

She was once celebrated as the most popular teen actress of the 70s generation, with many young girls wanting to replicate her blown-out hair.

This actress’ tomboy persona and down-to-earth nature drew in many young girls throughout America.

Any kid watching television at that time would be hard-pressed not to see the mop-haired cuties in ABC’s public service announcements, a TV ‘movie of the week’ or an after-school special.

But after starring in a TV series classic, winning two Emmy awards and co-starring eight films it the overwhelmed actress abandoned Hollywood looking for a sense of normalcy.

And it seemed that she became comfortable enough to open up about who she was off the screen, stepping back into the public to reveal her big secret in 2012.

Can you guess who it is?

It’s Kristy McNichol!

The former child actress was spotted in a rare public appearance outside her home in Los Angeles.

She was dressed in a comfy outfit with a maroon polo robe and brown UGG slippers as she loaded up her white SUV with a white and green tote bag.

McNichol’s hair was cropped short and wavy while she carried a coffee cup in her left hand and a protein shake mixer in her right.

The actress has kept a low profile since she left Hollywood in the 90s – foregoing social media and only showing up to some press events.

But when she initially got on the show business circuit in the 70s, she made waves – especially being born and raised in Los Angeles.

Like many child stars, she wasn’t the only sibling trying to make it big. McNichol’s brother Jimmy started out alongside her in commercials before the two parted ways to go on solo gigs.

It would take only a few years for her to land one of her biggest roles as Letitia ‘Buddy’ Lawrence in the TV drama Family which ran for four years from 1976 to 1980.

McNichols would win two Emmy Awards and was only 14 years old when the show began, but her cheeky tomboy persona endeared her to fans and set her on a trajectory of success for the next two decades.

She would also dip her toes into the music industry alongside her brother through the musical numbers that would feature on TV specials. This would segue into the pair recording an album Kristy and Jimmy McNichol for RCA Records.

As her popularity grew, she developed a cult following for ABC’s Battle of the Network Stars which was a celebrity sports show she typically dominated in.

Her face became heavily associated with the network and her work on the TV movie Summer of My German Soldier was critically acclaimed.

But it would be her leading role in the 1980 coming-of-age film Little Darlings alongside Tatum O’Neil that would make her a heartthrob for teenagers – the premise being two girls with opposite and clashing personalities bunking together at summer camp and making a bet to see who can lose their virginity first.

At this point, McNichols was on a high, starring alongside Dennis Quaid and Mark Hamill in The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia (1980) and Only When I Laugh (1981) which got her nominated for a Golden Globe Award.

Unfortunately, 1982 would be the year she began to question her career path. The former actress told People Magazine that on her way to the set of Just the Way You Are, she felt she was ‘on the brink of a total emotional collapse’.

She had dealt with years of success, eight movies by that time, creepy advances by directors and unresolved questions about herself.

Throughout the filming of that film, she said she mustered the energy to pull through the scene since that’s what she knew all her life and then turned into a ‘sad little lost animal in the darkness’.

Her weight dropped, depression skyrocketed and was constantly haunted by strange dreams.

And when she finally refused to continue filming the movie, even though she returned on set a year later, the rumors of her mental state flew throughout the tabloids.

The culprit? The intense pressures of child stardom.

McNichol returned to TV a few more times, making appearances in Women of Valor (1986), You Can’t Hurry Love (1988) and Two Moon Junction (1988).

Her final big role was in 1988 as Barbara Weston in Empty Nest, a spin-off of the Golden Girls, but she left the show four years later after being diagnosed with bipolar disorder.

In 2001, she announced she had retired from acting and retreated to her Sherman Oaks home.

But she would come back into the public eye to reveal her biggest secret that had been the cause of speculation for years: her sexuality.

McNichols came out as a lesbian in 2012 and revealed that she had lived with her girlfriend, Martie Allen, for over 20 years.

It took decades to bring forth publicly, but McNichol said she hoped it may stop some children from becoming victims of homophobic bullying.

The former actress also said when she came out that another reason for discussing her sexuality now was because she is ‘approaching 50’ and wants to ‘be open about who I am.’