Kaitlin Olson looks glam long hair, somber expression

Years before Kaitlin Olson was a familiar face on TV, she had an accident that left her needing serious medical attention.

The High Potential actress previously detailed what happened to her when she explained the “doozy” which resulted in her face and skull being reconstructed.

Kaitlin Olson speaks on a panel for "High Potential" at the Deadline Contenders Television 2025 held at the Directors Guild of America on April 06, 2025 in Los Angeles, California© Deadline via Getty Images
Kaitlin confessed it was a difficult time

Kaitlin had a bicycle accident at the age of 12 that she described as “really, really bad.”

“Yeah, that was a doozy,” she told Glamour. “I still have a hole in my head. It was the size of a lime. Now it’s the size of a quarter. It was bad. I had my head shaved, and this was all going into junior high school. I also smashed my face and had to have surgery. It was bad, it was really, really bad.”

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Kailtin suffered bullying due to her recovery at such an awkward phase in her life. “No 12 or 13-year-old girl wants to walk into her first day of junior high with a swollen face and a shaved head and a [huge] scar. It was bad.”

Kaitlin’s recovery wasn’t helped by the fact she was an introvert in the playground.

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“I was a funny kid at home, but I was a very, very shy kid at school,” she added. “This just threw me into a real tailspin. I just wanted to hide.”

Bullying

Not that every child reacted to her injuries the same.

“Some people were really nice, but some kids were really mean,” she recalled. “I remember standing in a lunch line once and this kid named Casey Johnson was somewhere behind me in line throwing jelly beans at me trying to get them to land in the hole in my head. I was like, ‘Are you kidding me?! Who does that?!’ It was rough.”

Kaitlin shares two children with her husband Rob Mac, but she refuses to let her accident scare them from childhood experiences.

Her own parenting

kaitlin olson and rob mcelhenney pose on red carpet© Getty Images
Kaitlin shares two boys with her husband Rob

“I don’t think it’s always helpful to say, ‘Be careful! Be careful!’ because then they get fearful,” Kaitlin expressed.

“So, the thing around my house is I say, “Check in with your body. You need to keep yourself safe.” I try to teach them to be aware of their surroundings and keep themselves safe.”

kaitlin olson black dress © Getty Images
Fortunatley, Kaitlin made a full recovery

She added: “I’m really trying to teach my kids to look around and figure out what to do to keep yourself safe and then go for it. You gotta take risks, but take the helmet!