A Look on Why Child Stars Often Take the Wrong Turn in Showbiz
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Ever wondered why child stars like Lindsay Lohan or Justin Bieber or Miley Cyrus start to be great and loved and admired, later end up being crazy and rebellious and rejected? Being famous really does has its perks – everyone loves you and everyone loves to be like you. However, the shining light that it casts is so bright that it blinds everyone from the truth.
It is evident that children who enter show business are prone to emotional instability, mental breakdowns and social dysfunction. Who can blame them? They were showered with too much “false” love and undivided attention from people that surrounded them, all of which are coming from the wrong persons. They had achieved what they thought was true success and happiness at such a young age that no one bothered to even give them a little advice or pull them back down to reality. They did not have to work so hard to get the latest toys or gadgets or the latest fashion trend because companies are throwing themselves at the child’s feet to become their sponsor, and that the child star is the one setting the trend for others. Everything and everyone is within their reach, at their beck and call.
As children go through such fame, important steps in emotional growth and developmental stages are overlooked. Instead of genuinely enjoying their childhood and going through the normal progression of childhood they go down a deep and different path. With the world at their feet and fame to die for at their disposal it gives them power unimaginable that no child should be having.
A common recurring theme as to some of the reasons why most child stars do not transition well into responsible adults is that in the beginning, most kids who are who are pushed by their parents into acting often grow to resent their parents. More often than not the reason for the kids being thrown in acting are for monetary gains and as the kids grow they start to understand that this and so the parents start to lose control especially when the child’s career takes off and is now making more money than their parents.
Another reason child stardom takes an ugly turn is due to the result of being well known and recognized is that all the attention care and affection given towards them. As a child you don’t necessarily have a clear understanding what is a norm and what is not and so if a child is shown incredible amounts of affection and given all its wants for a long time would think that it’s the norm. A successful child star would think it’s normal for people to greet you and smile at you and even ask for your autographs everywhere. To be invited in all sorts of parties and be given lavish gifts and VIP treatment everywhere you go is a normal day to them or may even be a mandatory to them. Eventually, a child star’s fame wanes and then suddenly they lose all those attention and special treatment showered to them very quickly like a rug swept underneath them. This becomes a heavy blow to their reality and they would need coping and fast this may lead them to a dark and depressing path, towards bad companies, drugs and alcohol. Sadly, it’s a common occurring event and we can name a lot of child stars who went down this way.
Take the still famous and well-known actress Drew Barrymore as an example, hailing from a family of actors and influential Showbiz personalities even the billionaire Steven Spielberg was his grandpapa and it looked like this child is destined for greatness and nothing can go wrong. But at one point it did, even her parents that was supposed to make sure to guide her made the wrong choices for her, it was known that her own mother started bringing her to nightclubs at 8 years old and after that it was sad to know that she was taught how to smoke and drink by 9 and marijuana at 10 years old. It was a spiral down for her. We are not here to shame all the mistake she made in her career and we all know that she eventually was able to turn her life around (and I've recently binge watched her Netflix Sta Clarita diet so we know she is definitely doing great). Had she not, she would have most probably been like the other child stars who went on the wrong path just like Rusty Hamer of the Danny Thomas show if you don’t know, he was depressed towards the end of his life and shortly after he committed suicide, truly sad to see.
One good example is the academy award winning actress Natalie Portman who, despite her fame continued her studies thru college and still a very successful and relevant actress of today. Another great example of a childstar turned successful careerwoman and probably you have not heard of her is Sherley Temple, a Californian child star in the 1930s who rose to fame in the silver screen thru the movie Glad Rags to Riches, and in the time of post The Depression Times this was an incredible feat but even for her it was a hard thing to do, she was overworked with lots of acting duties and quite more than her manager agreed and eventually just like the stars of today her career slowly faded and the films she made flopped but unlike most failings of child actors today she continued her studies just like Portman and though her career in Showbusiness was over she went on to became a well established career woman even becoming a board of director for Walt Disney and a recipient of multiple prestigious awards such as Kennedy Center Honors and Screen Actors Guild.
To sum it all up, its not all rosy and cozy for these young stars all the time, eventually all stars fade and I don’t see any changes to this norm. You don’t see any institutions for child stars and actors like ones you see for veteran care facilities for soldiers, do you? Hopefully it changes for them but we’ve got to accept the fact that actors are generally less than 0.10% of the total population and you won’t see the government setting aside a budget for them and quite impractically so. A more realistic help they could get is from other fellow successful actors themselves. The true solution for solving these are proper parenting and reality check from time to time so they keep themselves grounded.
