- Hello, Mouseketeers. My name is Mina Le. And today we're gonna be
talking about the child star, specifically the child actor. The reason I wanted to do this video is because I got into the spiral lately of watching Jennette McCurdy
content and podcast features. For anyone who doesn't know her, she played the character Sam on "iCarly", a Nickelodeon show that
aired from 2007 to 2012. I was never a fan of "iCarly" personally. I think the humor was a little
like too outrageous for me, if that makes sense. - What, what, check it out. What up. Back up! Back up! What, what, what! (audience cheers) - Back to Jennette though. I really like her authenticity or the authenticity that I perceive from watching interviews with her. She's super eloquent. She's very levelheaded. And she has this kind of calming energy that you wouldn't expect if you
only knew her from "iCarly", 'cause once again, that
show was very chaotic. "iCarly" actually came
back as a reboot last year and the main cast came back as well to reprise their roles, Sam's Jennette. But I don't think Jennette has
gotten that much heat from it because if you listen
to any of her interviews and the story that she's given, it makes total sense why
she would not wanna go back. - I worked with incredibly
emotionally (censored) producer, like I mean even talking about it now, my face gets hot thinking of it. - Of course, Jennette isn't the
first person to come forward about their negative
experiences as a child actor. Alyson Stoner, who was
a Disney channel girl, but also rose to fame as a dance prodigy, has in the last few years opened up about her own
negative experiences as well. And even actresses like Drew
Barrymore and Natalie Portman, who went on to have lucrative
adult careers in Hollywood, have similarly shared
bad early experiences of getting into drugs and being idolized by
old men, respectively. - [Natalie] And you do wanna be open, but you don't feel safe necessarily when there's like older men that are like- - [Monica] Yeah.
- [Dax] Yeah. - [Natalie] interested and you're like, "No, no, no, no, no, no." - And of course there's also Corey Feldman who was a former child actor. I think he's most known for his role in "Stand by Me" and "The Goonies". He's been talking about
(censored) Hollywood for a long time now and was infamously shut
down by Barbara Walters on the view in 2013. - I'm saying that there are
people that were the people that did this to both me and Corey that are still working,
they're still out there and they're some of the richest, most powerful people in this business- - You're damaging an entire industry. - First of all, Barbara, you need to shut the (censored) up. (calm music) - This video is by sponsored by Babbel. Babbel is a subscription based
language learning platform that teaches real world conversations. And it's designed by real
world language teachers. (speaking in french) I'm using Babbel right now to learn French because I'm going to France for the first time ever this August. (children cheer) And you know, I'm definitely
the type of person who wants to have a more
culturally immersive experience. I don't wanna be just
one of those tourists that spend all day at the Eiffel tower. So to me, gaining a
good base understanding of a country's culture
and customs and history before I go is really important. So with that said, I really like Babbel because it teaches more
than just vocab words. You can actually learn about
the holidays and traditions and even colloquial abbreviations. Overall regardless of whether
or not you have travel plans, I always think learning a
language is an invaluable skill, something you'll never regret and the perfect way to
work on yourself in 2022. (speaking in French) Get 65% off your subscription, if you use my link down below and yeah, Merci beaucoup, Babbel. I'm not gonna be talking too much about the child predators in Hollywood, which is like a whole nother can of worms. I will be linking some videos and articles on that in the description, if you are so interested
into diving deeper into that. So if you notice the pathways
offered for child celebrities, there are like three main pathways. The first is that they go on
to become successful actors as adults like Natalie Portman,
Emma Watson, Ryan Gosling. The second pathway is that they deal with major publicized
anti-tumultuous obstacles like addiction or mental illness. This includes: Macaulay Culkin, Judy Garland, Shia
LaBeouf, and Amanda Bynes. The third pathway is that they just fade away from
the spotlight altogether and/or get normal people jobs like Mara Wilson from "Matilda", Ross Bagley from "The
Fresh Prince of Bel-Air", Kay Panabaker from "Disney
Channel" and Shirley Temple. So for this video, I wanna unpack why I think Hollywood is a
dangerous place for children and why I think some child actors are able to escape from it unscathed while others aren't able to. (calm music) The concept of the child
celebrity performer first really came into the Western World in the 18th-19th century with child prodigies like
Mozart and Beethoven. And then in the Victorian era, there was also phenomenon
called the infant phenomenon, which is basically when kids
