Sarah Michelle Gellar has admitted that she hated being known for her breakthrough character.

The actress starred in Buffy the Vampire Slayer from 1997 to 2003.

But she tells the spring 2012 issue of Bullet magazine that being known as the demon-slayer used to really get to her.

"Back then, if you'd called me Buffy I would probably have been really annoyed," she admitted to the publication.

"Now, of course, I get it and I'm appreciative of it. But that's something that comes with maturity, which most people don't have when they're 24-years-old."

Sarah also revealed that she got her partying out of the way when she was younger and can now appreciate a slower pace of life with husband Freddie Prinze Jr. and being mother to daughter Charlotte, two.

"I've definitely smoked cigarettes, and I've partied plenty," she revealed. "I just got it out of my system early. I was lucky enough to have had my experiences when I was younger and out of the public eye."

"When I was younger, I was very careful not to I just didn't want to be seen with a drink in my hand. People looked up to [Buffy], and she was a character that girls respected."

But now juggling motherhood with her role on the Ringer, Sarah says that she has a renewed appreciation for her career and life in general.

"For me, having a child was that clichd, life-altering experience where everything took on a different meaning," she said.

"Things that had once been priorities had no meaning to me anymore, and things that I'd never thought about suddenly became things that were on my mind.

"If I'd known how happy having a child would make me, I probably would have had one a long time ago."