This may be Jennie Garth's first appearance on Dancing with the Stars, but TV Guide reports the actress was asked twice before.

"But I've been having babies since I can remember," says Garth, now 35 and the mother of three with her husband, actor Peter Facinelli. "I was always pregnant or had just had a baby when the opportunity was brought to me. This time, it worked out with my life and my schedule."

Nevertheless, the former Beverly Hills, 90210 star had doubts about signing on.

"My husband said, 'You should do it,'" she says. "He was the one who sort of opened the box, in my mind. And then I started thinking that maybe it would be fun. But I feel like I just jumped off a cliff."

However, the hit reality how is a leap Garth prepared to take due to her love of dance. She studied ballet, tap and jazz between the ages of 11 and 14. Like Jane Seymour, she dreamed of becoming a professional in the dance world. Unlike Seymour, though, she saw herself more as a dance teacher than a prima ballerina.

"I dreamt of being on pointe," she says, "but I just didn't have the chops. There was just something inside of me that felt inadequate, that I would never be as good as other people. And then I stumbled into acting."

Garth's pro partner will be Julianne Hough's brother, Derek, who performed on one of last season's results shows and is also considered a sensational dancer. Garth is hoping that he can make her look â€" just a little â€" like two of the female professional dancers on the show or, perhaps, Laila Ali.

"I'm a big fan of Cheryl Burke and Edyta Sliwinska," says Garth. "I think their dancing is beautiful. And I loved the way Laila danced because she didn't do a bunch of fancy leg kicking and splits. She just kept it simple, classy and elegant, and I really like that. I think that would be more my style."

Matt Richenthal is the Editor in Chief of TV Fanatic. Follow him on Twitter and on Google+.