Public Service Announcement: Child Stars are Children
Do you remember when Miley Cyrus cut her hair and the internet lost their minds? Have you read Jennette McCurdy’s new book? Or have you noticed how the Stranger Things cast kids face immense bullying online?
Thinking about the movies and shows that raised us, one of the main things that drew us in was seeing stories about kids. Something about envisioning yourself as a character in a movie or a show where the main characters is a kid like yourself creates a bond with these characters—and in instances, the actors, too. Overall, when it comes to movies, we have a tendency to see these stars as outside our reality, oftentimes forgetting they’re just human. In this same way, we can forget that child actors are just children.
Think about the things you did when you were a kid: some of them were probably pretty stupid but, hey, you live and you learn. Our mistakes lead us to grow into who we are and play a very big part in us becoming better people. That’s a universal truth for everyone. When it comes to kids in the public eye, it seems like they need to be perfect from the beginning. The media loves to exploit these narratives of former child stars “going off the deep end”. But this is not the only thing going against these kids.
Exploitative families, creepy producers, creepy fans, the scrutiny of the media have all affected some of our favorite actors. Jennette McCurdy’s book exposes many of these issues that these children deal with, and the lack of agency many of these child actors have. It is very interesting that child labor laws seem to not really be taken into consideration for actors. Do we really expect these kids to have 12 hr work days in the name of entertainment? And to be exposed to some major pervs in the name of artistry? For example, Dan Schneider! Many actors have come forward to talk about how uncomfortable he made them, yet Nickelodeon never did anything about it. The man is still running free.
Even when these kids grow up (as we all do) and decide to explore their interests and personalities, the media treats them like they are going on killing sprees or something. Remember Miley Cyrus cutting her hair? I certainly do, because apparently it was a huge deal. There seems to be a certain standard that child stars are held to in which they cannot grow up, otherwise they face immense scrutiny. Not just from the media (who are adept at spinning whichever narrative they want, often the one that will garner them the most attention), but also the general public. This intensified with the introduction of social media, where a single mistake can follow you throughout your life. Hiding behind a screen and sending death threats and explicit sexual messages to kids is obviously not what social media was created for, but it seems that not everyone understands that.
While it is true that there’s a certain responsibility people in the public eye have to maintain a good influence, no one is or ever will be perfect. Especially when it comes to people still growing and learning. The understanding and grace that we all get to learn from our mistakes should be afforded to child actors too. Just because they work with adults, doesn’t mean they themselves are.