would showcase their talents and/or gifts in Victorian theaters or in American traveling carnivals. (intense music) This did not go completely unchallenged. There were a lot of social formers who were concerned with
these theatrical children just as they were with the
children sweeping chimneys. There were, I believe, no
child labor protection laws until like the 1930s, so they
were rightfully concerned. Jackie Coogan was one of the
earliest child stars in film who rose via his performance
in the 1921 film "The kid", having discovered by Charlie Chaplin, another former child star, Jackie was six years old
when he started to take on full financial responsibility
for his family. And subsequently he ended up
falling down pathway number 2, AKA, he was unable to
transition into an adult actor once he lost his prepubescent cuteness. But Jackie's story is a cautionary tale. Jackie was a young kid, so
his mother and stepfather were in charge of taking
care of his money. And for a long time, Jackie
thought that his money was being put safely away into a trust that he would access when he was 21. To his surprise, when he was old enough
to look into the trust, he found there was only $1,000 left in it. And this is a big deal because even though
$1,000 was a lot of money back in the 1930s, Jackie had made three
to four million dollars during his career, which roughly adjusted with inflation is about 44 to 59 million today. He ended up taking his parents to court and managed to recoup about
$126,000 after legal fees. This was a really big hit, but his parents had squandered
the rest of the fortune on fur coats, jewelry and fancy cars. Later that year Coogan's law was passed to protect other young performers
from parasitic parents. According to the law, the
child actor's employer would have to put away 15% of
their earnings into the trust. Coogan's law is still in effect today, but unfortunately there are a
lot of loopholes which is why you still get cases like
Gary Coleman and LeAnn Rimes, who both ended up suing their
parents over money issues. - But I got these papers
that were saying that like the Coogan account information
was never properly filed. I got that in my twenties. So that was kind of a little
bit of a shock 'cause I didn't, I just had... I really have no idea
kind of what was happening and, you know, my mom was
in control of everything. So I don't think I ever saw
the Coogan account money, but- - Despite Jackie's negative experiences, his success lit a fire in the hearts of American
families everywhere, who hoped that their own
children could rise above and bring money, bring money
in, bring home the bacon. And it was undoubtedly rough
for a lot of these kids. Not just because their parents
sucked most of the time, but because Hollywood itself
treated them like shit. Shirley Temple has talked
about in her autobiography that mothers were restricted
from being on set, so that they couldn't object to the treatment of their children. And the most severe
punishment she could remember was when she was around three years old and starring in the "Baby Burlesks". There was a punishment
called The Black Box where a child was fastened into a box and the adults put an
ice block in the box. So the child either had to sit on the ice, sit down in the puddle
that the ice was making, or they would have to stand up. When Judy Garland was on
set for "The wizard of Oz", she was about 16 years old at this time, she had a habit of bursting
out into laughter during takes, whenever this happened,
director Victor Fleming, came up to Judy and
slapped her in the face. I've, you know, always
joked with my parents about how they should have
enlisted me as a child star so that, you know, by the time I'm age 21, I would just be cruising through life, living off of my fortunes. And I know that he's a
highly unrealistic outcome for a child star, but you know, it's fun to fantasize over
something that literally could never happen unless
I had a time machine and at least I can admit it, you know. I think that there are a lot
of people out there who do, you know, deep down wish
that they were child stars. And I think that's why so
many of us are fascinated by the trajectories of
a lot of these stars. That's why there's all
these listicles online about child stars who made it and child stars who disappeared and started the living everyday lives and child stars who, you
know, ruin their lives. Like there's a listicles for
everything about a child star. Senior researcher and child
studies, Jane O'Connor, adds, "The fascination with fallen child stars can be seen as a reaction
against the more generalized fear that children today are
becoming too powerful, too knowing and are growing up too fast." Okay, I think generalized fear sounds
like pretty dramatic to me. But how many of you have felt
like this weird anxious ping in your chest whenever you
read about some Olympian, who's like 15 years old or, you know, reading
about some other star who accomplished so much and
they're only like 18 years old. Like anyone younger than you
who's accomplished anything, I just get like so- like I just get this
like twinge of anxiety whenever I read something like that. And I can't help it because
I know that's not my life. And like there's no
