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Hot Topic Full coverage and conversation on Disney
It\“s no secret that child stars often become quite troubled, and in recent years the trauma and problematic treatment many have experienced within Hollywood has become more and more apparent — especially because the stars themselves are opening up. Here are some well-known celebrities who have shared their experiences of child stardom...
（Content warning: contains mentions of child abuse, mental illness, drug and alcohol addiction, and eating disorders.）
1. Demi Lovato   Bob D\“amico / Getty Images, Cindy Ord / Getty Images
Demi\“s first professional gig was in Barney & Friends at age 10, but she really rose to fame with Disney Channel, especially the Camp Rock franchise. They have been open about their struggles, including dealing with editing disorders, self-harm, and addiction.
Demi stated in their documentary Child Star: “Why am I living my dream and doing what I love and have these opportunities in front of me, but I’m so fucking unhappy? I would always feel so gross about myself. I knew that being on Disney Channel, I was in a coveted position that millions of people would trade me in a heartbeat and I felt like I was taking it for granted. But really, I was just a teenager that was struggling.“
2. Alyson Stoner Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images, Phillip Faraone / Getty Images
Alyson Stoner had a prolific career as a child star, ranging from starring in the Cheaper by the Dozen and Step Up movies to dancing in music videos for Missy Elliot, Outkast and more. They\“ve been vocal about the way that working in the entertainment industry from a young age caused them to develop severe anxiety and eating disorders.
“I think I was kind of disassociated throughout the whole journey. On the outside, you look like everything\“s OK, and years later, you can’t remember a thing,“ Alyson said in Child Star. BuzzFeed Trending Hot Topic Obsessed with all things Disney? Join our fan community where you\“ll find hot topic discussions, quizzes, movie news, and more! See our Disney Discussions
3. Raven-Symoné Al Pereira / Getty Images, Phillip Faraone / Getty Images
Raven-Symoné started acting as a toddler, famously appearing in The Cosby Show and Hangin\“ With Mr Cooper before getting her own Disney show That\“s So Raven. She has said that her career had an impact on her family dynamics, her sense of identity, and her mental health.
“They didn’t care about our mental health. They did not. They sent us out and kept sending us out…if you said no, well, somebody else is going to take your job,“ she recently told Teen Vogue.
4. Keke Palmer Vince Bucci / Getty Images, Michael Buckner / Getty Images
Keke Palmer\“s first movie role was Barbershop 2: Back in Business when she was 11 years old, and she went on to star in Akeelah and the Bee, Madea\“s Family Reunion, True Jackson, VP and more. She\“s spoken out about the extreme pressure she felt at a young age.
“I hated my parents for a long time. There was so much pressure to rise to the occasion for my community, for my parents, for my siblings, for their sacrifices. They weren’t saying it, but that was the reality. Because I’m the one that we all came here for.”
5. Jojo Siwa Todd Williamson / Getty Images, Paul Archuleta / Getty Images
While Jojo Siwa, who rose to fame on Dance Moms and then as a brand unto herself as a kids\“ entertainer, has said that while she didn\“t experience some of the worst aspects of child stardom, she did feel pressure as the breadwinner of her family and also wound up in some terrible work situations. “I got fucked over as a kid and taken advantage of ... in a business way,“ she said in 2024.
She also shared how much her treatment and position in the industry changed after she came out as queer.
6. Jennette McCurdy Mike Fanous / Getty Images, Taylor Hill / Getty Images
Jennette McCurdy started acting when she was 8 years old, and became particularly well-known as a Nickelodeon star on iCarly and its spin-off, Sam & Cat. In her bestselling memoir, I\“m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette opened up about the abuse she experienced from her mother and “The Creator“ — a higher-up in the industry. Jennette said her family and work life led to her developing eating disorders and other health struggles.
“I do hope that if there are parents that are considering putting their kids in acting, I hope if they read the book…they don’t,“ she told BuzzFeed when her memoir was released.
7. Drake Bell Frazer Harrison / Getty Images, Medios Y Media / Getty Images
Drake Bell was a Nickelodeon star most known for The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh. In the docuseries Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Drake said he had been sexually assaulted by his dialogue coach, Brian Peck, when he was 15.
