Drew Barrymore: ‘Detriment’ to youth is ‘biggest asset to my adulthood’

Drew Barrymore is set on giving her daughters a better childhood than she had.

The “E.T.” alum, whose tumultuous youth was well-chronicled, is now one of America’s sweethearts. She’s also More magazine’s latest cover star, sporting a striking brunet ‘do in its February issue.

Barrymore contended with an absentee mother, an abusive father and two stints in rehab as a teenager -- and she said she doesn’t want that kind of life for her daughters Olive, 2, and Frankie, 9 months,

“I didn’t really have parents, you know?” the 39-year-old told More’s Taffy Brodesser-Akner (via People). “And therefore the kind of parent I will be is a good, present parent.”

“In a way, maybe that was a detriment to my youth, but it’ll be the biggest asset to my adulthood,” she said.

The “Blended” and “Charlie’s Angels” star comes from a long line of actors whose iconic careers reach back to the era of silent films. She’s the daughter of actor John Drew Barrymore, who struggled with alcohol, drug abuse and violence. The pair were estranged for a some time before his death from cancer in 2004.

The former “Little Lost Girl’s” achievements include being an actress, wife, mother, Flower cosmetics founder, winemaker and bestselling author, among numerous other jobs, so it’s surprising that she said “women can’t do it all.”

But she qualified that potentially controversial statement.

“Quantum physics actually says you can’t do it all. Like, you can’t do everything at every minute of every day; it’s actually not mathematically, molecularly plausible,” she explained. “I do think that women can do everything they want to do ... especially if they work hard enough at it. I don’t believe anything comes easy. You have to earn everything in life.”

She echoed another recent statement about loving having a “normal life” now that she’s focusing on her cosmetics line rather than acting in movies, because it allows her more time with her family.

Follow me on Twitter @NardineSaad.