Joely Fisher on growing up in 'fishbowl' of celebrity family, favorite memory of Carrie Fisher

— -- Joely Fisher remembers what could happen anytime she walked into the home of her late half-sister, “Star Wars” actress Carrie Fisher.

“She’s on her elliptical, hops off and has a cigarette and goes into her closet and decides I shouldn’t be wearing what I’m wearing and something in her closet is going to make it better,” Fisher, 50, told ABC News. “So she’ll sing a little song and wrap me up in something fabulous and send me away but say if I don’t like it, give it back because it’s expensive.”

Joely Fisher and Carrie Fisher, who died last December, shared the same dad, singer Eddie Fisher, who was married to Joely Fisher’s mom, actress Connie Stevens.

Joely Fisher chronicled what it was like to grow up in a family of famous Hollywood stars in her new memoir, "Growing Up Fisher: Musings, Memories, and Misadventures."

“I call it the fishbowl because it literally was like onlookers coming and tapping at the glass to see if we were, ‘Are they dead? Are they alive? How do they swim? Oh that one’s really pretty,’” Fisher said.

“It literally was like we crafted a stroke so ya’ll would be like, ‘Oh she’s cute,’ or not, or you’re watching us fail at things or watch us grieve or watch us go up and down in weight or anything,” she explained. “To do all of that in the public eye is a trip.”

Joely Fisher followed her parents and half-sister into the family business, rising to fame for her role on the 90's ABC sitcom "Ellen.”

She has also starred in Broadway productions of "Grease" and "Cabaret” and is currently directing a project written by her sister, Tricia Fisher.

“We celebrate life. We laugh. We love what we do,” Joely Fisher, a mother of five, said of her high-profile family. “Our children are our everything. We’re all activists so we want to make the world a better place for our kids.”

The family was rocked by tragedy last year when Carrie Fisher died on Dec. 27 at the age of 60, four days after she went into cardiac arrest while on an airplane. One day after Carrie Fisher's death, her mother, Debbie Reynolds, 84, died after suffering a stroke.

“I think that we are moving through it with grace. I think that every day is a reminder,” Joely Fisher said. “What I tried to do with the year is sort of excavate what my life was about and really try to put my soul into the pages of this book in honor of them and in honor of my own mother and I feel like I did that.”

Joely Fisher, who has been married for 21 years to Christopher Duddy, speaks frankly about the family tragedy in her book and also opens up about her personal life.

She wanted to write the memoir, which she dedicated to girl power, because she said she likes to "do things that scare me."

"I like to be challenged. I realized that I’ve always been a storyteller," she said. "I leapt at the chance to do it."

Joely Fisher described the message of her memoir as “empowering.”

“What I like to think I’ve done is try to teach all women and my three female daughters to teach them to rise above stuff, to find things that move you, to bring humor and laughter to everything that you do and to realize that no other person defines you,” she said. “Find what’s great about yourself and band together as women.”