10 Former Child Stars Who Wish They Grew Up “Normal," And 9 Who Don't Regret A Single Thing,Mary-Kate Olsen said, "I would never wish my upbringing on anyone."
10 Former Child Stars Who Wish They Grew Up “Normal,” And 9 Who Don’t Regret A Single Thing
It’s no secret that growing up in Hollywood is tough on kids, even if it’s their dream job. A lot of child stars grow up to wish they’d waited to start their careers, while others wouldn’t really change a thing.
Here are 10 former child stars who wish they grew up “normal”:
1. Keke Palmer told the Guardian, “I think that being a child entertainer is really exploitative, because you don’t even know your limits yourself. And a lot of what you later envision as a memory is actually trauma.”
2. Mary-Kate Olsen told Marie Claire, “I look at old photos of me, and I don’t feel connected to them at all. … I would never wish my upbringing on anyone…”
3. Reflecting on a trip he took home to Toronto after signing his record deal, Justin Bieber told GQ, “I was working so much as this young kid that I got really sad, and I missed my friends, and I missed normalcy. And so me and my friend hid my passport. The record label is freaking out, saying, ‘You have to do the Today show next week and you can’t find your passport.’…But I was just going to do anything to be able to just be normal at that time.”
4. Reflecting on the body shaming she was subjected to in the entertainment industry, Raven-Symoné told People, “I wish I was living now as a younger person. I probably wouldn’t have so many mental issues.”
5. In her memoir I’m Glad My Mom Died, Jennette McCurdy explained that acting was never her choice, and she was forced into it by her mother. She wrote, “I started to thoroughly dislike fame by the time I turned 16, but now, at 21, I despise it.”
6. Cole Sprouse told the New York Times, “When we talk about child stars going nuts, what we’re not actually talking about is how fame is a trauma. … As I have now gone through a second big round of this fame game as an adult, I’ve noticed the same psychological effects that fame yields upon a group of young adults as I did when I was a child. I just think people have an easier time hiding it when they’re older.”
7. Chloë Grace Moretz told Hunger that she first “became aware” of how famous she truly was after walking a red carpet at 18. She said, “I walked off of it, and I felt so much self-loathing and was really confused about the experience that just went down. I was really unwell after that. There was this complete jarring shift in my consciousness. I questioned who I was.”
8. Christy Carlson Romano told BuzzFeed News that, when she landed her Even Stevens role, she was devastated because she didn’t want to leave the life she’d built for herself in Connecticut. She said, “I’ve never really unpacked how that must have felt, but I know that it was very traumatizing.”
9. At Cannes Lions, Demi Lovato said, “I wouldn’t start that young if I could do it over again. I don’t regret anything but it was difficult to transition from being a child star to transforming into a mainstream artist. It’s something that is very challenging.”
10. In an essay for People, Alyson Stoner wrote, “While traversing extreme peaks and valleys of global fame, hidden medical hospitalizations, artistic milestones, rapid adultification, and multi-layered abuse I wish on no one, I narrowly survived the toddler-to-trainwreck pipeline. In fact, nothing was designed for me to end up…’Normal.’ ‘Stable.’ ‘Alive.'”
And now, here are nine former child stars who don’t regret their early start in Hollywood:
11. Alyssa Milano told Us Weekly, “I’m so grateful that I was a child star, which has provided for my family. It’s not without its challenges, but I don’t think that’s unique to child stardom.”
12. Selena Gomez told GQ, “I chose this. So, I’m not gonna sit here and say, ‘Oh my God, poor me, I didn’t have a normal childhood.’ I don’t give a [fuck] about that.”
13. While taking a lie detector test for Vanity Fair, Hilary Duff said that she didn’t wish she had a “more normal” childhood. She said, “It’s not something that I wish I could change, and it doesn’t, like, come up often.”
14. Aly Michalka told People, “Most child actors don’t have a sibling also experiencing the same success at the same time. That gave us [Aly and her sister/bandmate AJ] a lot of normalcy.”
15. 7th Heaven actor Beverley Mitchell told People, “Because I’ve been able to grow up with so many of these people, and I’m so much a part of their lives, and to hear them talk about watching the show with their grandma and having conversations, that’s really something special, and I feel like that’s a gift, and I’m ever so grateful for it. So, yeah, I’m Lucy.”