expiration date for success. But I think a lot of why we feel anxious is because like, there's like this idea that children are not
supposed to be successful. Success is for adults. Success is something
you're supposed to build like throughout your entire life. So when you see a child become so powerful at such a young age,
it's kind of unsettling. So while the appeal of child
stardom has not gone away, I will say that the content
that children are in has changed throughout the 20th century. For most of Hollywood history,
children have starred in productions that were aimed for adults. Like Shirley Temple was one
of the highest paid actresses in the 1930s because
of how her movies acted as a form of escapism
from the great depression. Like Franklin D. Roosevelt
was a fan of Shirley Temple. And then, you know, going into the 1970s, just think of all the kids
who were acting as these like ghostly horror movie villains. The idea that children
should be celebrity figures for other children didn't
really come about until the '90s with the revival of the Mickey Mouse Club, which featured young talent
like Justin Timberlake, Britney Spears, Christina
Aguilera, and Ryan Gosling. Around the same time,
Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen became famous child stars too. Starring in a number of straight-to-video movie features aimed for kids. So I don't keep up with
Disney Channel anymore, but I imagine the formula is
still like kind of the same. I imagine that Disney
channels still creates and crafts these idols, into the perfect role
models for other kids. Which in turn makes their transition into adult celebrities
even more difficult. (calm piano music) The easiest explanation I can give on why child stardom is dangerous is because children
should not have to grow up under the public eye. Children naturally want to rebel. They naturally want to
experiment, do stupid things. Take stupid pictures with their friends, change their minds, change their life trajectories, have different career goals. But when you're under public scrutiny, you don't have the freedom
to do any of those things without facing major repercussions. Child development expert,
Nancy Carlson-Paige told USA today, "The younger kid is, when he or she gets into this business, the more likely it will be damaging because their needs are not met. The basic needs of childhood have nothing to do with working or the entertainment industry. A young child doesn't even understand what the entertainment industry is. There are a lot of people
giving them special attention. They have people cuddling them. They're getting a false
idea of who they are and where they fit into the world. When challenges come, they don't have the repertoire
internally that got built through those healthy
experiences other kids had. So they might have a drug
problem or act out in some way. I think of Miley Cyrus, most clearly. She was like the original
Disney Channel breakout star. I think she was the
first one to transition into like a fully successful career after her show "Hannah Montana" ended. And of course, like I
don't approve of everything Miley Cyrus has done her career. - This (beep) had a lot to
say about me the other day in press Miley, what's good? - But I do think that a lot of the public was unfairly mean to her
during this transition. Starting in 2007, there were all these parents
who were going on and on about how "Miley Cyrus
is a bad role model now. My kids cannot look up
to Miley Cyrus anymore. Miley Cyrus needs to think
of all her young fans." And to an extent like
some of that is true, but also Miley Cyrus herself was a kid. She was only 18 when she
released "Can't Be Tamed". Your kid is literally
looking up to another kid. Like if your kid is this impressionable, then why do you think Miley is not going to be
impressionable as well? It is a very tall order or to ask a child who was in an adult industry, constantly surrounded by adults, hanging out with adults, held to the same standards as adults, to then still retain
their childlike naivety throughout it all. Like it's just, it's asking for too much. I don't even know if that's possible. I remember when Miley Cyrus was having that very public feud
with Demi, Selena in 2008 where she made a video
with her friend, Mandy, mocking Demi and Selena's youtube video. Does anyone else remember that? Little did I know because
at the time I was a child, so I didn't really know, but little did I know that Mandy, the girl hanging out with Miley, who was Miley's backup dancer on her "Best of Both Worlds" tour, Mandy was 20 years old,
I think, at the time. She was a full adult and she was hanging out
with 15-year-old Miley. So Miley Cyrus was literally
surrounded by adults. She was friends with adults. Of course, she's going
to grow up too fast. You know, there's just so much emphasis on Disney channel stars to
be the perfect role models, but who are their role models? Society just does not give
a shit about child stars. They do not think of
them as actual humans, as actual children, they just expect them
to like little robots just here to perform for
everyone's entertainment. And music scholar,
Jacqueline Warwick, wrote "Child stars are often perceived as melancholy sacrificial figures with audiences lamenting
