Former sitcom star Berkley turns to helping teens

Syndication has helped resurrect many a TV actor's career. For Elizabeth Berkley, 38, who played the outspoken, brainy feminist teen Jessie on the now-syndicated '90s sitcom Saved by the Bell, it has been a call to service.

"For five years, I have been facilitating a self-esteem workshop I created for teen girls in middle schools and high schools all around the country," says the actor and self-help guru. She will sign copies of her new book, Ask Elizabeth: Real Answers to Everything You Secretly Wanted to Ask about Love, Friends, Your Body and Life in General (Putnam, $16.99), Tuesday at Barnes & Noble on Rittenhouse Square.

Berkley says that when Saved by the Bell went into syndication seven years ago, she was confronted by a new generation of girls who sought her advice on "body-image issues, sex, even bullying. . . . As a girl growing up in the media, I know what those pressures are like."

Encouraged by her husband, artist Greg Lauren (Ralph Lauren's nephew), Berkley founded the nonprofit organization Ask-Elizabeth (http://ask-elizabeth.com) five years ago. "So far, I have reached 35,000 teens" through the group, she says. She will add to that number Tuesday and Wednesday, when she leads workshops for 1,000 girls from various Philadelphia public schools.

Why focus on self-esteem?

"So many of the actions we take in life are based on . . . how we feel about ourselves," says Berkley. "And [that] is based on feedback we get from others. . . . And the more we are instilled with positive feedback," the healthier we are.