Source and References
SmithsonianMag | medicalbag.com | Psychology Today | Indepenednt.co.uk | ShirleyTemple| Nat Portman
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Not my cup of tea nor my list of great topics but finished reading this and I can say it was a good read.
Your works are like a box of chocolates, I never know what topic comes out next. Nevertheless, keept it coming!
Been a while. This has aged well
how about all of the sexual predators in hollywood that prey on young children. google "pizzagate". it is terrible what these monsters are able to get away with. basically allow me to abuse you or your career will go nowhere. parents are clueless until it is too late. when these scumbags are caught they plead guilty and get a slap on the wrist, and are back to work in no time. all it takes is one experience to ruin a young person's life. a nickolodeon exec just got pushed out finally after years of accusations of pedophelia by numerous different people.
Yeah that's a deep dark truth in hollywood. I think it was already in the song Californication of Red Hot Chili Peppers way way back. Thanks for your input. "Damn that Pizzagate" is a tough one.
Wow, this has really enlightened me to the plight of most current and former child stars. I tend to judge people like Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes pretty harshly for falling into the horrible pits that they're in now, but I never really stopped to consider that there could actually be a reason behind the madness.
Seems pretty obvious that the ones who get out of it and make a living under a different job title, or even just fade into obscurity to live out their lives in peace, are the lucky ones. Thank you, Mara, I really enjoyed reading your insights on this subject. :)
Oh you're welcome. Who's Mara? :D
True. Fame can easily ruin a child's life. There has been many child star that took the wrong path. Some did manages pull-out themselves from the quagmire but others were not as lucky. This is why it's important for a child to experience a real and happy childhood. Unfortunately, most doesn't have such luxury.
Exactly! This same thoughts were my inspiration to write this article. And not just in acting really, any child without the right childhood experience and guidance would most probably not make the best choices later in their life. Thanks for the input really glad to see someone who shares my view.
Fame can ruin anybody's life, but especially a child.
I watched a doc on Bob Weir, and he talked a lot about Jerry Garcia. The one part that really stood out was that Jerry was having a hard time dealing with the celebrity and asked "How am I supposed to deal with the fame?" and Bob said something to the effect of "You're not supposed to. Celebrities are an unnatural idea."
Its true. In the past our tribes were much smaller, and the idea of a celebrity was nearly entirely foreign. Our brains just aren't wired to cope with that world.
Totally agree. These are wise words my friend, glad to have you on my channel.
Why are there so many people who like and upvote the post and so few people who can reply?
Well at least I'm glad you did. Stay awesome, here have my upvote :)
Good, you are cool.
and here I though it was because they are satanist, lol.
Don't take this comment too seriously, It might affect your sense of humor.
Of course not, that was a good joke. Here please take my upvote ! Lol!
ok, If you insist.
Now, where did I put those glasses.
oh here is it.
Thank you and cheers!
Shirley Temple also worked as a ambassador for the United States.
Yes! Such a fine and successful woman even outside of showbusiness.
Many people believe that if you have money and fame you have everything and it is not, the more material things you have the poorer you are inside.
I agree to some extent, there are studies that show that as the richer you grow the less empathy you show to others.
That is debatable, what is really true is that if you know about poverty you know everything
This is the unfortunate dark side of the entertainment industry. Though some of this child star grow to be successful they are obviously not very happy. One of the successful child star that fits this scenario is the late Michael Jackson. His talent is discovered very early on and his parents took advantage of this, effectively making his childhood non-existent. All of this for the sake of fame and money. As parents we should prioritize our child's happiness and wellfare before our own ambition.
Truly agree, we can go on and on with the list of names but it really is upto the environment of the budding star in line and made sure they enjoy their childhood the right way. I'll make sure to follow this lesson should ever my child becomes a child celebrity lol!
Most of these rebellious child star like Linsey Lohan got their break through like a free throw so they don't know hard it is to get there. So, they tend to misuse the privilege.
She was clearly talented, but fame really went over her head. Plus the addiction and the scandals I can go on and on about it.
I used to love Linsey Lohan so much. Back then when I was a teenager I had collection of her movies.
Britney Spears is another rebellious one too but I just loved her songs not minding how crazy she used to be back then