the normal childhoods lost even as they devour the
manufactured childhoods offered". What's more is that I
think Disney Channel's squeaky clean branding
actually encourages the, mostly female stars,
to sexualize themselves as a way to shed this Disney image to prove that they're now adults. For example, Christina Aguilera, started out on "The Mickey Mouse Club", but when she left Disney, she came out with the song "Dirrty". And in the music video, she's wearing leather
chaps in a bikini top. In a 2019 interview with the Irish times, Aguilera said that "Dirrty"
was her attempt to rip up the innocent image she'd
been left with post Disney. "I wasn't that girl. "Dirrty was my fucking it moment. That was me stepping up and saying I was a woman
that's proud of my sexuality." Similarly in 2011, former "High School Musical"
star, Ashley Tisdale, posed naked for a nude
issue of "Allure" magazine. She was 25 at the time, and she told the "Daily Mail", "being in the shoot was me saying, 'I'm not just the young
girl everybody thinks I am. I'm actually a woman'." Do I think it's dystopian that women have to sexualize
themselves to prove to everyone else that they
are indeed over the age of 18? Yes, yes I do. But I also understand the mindset behind these actresses decisions because it must be so
frustrating to grow up in an industry that robs
you of your childhood and then be expected to
perform this normal childhood on the surface 24/7. (calm piano music) Also in Miley's case, despite
being a nepotism baby, 'cause, you know, her dad
is the Billy Ray Cyrus, "Achy Breaky Heart" or whatever. ♪ Cooking up some eggs, ♪ (Billy humming) ♪ I'm frying 'em up in a pan. ♪ ♪ I'm gonna add a little
chitter cause I'ma cheesy man. ♪ The way that Disney channel
branded her was like as this homely, country, Tennessee,
sweet nib lets, girl. And the public ate that up because if you look at
comments in any gossip form on any gossip channel or
whatever, any tabloid channel, these comments are just
bombarded with slut shaming and borderline classes
remarks against Miley. One commenter wrote as a reaction to a just shared article in 2013, "I get that she's trying to
get away from 'Hannah Montana'. She's got a talent with music and she's not a bad actress either. I just don't get why she's
showing that much skin and acting up. The trashy Miley is getting
a little lame at this point." These judgments were influenced by how Miley Cyrus's onscreen
character, Miley Stewart, was intertwined with her
own offscreen identity. This decision was no doubt
to make her more authentic, especially with her real
dad playing her onscreen dad and her real godmother playing her aunt. But in the end it has these
negative repercussions because audiences fall into
this para social relationship with Miley Cyrus thinking they know her because they know Miley Stewart. Which leads them to be more influenced and therefore more betrayed when Miley starts to break
out of this character mold. Another reason that, I think, Miley was so scrutinized
in the early 2010s is because she was not
performing white femininity in the way that society expected her to. Miley even said herself in 2013, "You can just mix white trash and Chanel, that's to me, that's my ultimate look. Pretty much everything is
bought from weird bonded stores, except obviously my jewelry. Gotta keep it classy with Chanel. I wear a lot of jewelry during the day, so I pretty much just
come with my own jewelry and give me some
underwear to wear with it, and I call it a day." Bells Vanderbilt and
Claytons conducted a study on celebrity gossip
channels and found that "Commenters seem to want
these celebrities to outgrow their lower-class background
and immature coming-of-age behavior by covering up and
focusing on their career. We found this frame exclusively in reference to female celebrities." Of course Miley's Cyrus
was never lower class, but her whole stick on Disney
was that she was, you know, this rustic farm girl. And she even had that movie where she goes and does the "Hoedown Throwdown". This is tricky territory because it dangerously
veers close to white track. If not for her Malibu mansion and her pop star
riding-in-limousine persona. Another child star whose personal identity became a brand was Macaulay Culkin. He's most famous for being
the little kid in "Home Alone" and secondarily famous for
being Brenda Song's fiance. Some people just have it all, but in all seriousness
Macaulay rose to fame because he represented this
quintessential normal kid. And on top of that, he had the
background to match it too. There were a lot of
'90s articles published that called back to his,
you know, humble beginnings. The fact that he shared
a room with six siblings, the fact that his parents were trying to make ends meet
with their part-time jobs. His work as a child actor was viewed as him achieving
the American dream. And because of these humble origins, when he started becoming
more famous and richer, articles became more critical
of what they viewed as his excessive consumption
and personal freedom. He was now a kid out of control. It got even worse when he boasted about how his parents let him watch
