Ashley Olsen is amazed she managed to avoid the pitfalls of early stardom, insisting that the pressures of showbusiness should have caused her to have a public breakdown, similar to the one suffered by Britney Spears.

Ashley and her twin sister Mary-Kate have been in the public eye since they were hired as infants to star as Michelle Tanner on the ABC sitcom Full House in 1987.

“I look at Britney, and I’m surprised I didn’t end up like her,” Ashley, now 23, remarks in the September issue of Marie Claire Magazine.

Ashley has taken a vacation from acting, instead turning her focus to nurturing her growing fashion empire. She confesses that her stressful childhood has left her jaded toward showbusiness, “(Growing up) it was almost like I was in the army. School, work, homework, fly to New York, get in at two in the morning, do a morning show at 5am, then another one at seven, then a radio interview at 10.”