Actress Reese Witherspoon says her daughter's college plans felt like an "arrow to the heart".

In an interview to Emmy magazine, the 44-year-old actress opened up about her show "Little Fires Everywhere" and revealed how the source material struck a chord with her as daughter Ava, 20, was also preparing for the next stage of her life, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

"My daughter was applying for college back then, so it hit me like an arrow in the heart. It's so difficult to articulate what motherhood means, and there are so many passages in the novel that did," she said.

Witherspoon has Ava with former husband Ryan Phillippe and also has kids Deacon, 16, and Tennessee, seven, with current husband Jim Toth. She also shared that her favourite passage from the book was about comparing parenthood to an apple.

The quote read: "It was like training yourself to live on the smell of an apple alone, when what you really wanted was to devour it, to sink your teeth into it and consume it, seeds, core, and all."

For the actress, it resonated as her own children are getting older. She said: "It's such a vivid way to describe the loss of your children as they grow up."

Witherspoon has previously admitted that becoming a mother at such a young age, she was 23 when she had Ava, completely changed her life.

"I had to grow up really fast, and figure out what woman I wanted to be for my daughter," she explained, insisting that having a baby is a lot easier in your twenties than thirties.