Over the years, actress Katherine Heigl has gotten a pretty bad rap – but it’s nothing that cannot be forgiven with time and good behavior. Heigl rose to fame gradually over the years, coming into the Hollywood game at a very young age. But it wasn’t until she took on the role of Isabel Stevens on Shonda Rhimes’ medical drama series Grey’s Anatomy.

As the years went on and the show became more popular, Heigl became vocal about her displeasure in not only her character but of the writing of the show. So much so that she didn’t even submit her name for an Emmy contention. She was eventually written out of the show and tried to downplay the entire mess.

Since then, she’s been on a rollercoaster career-wise. Here are 20 flattering facts about the actress.

20 She’s Besties With Ellen DeGeneres

I mean, how bad can one person be if she’s close friends with one of the nicest people in show business? This happens to be the case with Katherine and talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. Ellen has a very short list of close, personal friends and Heigl happens to be on that list. She even attended Ellen’s wedding to Portia de Rossi!

19 She’s An Instagram Mom

Like a lot of famous moms in this day and age, Katherine constantly brags about her family, especially her children, on her Instagram account. She’s always praising her children, whether it’s on their birthdays, on holidays, or just a simple Sunday, Katherine is always posing the most adorable and relatable things.

18 It Was Her Aunt Who Got Katherine’s Career Kickstarted

Katherine was still a mere child when she became a model (before leaping into acting) and it was her aunt who helped her jumpstart her entire career. Apparently, her aunt took photos of her niece (with her parents’ permission) and sent them to modeling agencies. She was quickly discovered this way and became a model.

17 She Constantly Topped “Most Attractive” Lists

Since becoming an actress after modeling, Katherine has topped “Most attractive” lists all over the world – including People’s Most Attractive People and Maxim’s Sexiest. Even when she was in hot water for saying the wrong thing from time to time, she still is considered one of the most attractive actresses on the planet.

16 She’s A Huge Animal Rights Activist

Along with her acting, Katherine and her mother Nancy founded The Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, which works to end animal cruelty and overpopulation. “We established the foundation in 2008 and chose to honor and leave a legacy for [my brother] who died in a car accident at 15,” she said to Entertainment Weekly. Jason was a lover of all animals.

15 …And She Even Was Given "The Presidential Service Award" For Her Work

Katherine is a solid fixture in the animal rights world and does excellent work – so amazing that she was even awarded the Presidential Service Award for her work in the field. The ASPCA honored her back in 2010 and she hasn’t slowed down in the time since when it comes to her animal welfare work (just check out her Twitter feed).

14 She’s A Big Family Person

Family has always been number one in Katherine’s life from the get-go. She came from a large family and is building a large family of her own. As we said before, Katherine tragically lost her older brother when he was only 15 years old in an automobile accident when she was 8-years old herself. She is still close with her parents and sister.

13 And Managed To Keep Her Chin Up During Rough Patches

There was a low point in Katherine’s life where she was knocked down (or, yet, managed to knock herself down by just speaking her mind), but throughout many ordinals, she was able to keep her head above water thanks to her family and her charity work. She knew that eventually, she would be able to work again without ridicule.

12 She Carefully Balanced Both Work And School

When she was young and just starting out with her modeling career, Katherine was able to carefully manage both her academic studies and her young career. She attended New Canaan High School and was able to do both for a time, but she eventually caught the acting bug and dropped out during her sophomore year to focus on her career.

11 She Uses Twitter To Brag About Her Hubby And Kids

If you venture over to her Twitter feed or her Instagram page, you’ll see that a majority of Katherine’s posts revolve around her children. Not a lot of celebrities allow their fans to see that much of their personal lives, so it’s refreshing to see a star of Katherine’s caliber be so open about her relationship with her family.

10 She’s Set To Make Her Return To TV

It was announced last July that Katherine is set to return to the small screen with the adaptation of Kristin Hannah’s novel Firefly Lane on Netflix. Katherine is going to play one of the lead characters, Tully Hart. The show revolves around the lifelong friendship of two young girls who have a falling out. She’s not only starring in it but producing as well.

9 Katherine Does Regret Some Things In Her Past

Since Grey’s and Shonda Rhimes were one of the main reasons Heigl’s star shot forward, Katherine admitted that she just should’ve “shut up” about her displeasure with her character. “I wasn’t feeling food about my work that season, no,” she told Howard Stern on his radio program. “I didn’t feel good about my performance.”

8 Therapy Really Helped Her

Upset by all the backlash she received, she was driven to therapy. “I started going because of the scrutiny, and I was not handling it well,” she told Howard Stern. “I was really struggling with it, and how not to take it all really personally, and not to feel like there’s something really deeply wrong with me.” And yes, it helped.

7 She’s Almost Unrecognizable As A Brunette (In A Good Way!)

For the Netflix series, Katherine changed her trademarked blonde hair to a darker shade and she ended up debuting it on her Instagram feed/story. “If you haven’t caught my stories this will be a shock for you…” she wrote on Instagram. Apparently, the process took three hours to complete and we have to say, she looks AMAZING.

6 Two Of Her Children Are Adopted

Both Katherine and her husband Josh had adopted their daughters, and Katherine said she always knew she would adopt since her older sister is adopted. “Anyone who doesn’t have experience with adoption wonders, does love for a child come through DNA?” she said during an interview. “I knew it didn’t.”

5 And So Is Her Sister, Meg

Katherine is extremely close to her older sister Meg, who was adopted before Katherine was born. “My sister Meg is Korean, and my parents adopted her three years before I was born,” she said. “I wanted my own family to resemble the one I came from, so I always knew I would adopt from Korea (her daughter Naleigh).”

4 She Met Her Husband By Starring In His Music Video

Back in 2005, Katherine met her future husband, singer Josh Kelley, when she starred in his music video for his hit song “Only You”. A year later, they became engaged. An interesting fact about them as a couple is that they chose not to live together until they were married. “I just wanted to save something for the actual marriage.”

3 She’s A Top Notch “Last Minute” Mom

Katherine appears to be the mom that all moms should aspire to be when it comes to last-minute costume ideas. “Completely forgot Halloween was Thursday,” Katherine tweeted. “Madly dug around in a closet Wednesday night trying to find costumes and cobbled this all together at the eleventh hour.” And man, did she do a great job.

2 She’s Still Very Close With Her Childhood Friends

A lot of times, we tend to fall out of touch with our good childhood friends – life just gets in the way. The thing about Katherine is that she’s still extremely close to her childhood friends and even got together with them recently for a 20-year reunion in Vancouver. She even shared the experience on Twitter to all her followers with pics.

1 Overall, She’s Just A Very Happy And Delightful Human

One story doesn’t tell it all about a person, and Katherine’s story wasn’t over when her career hit a few bumps along the road. She’s still thriving, is working again, all while raising a beautiful family with her husband and seems to be in perfect bliss. We all aren’t perfect and make mistakes, and Katherine is only human.

References: cheatsheet, vanityfair, ew, variety, pagesix, today, scholastic