16. Discussing her rise to country music fame at 13, LeAnn Rimes told People, “I would not recommend it to anyone, but it’s my path, so I’ve accepted it and learned from it. I can really appreciate it at this point — all of it.”
17. Christina Ricci told People, “I loved working. I loved being a kid who had a talent. I loved being good at something. I loved all that positive reinforcement I got every day. I loved getting to use my imagination in a way that really created things. It was incredible to be able to do that so young.”
18. Miranda Cosgrove told Digital Spy that she “was probably more protected than most just because [her] mom and dad are such a big part of [her] life” and being close to her mom in particular “contributed a lot to having a more positive experience.”
19. Ariel Winter was pushed into acting from a young age by her mother, whom she emancipated herself from at 17. However, she told the Hollywood Reporter, “Even though I wish I had a better childhood, I wouldn’t trade it, because it made me who I am today.”
Filtering context for render_block function,I am trying to use render_block within a function called from the WP admin via AJAX
The render_block returns null/empty however if I run my function using the wp hook returns the rendered HTML for ... Tags:block editorstackexchange.comWordPress Development Stack Exchange
How do I hide submenus from the top menu bar?,My website is wiki-style and has a lot of pages that should only be reached through links on other pages. Having these all accessible from the top menu bar under their respective headings leads you... Tags:menusstackexchange.comsub menuWordPress Development Stack Exchangewp query
Register users without confirmation,I'm looking to register users without requiring confirmation of their emails (and even better, no password when they register). Basically, I want them to subscribe their mails using wp registration Tags:stackexchange.comuser registrationWordPress Development Stack Exchange
How to use AJAX in wordpress front end?,I have two inputs in an HTML Widget block on a post. What I need to do: send the inputs (from the html widget) value to AJAX, construct and execute a query, render a table with the results back on ... Tags:Ajaxstackexchange.comWordPress Development Stack Exchange
Display posts from Custom Post Type, group by term, arrange term groups and arrange items within groups by menu order,I have a Custom Post Type 'my_cpt' and a custom taxonomy 'types' which has several terms, all of which have posts.
I want to do is be able to control both the order of the groups (terms from my cus... Tags:custom post typescustom taxonomymenu orderstackexchange.comtermsWordPress Development Stack Exchange
How do I know if the custom theme is a child theme or a full-custom theme?,Inherited a custom built WordPress site. How do I know if the theme it uses is a child theme or a full-custom theme? I would like to delete the unused themes for security and to free up space, but ... Tags:child themecustomizationparent themestackexchange.comWordPress Development Stack Exchange
Carol Kirkwood stuns in figure-hugging dress amid BBC Breakfast technical chaos,CAROL Kirkwood stunned in a figure-hugging dress amid a technical blunder. BBC Breakfast was flung into chaos this morning after a string of sound issues. However Carol, 61, was all smiles as she p… Tags:BBCBBC BreakfastBBC ONECarol Kirkwoodmirror.co.ukThe Scottish SunTV News TVUK daytime TV
Families 'to sue prison' where loud inmates 'terrorise kids' with screaming,Residents living next door to a new prison who say their kids have to sleep wearing headphones and some leave during weekends due to the racket are threatening to sue the prison service Tags:mirror.co.ukNeighbours from hellprisonsScottish governmentThe Mirror
Blondshell and Bully Team Up For New Single “Docket”,Blondshell has teamed up with Alicia Bognanno of Bully for the newly released single "Docket." Listen to the track here. Tags:KeycatKeytagspastemagazine.com
The odd history of on-hold music,We've all been put on hold when we've tried to reach someone. Have you ever thought about the music that plays while you wait? Tags:EntertainmentGlobal Newsglobalnews.caOn hold music
Martin Scorsese to Spearhead Doc Series on Christian Saints for Fox Nation,Martin Scorsese signed a deal with Fox Nation to host and executive produce an eight-episode docudrama titled 'Martin Scorsese Presents: The Saints.' Tags:Rolling Stonerollingstone.comTV & MoviesTV & Movies News
Man Accusing CPAC Chair Matt Schlapp of Sexual Assault Was Paid $480,000: Report,The GOP strategist who accused Matt Schlapp of sexual assault last year reportedly received a hefty financial settlement to drop his lawsuit against the CPAC chairman. Tags:Politicspolitics newsRolling Stonerollingstone.com