as much TV as he wanted. It got so bad that
people were even writing to "People Magazine"
condemning his parents. One writer said, "It's easy to see who's
in control in that house." Another wrote, "He used to
be a precocious darling. He has now become a
pompous, spoiled brat." - We needed to talk to you before the show and you were sound asleep. They called like a 10 you're out cold, called at 11, you're still adios Z-town. And, and so long about 1:30 or 2:00, you finally bust outta bed. What exactly is going on? - I don't know. I kind of stayed up a little late. - [Host] Yeah, what the
hell were you doing? (people laugh) - Watching your show? - Oh yeah, right. Oh yeah. - So once again, we can see how the incongruence
between a child's onscreen and offscreen personas lead
to these negative reactions but it also has led to issues
with Macaulay's acting career because he became type casted. In 1993, Macaulay starred
in a psychological thriller called "The Good Son", which
received pretty bad reviews, Hal Hinson of the
"Washington Post" noted that the mere presence of the adorable boy star seemed to throw the
whole film outta whack, making the picture play more like an inadvertent
comedy than a thriller. It was clear Macaulay
didn't have the range. So his last three film
roles as a child's star depended a lot on his
"Home Alone" persona. And obviously when your
acting career is so dependent on this cuteness that you have, it's gonna go down the
drain once he hit puberty. The Hollywood reporter even said in a review of "Richie Rich", in which Macaulay was 14
years old while filming that he was finding it
tough to still play cute while in the greasy throws of adolescents and was getting a tad long in the tooth for the role he was born to play. - You may now be a little too old to be in a "Home Alone" movie. Yeah, unless it's, you know,
home alone with your wife. (host laughs sarcastically) - Alyson Stoner spoke to "The Independent" about her own typecasting
as this tomboy character who never wore skirts
and virtually always had that backwards baseball cap going on. She said, "Beyond the psychological implications and commodifying your
body, as a minor, remember, the industry also has a hierarchy of desirable and profitable qualities. Every day there are hundreds
of thousands of performers deciding whether to lean into
a stereotype they're given or strive for who they
feel they are authentically and rarely do those feel
like exactly the same thing." I think it's especially
psychologically damaging to be type casted as a child star, because when you're a child, your sense of identity
is still developing. And I wouldn't be surprised
if your sense of identity started merging with these
characters that you're playing. And when you stop getting
validation, because you know, you were growing and you're
no longer this cute kid and you're not getting any more roles, it can be easier for you to
take it personally and be like, "People don't like me." Because you just see
you so much of yourself in this kind of character role. And that can lead to, you know,
like an existential crisis. Part of Elizabeth Taylor's
success in the industry. Yes, the Elizabeth Taylor, she
started out as a child actor was because she was able to
retain her sense of self. She once said, "I began to see myself
as two separate people, Elizabeth Taylor, the person and Elizabeth Taylor, the commodity. I saw the difference between
my image and my real self. Before I reached my teens, I resolved to separate
my feelings of self-worth from the public image
of Elizabeth Taylor." (calm music) And then of course, there are bad parents
who fall into the scheme. We've all seen the
movies of the mom or dad living vicariously through their child, pushing their kid to live up
to their dreams rather than prioritizing what their
kid actually wants to do. - But you're not just a guy, Troy, You're the team leader. And what you do affects
not only this team, but the entire school. - Ironically, Disney has run with this
narrative multiple times. So with that said, I wanna preface that it
is a lot easier to succeed in the industry, as a child star, if you come from a wealthy family, Elizabeth Taylor's mom was a Broadway star and her dad was a high-end art dealer. She did not need to be an actress. She was scouted. She didn't have to drive from audition to audition to audition, hoping to land a role to feed her family. Also with a lot of nepotism
babies like Maude Aptow, Dakota Johnson, Lily-Rose Depp. You just assume that their
parents know what they're doing because their parents are
involved in the industry. They know who to keep
their child away from. They know what rates should be negotiated. They know what their child is worth. And they're more aware of
the pitfalls of the industry and how to keep their children
away from those pitfalls. Like you would just assume that. Jennette McCurdy, on the other hand, came from a working class background. And from the age of six, recognized that she needed
to make money for her family. She has talked about her
relationship with her mom a lot in recent years. - I also think she knew
that I was, you know, a fairly decent, like, listener and she knew she knew that