“It just got worse and worse and worse and worse. I was just trapped. I had no way out,“ he said in the docuseries.
8. Josh Peck Steve Granitz / Getty Images, Robin L Marshall / Getty Images
Josh Peck co-starred with Drake Bell in both The Amanda Show and Drake & Josh, and has repeatedly talked about the difficulty of being the main source of income for his family and about the challenges of working in entertainment in general at such a young age.
“There should have been so much less pressure, and it should have been so much safer,“ he said in 2024.
9. Zendaya Michael Bezjian / Getty Images, Marc Piasecki / Getty Images
Zendaya was a model before she got into acting at age 14, starring in Disney shows like Shake It Up and K.C. Undercover. She told Vogue in 2024 that she has “complicated feelings“ about child stardom.
“I’m almost going through my angsty teenager phase now, because I didn’t really have the time to do it before,“ she said. “I felt like I was thrust into a very adult position: I was becoming the breadwinner of my family very early, and there was a lot of role-reversal happening, and just kind of becoming grown, really.”
10. Cole Sprouse Ron Galella, Ltd. / Getty Images, Wwd / Getty Images
Cole Sprouse and his twin brother, Dylan, started acting when they were literal babies, becoming known for their roles in Friends, Big Daddy, and The Suite Life of Zack & Cody. While Cole has said he and his brother had each other for support and didn\“t suffer as much as their female costars, he still refers to being a child star as a “trauma“.
“When we talk about child stars going nuts, what we’re not actually talking about is how fame is a trauma,“ he told The New York Times.
11. Kenan Thompson Ron Galella / Getty Images, Nbc / Getty Images
Kenan Thompson rose to fame as a kid in the \“90s on shows like All That and Kenan & Kel and movies like The Mighty Ducks and Good Burger. While he says on the whole he has positive memories of his work, he has opened up about how his position as a young star led to him being taken advantage of — most notably, by a con artist who posed to his mother as a tax specialist and stole most of his childhood earnings.
“I was a kid and my mom was trying to protect me,“ he said of the situation. “I take those life lessons and learn from them ... you want to try to keep hope in humanity.“
12. Evan Rachel Wood Ron Galella, Ltd. / Getty Images, Nbc / Getty Images
Evan Rachel Wood started acting in the \“90s in shows like Once and Again and movies like Digging to China, Practical Magic, and Thirteen. She\“s talked about feeling isolated and confused as a child star.
“The better I did the more I felt like who I was wasn\“t acceptable,“ she said in the documentary Showbiz Kids. “I don\“t think anybody did that on purpose, but it suddenly felt like I didn\“t belong to myself anymore. I was a commodity that needed to be monitored and groomed.“
13. Drew Barrymore Yvonne Hemsey / Getty Images, Taylor Hill / Getty Images
Drew Barrymore is from a family of famous actors and began working as a baby, becoming famous in her own right through E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and Firestarter. She has been open about her troubled childhood and the fact that she wound up in rehab at age 12 for drug and alcohol use. On her own show, she shared how hard it has been to keep “running“ her whole life, and how many inappropriate situations she was subjected to as a child — but she has also said that overall, working as an actor was a good thing in her tumultuous young life.
“It’s a tremendous amount of pressure, but it was the great pressure that really helped me and gave me an anchor that I didn’t have elsewhere.”
14. Mara Wilson Ron Galella, Ltd. / Getty Images, Theo Wargo / Getty Images
Mara Wilson was the face of many a \“90s childhood thanks to starring roles in hits like Mrs. Doubtfire, Miracle on 34th Street, and Matilda. She\“s spoken and written a lot over the years about the effects child stardom had on her and how it made her question her identity, value, and relationships with other people, describing growing up in the shadow of Matilda in particular and feeling like she was never good enough as herself.
