She once had to judge a tighty-whitey contest for Lambda Kappa Pi. So trust that Reese Witherspoon can handle anything.
But even she can't believe her daughter, Ava Phillippe, turned 22 years old on Sept. 9. "Happy Birthday to my sweet little girl…excuse me… I mean my adult daughter!!!" she wrote in one Instagram tribute. "Words can't describe how proud I am of you. You have grown into an extraordinary person who cares so much about the world around her. I am so lucky to have you light up my life. I love you, Ava!!"
In honor of the occasion, the actress took a trip down memory lane and shared a series of photos of her firstborn from her childhood days on Instagram. One sweet snapshot showed a young "party princess" Ava eating a piece of birthday cake while another featured her wearing a pink ensemble during her toddler years. A third proved there's always been a strong resemblance between the mother-daughter duo and showed Reese holding Ava when she was a little girl.
"This person is turning 22 today," the Oscar winner, who shares Ava and 17-year-old son Deacon Phillippe with ex-husband Ryan Phillippe, captioned a photo along with a shocked emoji. It looks like her daughter appreciated the birthday wish, too and replied, "love u."
Reese was 22 years old when she was pregnant with Ava. During an interview on The Drew Barrymore Show last year, she recalled feeling "terrified."
"I didn't know how to balance work and motherhood," she said. "You just do it, you know?"
While Reese is an Oscar winner, the star of several popular films and TV shows and an entertainment mogul who just sold her production company for $900 million, she told Drew Barrymore she didn't know at the time if she'd have steady work and was just trying to figure it out.
"There's a lot of, first of all, compromise, " Reese, who also has 8-year-old son Tennessee with husband Jim Toth, said. "You take the food out of your mouth, the clothes off your back, the sleep out of your life. But every bit of it—every bit of that sacrifice is truly worth it because you feel like that's what makes me wake up on a Sunday. It's not movies or my job, it's my kids."
Celebrate Ava's birthday by looking back at photos of her and Reese over the years.
While enjoying a family summer vacation, Reese Witherspoon and Ava Phillippe posed for a selfie and proved just how beautiful their bond is.
The Big Little Lies star joked she "had to beg" Ava to rock matching Draper James holiday sweaters.
Reese and her mini-me daughter served some fresh winter fashion in January of this year in puffer coats.
The two ski bunnies snapped this cute selfie together before hitting the slopes.
The two looked like mirror images of one another in black dresses and a red lip in a post on Reese's Instagram in December of last year.
"Lunch with my girl," Reese captioned this cute candid of the two enjoying delicious-looking salads.
Talk about seeing double! The duo hits the red carpet for season two of Reese's show, Big Little Lies, in May 2019.
The duo celebrates Reese's 43rd birthday! Ava takes to Instagram to send a sweet message to her momma, saying, "You are such a generous, conscientious, and passionately kind person, and I am so blessed to bear witness to your light and love each and every day!"
In October 2018, Reese and her daughter stepped out at a gala in sexy little black dresses and they were totally twinning.
Clearly, Phillippe inherited her mom's killer, blonde locks and power stance.
Witherspoon enlisted her daughter for Draper James' spring collection in 2018 and if her goal was to make us do a double take it definitely worked.
As the duo celebrated Christmas in 2017 they looked cheerful in red.
We know it's hard, but if you look closely these two look related. Oh wait, that's not right...they look like identical twins!
In October 2017, the pair posed for photos in similar, but different ensembles. Notice the wavy locks, peep-toed heels and signature natural makeup looks both ladies rocked.
If it weren't for the Oscar winner's red lipstick, it would be quite the challenge telling these two apart.
It's clear Phillippe inherited her mama's signature grin.
Another day, another sweet mother-daughter snap of the actress and her lookalike daughter.
Yup, some genetic wizardy was definitely involved here.
There's no question these two are related, but Phillippe also looks a lot like her dad, Ryan Phillippe, here.
This mother-daughter duo resemble each other down to their shoe choice.
Even their side profiles match!
Makeup free and fabulous is something both of these ladies are on a regular basis.
In October 2015, Witherspoon and Phillippe had a fun girls' night and proved once again that they are birds of a feather.
Everything about this Mother's Day post makes us happy.
If you've ever wanted to see Witherspoon with blue locks then look no further!
Is it just us, or are we looking at two baby Reeses here?
From their piercing blue eyes to their platinum blonde locks, it was clear from day one that Phillippe was her mom's mini me.