Being a child means relying on the adults around you for much of your safety and comfort. Being a star comes with massive responsibility and immense privilege. Being both at once can be fraught.
Many of our most beloved stars who we saw grow up on screen are still in the entertainment business today. Demi Lovato, for instance, has made her way from Disney actress to directing a major documentary that reveals so much about the experiences of those like her who spent their childhoods on camera.
Others who join her to share their tales include Drew Barrymore, Kenan Thompson, Christina Ricci, Raven Symone, and JoJo Siwa — and in the new trailer, we get our first peek at their revelations.
The Dangers Of Stardom
Even for adults, being a celebrity can come with serious risks of exploitation and coercion. There’s constant pressure to have the ‘right’ appearance, which can lead to eating disorders. Actors often face grueling schedules, and roles can be physically demanding.
Add all of this to wealth and the privilege of access to virtually any substance one wants, and it’s a recipe for addiction. We even see celebs like Matthew Perry dying from overdoses of substances allegedly overprescribed by their doctors.
Imagine those risks amplified by the actor being underaged and not yet having a fully developed frontal lobe.
Child Exploitation Runs Rampant
There is the additional risk for child actors that a parent, serving as their manager, will mismanage their funds. A long list of them, including Amanda Bynes and Macaulay Culkin, have actually sued their parents over this.
Then, of course, there’s the simple fact that children are often targets for abuse because they lack the experience and information to defend themselves against it or are more easily manipulated and conned. A recent documentary series, Quiet On The Set, focused on abuses that child stars say they suffered, including a look at allegations against Nickelodeon producer Dan Schneider.
In some cases, parental pressure worsens this, as actress Jennette McCurdy detailed in her autobiography, I’m Glad My Mom Died, where she talks about her mother’s determination for her to be a star and how it affected her ability to eat, defend herself against predatory advances from an adult, and more.d
The Latest Drop From Demi Lovato
Now, there’s a trailer out for Demi Lovato’s Child Stars, which will be released on Hulu on September 17th. In the trailer, we get several peeks of stars from Nickelodeon, Disney, and more sharing their experiences and answering the key question: Would they do it all over again?
Raven Symone, who started out as a toddler on sitcoms like A Different World and The Cosby Show and had her show on Disney by the time she was a teen, described being only 18 months old as she appeared on camera. Christina Ricci talks about encountering a new-to-her substance on set (spoiler: it’s sparkling water). Kenan Thompson talks about having his earnings stolen. And that’s just a start.
Watch below:
Children Encountering Drugs, Mental Abuse, & Worse
As you’ve seen above, Ricci might have been shocked to encounter sparkling water, but it was only the first of new substances she’d be introduced to. The actress says, “I went straight to the drugs and alcohol.”
Barrymore expresses a similar experience, saying the first time she was given a substance (she doesn’t identify which one) was around age 10. She starred in E.T. The Extraterrestrial at age seven but made her first movie appearance, uncredited, as a toddler — by age 10, her film career was already longer than some actors will ever have and was already putting her in danger.
In terms of emotional abuse, we hear of so much more. In the trailer, Lovato speaks about peers signing a “suicide petition” urging her to end her life.
Long-Term Effects
Now, former child stars are advocating for better protections to ensure that kids can be safe if they are on set. An uncountable number have taken paths that led through rehab, abusive relationships, divorces, and so many other struggles they don’t want to see more kids go through to produce entertainment. Ricci told Entertainment Weekly back in 2022:
“This is very dark, but I would just like to go back to that age and do it over again and not make so many [redacted] mistakes,” she said. “Honestly, I regret so much. I’d like to go back to 1996 and be like, ‘All right… we had a practice run. It went OK, but it wasn’t really as great as we wanted it to be. We’re going to do this again.’ People who are like, ‘I have no regrets.’ What [redacted] magic life did you live?”
Many folks who have never been in the entertainment industry might share that wish. Still, as Lovato said in her Instagram post:
“Growing up in the spotlight changed our lives forever.”
The documentary drops on September 17th on Hulu.