Actress Barbara Eden made her film debut way back in 1956, Back from Eternity. This was then followed by a series of unremarkable films throughout the 50s and ’60s. Then in 1965, she hit it big when she played the role of a genie in the bottle on the TV sitcom ‘I Dream of Jeannie,’ opposite Larry Hagman. The popular show ran for five years.

After she published a memoir, 2012’s Jeannie Out of the Bottle, Barbara Eden is now setting her sights on the younger readers. She launched her first children’s book – Barbara and the Djinn.

This is her first-ever book for kids. The 90-year-old iconic Hollywood star opened up on how she got inspired to write the children’s book before it was released in August. Barbara sat down for an interview to talk about it where she revealed the inspiration and how the book really came to be.

She said that the book is all about promoting empathy. So what inspired her to write the book?

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, she said that she was in Australia in 2013 when Dustin Warburton, a writer, was also there and they met up and talked about books. During their conversation, they decided that they should be writing a children’s book together.

She said, “I’m a reader, and I think it’s a wonderful gift for a child. My aunt and my mother read to me when I was 2, 3, and 4 years old, enough that it just made my imagination bloom. When I was old enough, they took me to the library and I got my own library card. By the time I was 7, 8, 9, and 10, I would go to the library on a Saturday and check out the full limit of books — six at a time — and bring them home to read all week.”

She adds, “I started with The Secret Garden and read all of the Oz books. I remember I did all the Zane Greys, all of the Western books. I’m so grateful for that time because it really transported me to another world. That doesn’t mean I didn’t go to the movies — I did and loved them — but I would’ve never had an understanding of other people, other countries, other cultures if I hadn’t started reading young. The imagination is a wonderful thing to have if it’s used.”

Talking about her new masterpiece, Barbara and the Djinn, she shares that it follows a little girl on a journey of finding unique beings who need help. “It’s very simple,” she said. “And it’s all about understanding people who are different and having empathy and love for them. When the Djinn comes out of the lamp, she deals with it and goes on a journey. We couldn’t use a bottle because we don’t own the rights,” the star adds.

And now that she’s coming back to work anytime next year, she was asked if there’s anything else that she wanted to accomplish after publishing her first children’s book. She said, “Bring it on. I like to work. I really do. It’s just what I do. That’s all, that’s my life.”

There is no doubt that for Barbara Eden, age is just a number.