Kristen Bell Shares Her Advice For Her Daughters

One of the reasons Veronica Mars vet and sloth enthusiast Kristen Bell wanted to be in the Melissa McCarthy comedy The Boss , is because just like her character Claire, Bell knows what it's like to be a hardworking mother juggling both a career and a family. Now a mom to two young girls, Lincoln and Delta, Bell related to Claire. "I certainly can't relate to being a single mom, because I have a very involved husband," she says of husband of three years, Dax Shepard. "But I can imagine how difficult it would be, and I can certainly relate to wanting to have your daughter grow up feeling empowered and feeling like she has opportunities."

In The Boss, Bell's Claire is a single mother working for titan of industry Michelle (McCarthy), who is sent to prison for insider trading. When Michelle emerges from her sentence ready to rebrand herself, she enlists former assistant Claire, who has a killer brownie recipe, to help her build a brownie empire. But the women find competition in a Girl Scout-esque organization selling their own cookies.

"I grew up in the Brownies," Bell says. "I came up in it before it graduated into the Girl Scouts, and I loved it. I think there are a lot of benefits to separating the sexes at times, like during adolescence, to create a really safe place to talk about embarrassing topics, and make kids feel like they can belong."

Despite Bell's positive experience, the film offers a few subtle jabs at these organizations, pointing out that some of the outdated lessons girls are allegedly learning, like how to be a good hostess and how to carry a conversation. Bell ensures her daughters are taught what's important at home. "What I try to focus on, at least with my girls, is identifying who you really are and loving that person," the 35-year-old actor says. "Finding what makes you unique — because if you're unique you're indispensable. If you fall in line, you're immediately replaceable."

Bell has certainly followed her own advice, making herself indispensable with a successful television and movie career, a public but highly admired relationship, and plenty of viral videos ("Africa," anyone?). But nowadays, Bell wants to be involved in more stories centered around families, because according to the Frozen actor, "any good story is ultimately about family, whether it's on the surface or hidden far beneath."

"The Boss is about a family of three women: a mom, a kid, and a friend," she says of the trio of ladies — McCarthy, herself, and the young actor, Ella Anderson, who plays her daughter on screen. "Family is what you make of it. If you want to label yourself a family, then you can. I don't think it needs to follow any mathematical equation."

According to Bell, the message of the film is simple: "Don't let anyone tell you you can't, because anything is possible."

It sounds a little cheesy — like Bell has been watching too many Disney flicks with her girls — but self-empowerment is a lesson you're never too young (or old) to learn.

Images: Universal