'Little House on the Prairie' 's Melissa Gilbert on Aging: 'I Finally Feel Comfortable in My Own Skin' 

The actress no longer gets Botox or filler and tells PEOPLE she's never been happier

Melissa Gilbert. Photo: George Holz

Melissa Gilbert's days of chasing youth are behind her.

The Little House on the Prairie star, 57, first got her start in showbiz at age 9 when she landed the life-changing role of Laura Ingalls Wilder on the beloved TV series, which ran from 1974 to 1983.

Gilbert continued acting into adulthood, finding success in TV and films, but as she got older, she felt the pressure to stay youthful.

"I grew up in an industry that values the outside considerably more than the inside, and I was caught in that wheel of trying to stay young," she says in the latest issue of PEOPLE.

Melissa Gilbert. George Holz

Over the years, Gilbert — whose new book Back to the Prairie: A Home Remade, A Life Discovered is out May 10 — got Botox, fillers and plastic surgery, but that all changed when she had a midlife reassessment.

Melissa Gilbert as a child. NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty

"I finally woke up and went, 'What am I doing? I look like a carrot top, and I'm not happy,'" she says. "My mindset was, 'You have to stay thin. You have to be seen in the right places, wear the right shoes and drive the right car.' That was so drilled into me by all the outside forces. But it never sat right."

Melissa Gilbert on Little House on the Prairie. Everett

After marrying her husband actor Timothy Busfield in 2013, the couple moved to Howell, Michigan, where Gilbert embraced a more natural lifestyle.

"I cut off all my hair and quit doing Botox and all that stuff," she says of a decision that Busfield, 64, strongly backed. She also experienced a "reawakened love for the outdoors."

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Melissa Gilbert and her husband Timothy Busfield. George Holz

Since then, the pair have settled into a peaceful life at their mountainside cabin in New York's Catskill Mountains.

"I was always trying too hard to fit the mold that someone else wanted," says Gilbert. "I'm finally happy in my own skin. I'm so grateful and relieved and so much happier."

For more on Melissa Gilbert, pick up the latest issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday, or subscribe here.