Sandra Bullock Shares the Advice She Would Give Her Younger Self

PEOPLE’s 2015 World’s Most Beautiful Woman, Sandra Bullock, opens up in her most revealing interview ever. Subscribe now for instant access to this exclusive interview, plus almost 200 more breathtaking beauties, only in PEOPLE!

Sandra Bullock is one of Hollywood’s highest-earning stars, yet PEOPLE’s 2015 World’s Most Beautiful Woman is still humble about her journey.

“I’ve never been a great beauty. I’ve never been the bombshell that was coveted,” she tells PEOPLE in this week’s cover story. “In an odd way, that made growing older a lot easier in this business. I guess I’m doing it on my own terms, and that is my wish for everyone.”

So what advice would she give her younger self? “Oh wow, that list is long,” says, Bullock, who wore earrings by Crowe Jewelry in the cover shoot for this week’s issue. “But I wish I could go back and tell myself to not worry so much. I wasted so much time with worry. I wish I could get it back.”

Now, as a mom to her 5-year-old son Louis, Bullock has shifted her focus to more pressing matters.

“Am I the mother my son deserves? And am I living my authentic life, am I good enough, working hard enough, am I able to keep my son safe? Did I pick up all the dog poop in the yard before the playdate?” she says.

“Worrying used to be very paralyzing for me, and now I can talk myself off the ledge. Louis is the one who snapped me out of it.”

While Bullock, 50, has found comfort in motherhood, she admits she’s never particularly embraced seeing herself perform on film. “I don’t watch myself, but I’ve gotten better about looking at the work,” she allows. “I don’t mind aging on film, I just don’t feel beautiful. If I see myself on TV, I flip right by it; I do not stop.”

But the actress has kept a few mementos along the way. “I have the Gravity spacesuit hanging in my closet next to my event gowns,” she adds. “One of these days it’s going to get worn in the carpool lane at school.”

For more of Bullock’s exclusive interview – in which she opens up about family and her life as a mom – pick up this week’s special issue of PEOPLE, on newsstands Friday.

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