Thanks to her iconic role as Blossom in the hit 90's sitcom of the same name, Mayim Bialik earned her place in the annals of 20th-century pop culture. References to Blossom and her signature hat still pop up everywhere from Saturday Night Live to The Simpsons.

Yet, at the height of her fame, Bialik walked away from it all. Beginning in the late 90's, Bialik was almost totally absent from TV for the better part of the decade, only making rare cameos. That's because she decided to pursue science instead, Bialik became an honest to goodness neuroscientist, earning her degree in neuroscience from UCLA in 2000, and then a doctorate in 2007.

So it would have been no surprise if Bialik had never returned to acting. But return she did, and in a big way, becoming a major cast member on The Big Bang Theory, where she played neurobiologist Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler for ten seasons.

So, what made her decide to return to acting? It turns out the answer is simple: family.

Bialik, who has two children, told Yahoo! News in 2012 that working in the entertainment industry simply gave her a lot more time to spend with her family than the demanding schedule of a working neuroscientist. She joked,

"I figured actors never work, so it's the perfect job to have!"

More seriously, though, Bialik is a proponent of attachment parenting, a practice that promotes bonding between infants and parents through physical contact. In fact, Bialik co-wrote a book on the subject, called Beyond the Sling. She told Yahoo! News,

"I'm very proud of [my Ph.D.], but the life of a research professor would not have suited my needs in terms of what kind of parenting I wanted to do."

And there was another practical reason that most people can identify with: she needed affordable health insurance for her family.

In 2017, Bialik revealed on ABC News' Popcorn with Peter Travers that despite her illustrious credentials and secure research gig, her options for family health coverage were extremely limited, and while a career in the arts doesn't necessarily scream "great benefits" to most, it was better than the options at hand at the time, especially since her husband at the time, Michael Stone, was in school.

She added,

"My then-husband was still working on his master's degree. I was teaching neuroscience for about five years. And I was not expecting to be a full-time actor. But this show called The Big Bang Theory brought me on."

Amusingly, when Bialik was first contacted about the opportunity to appear on The Big Bang Theory, she had no idea what it was. Not only had she never watched it, she knew nothing about it at all. In 2016 Bialik told the audience of the #BlogHer2016 Experts Among Us Conference that she was totally in the dark.

"I had never seen it. I had heard about it and thought it was a game show, 'cause someone told me I was mentioned on it, I think in the first season."

She also revealed that once she had the part, The Big Bang Theory co-creator Bill Prady ended up crafting the role of Dr. Amy Farrah Fowler specifically for her, making the character a neurobiologist so that Bialik could correct any mistakes in the script.

And the fact that Bialik, an actual neuroscientist, was able to play one on TV was a sort of kismet she found deeply meaningful, especially to young audiences with STEM aspirations. In 2016, Bialik told the Observer,

"I'm really proud that I'm working a show that highlights women in this way. I know a lot of female scientists from my time in college and grad school who were respected for their brain...and I like that a lot in this character."

So by choosing to switch careers, she actually ended up with the best of both worlds, acting, and putting her neuroscience skills to good use. How great is that?

#MayimBialik