I wanted to please her. So I think there was some element of that. And also frankly, she really wanted to be a performer. And I think there was, there was a huge, a huge aspect of her wanting to kind of live out her dreams
vicariously through me. - In Jennette's case, her
mom was so impassioned with this goal to make Jennette a star, she's started bleaching Jennette's hair and whitening her teeth when
she was just 10 years old. And when she was 11, her mom introduced her the
concept of calorie counting, which led to a years-long
battle with an eating disorder. Shirley Temple, has never outwardly said any of her experiences were abusive, at least as far as I know, but her mother, Gertrude, was
definitely a major stage mom and her competitiveness and militant ness is how Shirley became a
star at such a young age. Jane Withers, a former child actress, who was in the movie
"Bright Eyes" with Shirley, once reflected, "I was not permitted to
talk to Shirley at all. I even was told to go and wash my hands before I went into a scene with her." And later when Gertrude was
looking over the movie edits, she actually cut Jane's scenes, because she wanted to make sure Shirley was the star of the movie. Shirley temple went on to
marry actor, John Agar, Agar, when she was 17 and subsequently stopped having her mom around as an acting coach. And over the next few years, she realized that she actually
lost her passion for acting. as Britanee and Dalton writes, "Because Gertrude had
played such a major role in Shirley's films: coaching
her, interpreting scenes, helping her memorize lines. When Shirley became older, she was unable to interpret
a role on her own. Her characterizations were lifeless because there was no Gertrude there to tell her
what the characters should do or how she was feeling. Shirley simply could not act
without her mother's direction. Without Gertrude's
guidance and motivation, Shirley simply had no
will to continue acting." Judy Garland is another
infamous case of a child star with a controlling mom. Her Mother, Ethel, was
very abusive in the sense that she was willing to put her daughter through whatever the studio MGM demanded. Side note, back in the day, actors were contracted by major studios, which means they could only be in movies that were produced by these studios unless the studios loaned them out. Actors were also forced to make any kinds of appearance changes
that the studio demanded. Judy was contracted by MGM and they required her to bind her breasts and wear rigid corset to keep
her 14 year old silhouette, because Judy, at the
beginning of her career, was type casted as this like,
girl next door character. Judy was also given caps for her teeth and rubber discs for her
nose, which, you know, as a child, getting these little, like cosmetic enhancements, it can't be good for your self-esteem. Judy also talked about their
dieting regulations saying, "From the time I was 13, there was a constant
struggle between MGM and me, whether or not to eat, how
much to eat, what to eat. I remember this more vividly
than anything else in my childhood." She was too fat for MGM, so
they put her on diet pills mixed with Benzedrine and phenobarbital to take away her appetite and make her stay awake for longer hours. And this was all done,
with Ethel's consent. And Ethel, on top of that,
would give Judy sleeping tablets because her medication, her
appetite suppressant medication, would keep her awake and so she needed these sleeping
tablets to help her go to bed. So it's really no surprise that
Judy battled with substance addiction for the rest of her life. - [Narrator] Take the pill. - [Vincente] And then the, we went to New York for our honeymoon and she threw the pills in the East River, said she was through with them. But the minute we got back, anything that happened at the
studio, she would take the... - Report on Molene also
conducted a study in 1998 and found that young performers have a much higher lifetime
prevalence for alcohol and other substance abuse 40% for alcohol, 24% for other substances. That was much higher than that
of the general population, 14 and 2% respectively. Given how tough and rigorous the entertainment industry is for kids. It is like a surprise,
whenever you do hear of a child who was able to transition
into normal adulthood or builds on top of their acting career. Most of the Harry Potter kids were luckily able to make this adjustment. Emma Watson went on to
study at Brown University and now does acting
projects here and there. Though "Beauty and The Beast"
was a bit of a step backwards. (woman clicks) I'm not gonna be talking
about that though. Daniel Radcliffe went on to the stage and now does Indie Projects as well. He was actually on Conan
O'Brien's podcast recently where he did talk about why
he think he ended up, okay, I'm gonna play the clip,
but it's no surprise, it's because of his parents. - [Daniel] Well, he was like, how are you not more messed up? And I did that as a reaction that like it does happen sometimes, and I don't really have
a satisfying answer for people ever I don't think. I have like very like
good normal parents who were both supportive of me,
- Yap. but also like asked me in
between every film basically, are you still enjoying this?