“It felt very out of control to have everyone know my name and I didn\“t feel like I could trust anybody,“ she said in Showbiz Kids. “That\“s still a problem that I have now sometimes, because I don\“t know when people want me because they think I have connections. Or they like me because of an image they have of me as a child.“
15. Christina Ricci Mirrorpix / Getty Images, Gilbert Flores / Getty Images
Christina Ricci was another \“90s icon, starring as a child and teen in movies like Mermaids, The Addams Family, Casper, and Now and Then. While she has said work was a “safe place“ for her amidst a chaotic personal life, she has also shared how difficult it was to be the subject of media scrutiny when she was still very young.
“People would write things about me when I was very young that I thought were so inappropriate,“ she told The New Yorker. “I remember there being a review of The Opposite of Sex where they described me as having a \“slutty physique.\“ I was seventeen when I made that movie. And I just felt, like, This is an adult, a respected film critic, and this is what they’re allowed to say about me? So that kind of thing happening over and over again filled me with a lot of rage. I just did not want to be affable or perfect for anyone.“
16. Corey Feldman Vinnie Zuffante / Getty Images, Stewart Cook / Getty Images
Corey Feldman, who was a huge star in the \“80s in movies like The Goonies, Stand by Me and The Lost Boys, has long been vocal about the exploitation and abuse he endured as a child actor and his subsequent mental health and addiction problems.
“I’ve had so much pain, so much anguish, and so much abuse in my life that most people probably would be dead,“ he told Vanity Fair.
17. Wil Wheaton George Rose / Getty Images, Albert L. Ortega / Getty Images
Wil Wheaton began acting at the age of 9 and gained fame as a teenager, starring in Stand by Me alongside Corey Feldman and later in Star Trek: The Next Generation. Wil has said that his parents forced him to act and describes being on camera as “triggering and a little traumatic.“ In the Showbiz Kids documentary, he admitted his life got worse after Stand by Me.
“I stopped being a kid who was an actor and I became a child star. That fundamentally changed my life ... It created this reality for me where I kind of had to play the role of the young celebrity. The adults in my life who should have been protecting me from that were like, \“This is the dream!\“ and kept pushing me into these places where I didn\“t feel safe and I felt really afraid.“
18. Brooke Shields Robert R. Mcelroy / Getty Images, Michael Loccisano / Getty Images
Brooke Shields was just 11 months old when her mother started her in child modeling, and she was 11 years old when she starred in Pretty Baby. She went on to star in movies like The Blue Lagoon and Endless Love. In recent years, she\“s spoken about the extreme objectification and sexualization she faced at a young age, notably in a documentary about her life, also titled Pretty Baby.
“I don\“t know where to interpret my experiences,“ Brooke said on The Drew Barrymore Show when asked about Me Too. “Because I was made to feel culpable but at the same time, you victim-shame yourself. We were so young and it was so \“appropriate\“ ... I pushed it under the rug.“
19. Macauley Culkin Ron Galella / Getty Images, Emma Mcintyre / Getty Images
When you think of child stars, you probably think of Macauley Culkin. He was one of the biggest stars in the world in the \“90s, thanks to movies like Uncle Buck, Home Alone, My Girl, The Good Son and Richie Rich. He stopped acting for quite awhile as a teen and has mostly been very private as an adult, but he has shared some of the struggles he endured as a child actor.
“I did 14 movies in six years, which is more than two a year, and just kind of pumping them out,“ he once told Larry King. “And I was at this point where I really wanted to take a break, and it was just a break even, and I really wasn\“t given that opportunity. I really didn\“t feel like anyone was listening to me when I was saying those things.“
What are your thoughts on child stardom? Are there any celebrities we missed? Share your thoughts in the comments （or the anonymous form） below.
If you or someone you know has experienced sexual assault, you can call the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE, which routes the caller to their nearest sexual assault service provider. You can also search for your local center here.
If you are concerned that a child is experiencing or may be in danger of abuse, you can call or text the National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453（4.A.CHILD）; service can be provided in over 140 languages.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness helpline is 1-800-950-6264 （NAMI） and provides information and referral services; GoodTherapy.org is an association of mental health professionals from more than 25 countries who support efforts to reduce harm in therapy.
The National Eating Disorders Association helpline is 1-800-931-2237; for 24/7 crisis support, text “NEDA” to 741741.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, you can call SAMHSA’s National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP （4357） and find more resources here. |
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发表于 2025-10-29 08:38:45