Psychological Profiling of Child Stars

Psychological Profiling of Child Stars

Have you ever watched a news report, a TV show, or a music video of someone that you used to look up to when you were younger and thought to yourself what are they doing with their lives now? I’m always shocked when I read or hear something new about a different child star who has seemed to have gone crazy. Some that come to my mind right away are Amanda Bynes, Lindsay Lohan, and Miley Cyrus. There are tons of reasons as to why a child star turns crazy when they get older. Today I’m going to just give you three of these examples and some actresses that show these reasons very well. The main reasons that I will tell you about today are: They received so much attention at a young age, these child stars never really had a childhood to grow up or a time to rebel, and lastly they can’t escape their past to move on and do other things with their lives.

The first topic I will talk about is how child stars received so much attention at a young age. When they get older and the attention seems to go away, they will create attention for themselves once again. More times than not, they don’t create positive attention for themselves. A huge example of this in recent stories has been Miley Cyrus. Miley Cyrus who was once the innocent little girl who played Hannah Montana on Disney Channel had begun to act more mature after drastically cutting her hair short the summer of 2012. This past summer she came back into the scene after her extremely sexual performance on the 2013 VMAS where she was in underwear and was twerking on stage. It was an instant hit on all of the press and social media sites. Psychologist Deborah King of Pscyhologytoday.com said “It was a not-well-disguised cry for help”. King was saying that she was simply seeking attention because she has been feeling out of the public eye for a while and was trying to change her appearance as an innocent girl to a mature woman. Most females begin getting into trouble in their 20s. The thrill of new things and new experiences always wears off so after their done with their acting career they usually will find some other way to make a name for them. In many cases a child star will turn to singing as a new career path.

The next point I’d like to make is how child stars never really had a childhood or a time to rebel and act like a normal kid. They missed their chance to behave like typical kids when they should have. They didn't get to go to dances or proms, go to high school parties, or sneak out of the house. So when their child acting career is done, some former stars will take advantage of missed time. An example of a former child star who has now begun to rebel since she never had the chance to in when she was younger is Amanda Bynes. She began acting at the age of 7 with nickelodeon and was in the famous show called “The Amanda Show”. She went through her teens with no incidents and was in a couple movies such as She’s the Man. In the past few years her name has been in the headlines quite often but not for new roles she is in. She was getting attention for mishaps and different troubles that she has started. She tweeted strange and vulgar things sometimes and announced her retirement of acting via twitter. She’s been in a handful of car accidents and received a few DUIs. In May of 2013, she was arrested for dropping a Bong out of a high rise window. A quote that explains her perfectly is from Mara Wilson’s 7 Reasons Child Stars Go Crazy when she said "When everyone else their age was getting detention for flipping off teachers or getting grounded for breaking curfew, Disney and Viacom and Fox were doing everything they could to ensure that their adorable little props weren't causing trouble and costing them millions of dollars, but when they get older, they have more freedom. They also have money and little to no experience making decisions for themselves, so their rebellions are going to be on a much larger scale. The whole world will see it. And if there's one thing the whole world loves, it's a public breakdown."