Are you still having fun? You do know you don't have to do this. And I was always like,
I really wanna do this. I hate schools so much. This is where I would much prefer to be. (people laughing) - Zendaya is a Disney channel star that has transitioned into
an Emmy Award Winning Actress has also referenced
her positive upbringing in multiple interviews. Her mother Claire works as a teacher and Zendaya told Teen Vogue in 2016, "My mom went above and beyond working constantly to
open her students' eyes to an education that
could lift them far beyond their current circumstances. She would introduce them to the arts, guide them through the
language of Shakespeare and show them the wonders
of nature outside city life. All things that they wouldn't
have experienced otherwise. Watching her was magical
and instilled within me a true appreciation of and devotion to the
importance of education." And Zendaya, additionally
told vanity fair in 2019, "My mom didn't wear makeup. I don't think that she knew that to me, that was empowering that she didn't care. I would go to my grandma's house and she would have all the good makeup. I got to see how women
are able to navigate within the spaces of beauty
and see that it's self-defined, it's equally beautiful,
however you choose to do it." The gist that I get from
reading about Zendaya and other successful child stars is also that they seem like they
actually wanted to act, you know, while on the other hand,
kids like Shirley Temple and Jennette McCurdy were kind of just forced into it by their parents. Former child actress,
Melissa Joan Hart, recalled, "You see these parents
wanting to live their life through their children. You see parents who want the spotlight. They start to look more glamorous and drive fancier cars than their kids. I wanted to act, my parents
let me explore that, they weren't interested in themselves." And I think this is a really
important thing to note, I was reading the book "Stolen
Focus" earlier this year, and it has nothing to do with this topic, but it's a book that's
essentially about how social media and Silicon valley are
trying to control us in the sense that it's trying
to monopolize our time, energy and attention. And it's a really good
book, I highly recommend it, but there's also a
chapter where Johann Hari, the author, talks about
American school systems and he mentions the work of psychologists, Richard Wyatt and Edward Deci. These psychologists discovered that it's easier to focus on something if you have an intrinsic
motivation behind that. So what they mean by intrinsic motivation is like you doing something
because it has meaning for you. On the other hand, an
extrinsic motivation, AKA doing something
because you're forced to, or you think that there's
going to be something that comes out of it later, these make it harder for you to focus. The more intrinsic the motivation, the easier it is to
sustain your attention. So in the realm of acting an intrinsic motivation is
because you love acting. You love being on stage,
where you love being in movies and extrinsic motivation is because you feel like it's gonna make you money, because you want fame, because your parents want fame. - [Interviewer 2] Well, as a side note, I can only imagine that,
especially through, I mean, throughout the
length of your career, you must have worked with
other child actors who did come from money, who didn't need
to be supporting their family. - It was such a, I mean, you
can sense it immediately. Those kids tend to be outgoing bubbly, you can feel their kind
of enjoyment for it. And I imagine for like casting characters, it's probably much more fun
to see them other than like, rather than the stressed out
kids who kind of waddle in. - I wish I could end this video with something profound and moving, but honestly it is like a
very fucked up situation. Activists like Alyson
Stoner, have been campaigning for mandatory media and
industry literacy courses for parents and representatives
of child performers. I think that's a great idea. She's also been campaigning
for a third party, qualified mental health
professional to be on film sets, especially when there are children on set. And I totally agree with those notions, I think those are really
important because, you know, we just need to find
ways to navigate in this. Because child performers
are not going to go away. And there are clearly children who have become well adjusted. But you know, as I've said
throughout this whole video, it's because they're given the resources, because they're given the care and they are not burdened by finances and because they actually wanna do that. And I think being able to
create those structures within Hollywood is extremely important to ensure that every kid
who gets into Hollywood is able to leave and
become a normal human being or accelerate their
career and not be damaged while doing it. And casting directors, who just prioritize the creative vision of the film without interviewing
intensely these parents who put their kids up for
these roles should be fired. Okay, that's all I have for today. Thank you all so much for
listening to me rant about this. And I know I just talked
about like the acting realm, but I would love to hear what you all think about just
child performers in general, whether that be singing, YouTube stars, reality TV show stars. Like there's a whole realm
of child entertainers who, you know, some are being
exploited, some are enjoying it, but it is just a lot out
there that's going on. And I would love to hear
your opinions on it. Once again, thank you. And I hope you have a
lovely rest of your day and I'll see you next time. Bye. (woman blowing a kiss) (slow-paced calm music playing)
