Melissa Joan Hart Reveals the Story Behind the Weird Prop She Took from the Sabrina Set: 'A Piece of My Face' (Exclusive)

Twenty years after the last episode Sabrina the teenage witch aired, Melissa Joan Hart still holds on to a few things from her time on the beloved series.

“I have a few candle holders,” she tells PEOPLE. “I have some Italian ceramic things hanging on the wall in my pantry.”

Melissa Joan Hart as Sabrina the Teenage Witch in 1996.

ABC/Viacom/Kobal/Shutterstock

But there is one memory that stands above the rest.

“I have a part of my face from the episode where I fell apart, which I think was called ‘Falling to Pieces’ or something about Sabrina’s pieces,” she recalls, possibly referring to the season 6 finale episode titled “I Fall to Pieces ” “, which ends with Sabrina petrified and disintegrating.

Beth Broderick, Melissa Joan Hart and Caroline Rhea in ‘Sabrina the Teenage Witch’ 1996.

ABC/Viacom/Kobal/Shutterstock

Included in her collection is a piece from the first episode she ever directed: an airplane propeller.

“It was supposed to be cut in the scene, and the whole crew signed it for me,” she says, sharing that it now sits on a bookshelf displayed to the side.

Hart, 48, says that while she knows fans “felt right at home with Sabrina,” in terms of her own experience, she had a hard time connecting with the role.

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“Not only was she younger than me, but she didn’t want the attention,” Hart explains, noting that she was 20 at the time but playing a teenager. “She wanted to be a wall flower. She didn’t know what to do with those magical abilities. She felt very lost, and other people were trying to help her sort it out.”

She added: “If she wasn’t always in different costumes and somehow putting herself in these weird situations where I was Cinderella or Alice Wonderland or a trapeze artist or Cirque du Soleil or whatever I don’t know if I would have enjoyed the experience just as much neither did I because I just didn’t identify with her very well.”

Melissa Joan Hart in ‘Clarissa Explains It All’ 1991.

United Archives GmbH/Alamy

In comparison, when he looks back on his role as the titular character Clarissa explains everything, which ran from 1991 to 1994 on Nickelodeon, Hart says she grew up off camera just as her character did in front of her.

“Be included Clarissa she gave me that freedom to kind of figure out who I am while she’s figuring out who she is,” she says of starting on the show when she was 15. “So the line is really blurred between me and Clarissa – we were exactly the same age.”

Melissa Joan Hart is 48 years old! Enjoy 10 perfectly magical photos of the 90s ‘teenage witch’ in her TV prime

Although she spent much of her early career entertaining children’s audiences, Hart is now a mother to three boys of her own with her husband of 20 years, Mark Wilkerson. Ahead of Mother’s Day, Hart tells PEOPLE she has three things on her wish list: “If they go out and plant six hydrangeas for me, I’ll get some food, and they’re just nice to me, I’ll be happy.”

Melissa Joan Hart and her family in 2022.

Melissa Joan Hart’s Instagram

When she’s not busy working on new projects or parenting her sons, Hart gives her time and money to World Vision — an organization that helps those living in poverty. Through her work, Hart has sponsored three children in Zambia, an effort that “felt natural” to her.

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“I’m the oldest of eight children, so I’ve always felt a certain responsibility towards the younger generation of people who look up to you,” she says. “And being a mom is in a way similar to me and my relationship with my sisters and brother. But I’ve always kind of felt that we have a responsibility to take care of others.”

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Source: HIS Education