Child Stars: Too much, too young?

Justin Bieber, Amanda Bynes, Britney Spears, even Macaulay Culkin (remember him?!) have all got one thing in common. Well, actually two. They are all child stars. And they’ve all gone off the rails. Exposed to fame, money, thousands of fans stalking their every move, and the press making sure we all get to see plenty of unflattering photographs of them, it seems that it can all get a bit much.

Macaulay Culkin began his acting career at the age of four, and is most famous for his role in Home Alone, a part he was cast at the age of ten. He has spent his early twenties battling drug addiction after being arrested in 2004 for possession of marijuana. It was also widely reported that as a child, Culkin had a close friendship with a much older Michael Jackson, ironically also a child star, but has rubbished claims made by the media that Jackson ever sexually abused him.

Macaulay Culkin: Before... [Source]

And after ... [Source]

Even the seemingly squeaky clean Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe hasn’t escaped the curse of the child star. He was cast as the lead role in the popular films in 2000 at the age of 11. Just ten years later he was admitting to being an alcoholic at the age of just 21 years old.

Daniel Radcliffe in his debut role as Harry Potter. [Source]

And it hasn’t stopped there. Amanda Bynes had a high profile breakdown this year over Twitter, which ended in her being admitted to rehab, despite having defiantly protesting that she had absolutely nothing wrong with her mental health at all. Born in 1986, Amanda began her career at the early age of 13 years old, even hosting her own sketch comedy show The Amanda Show from 1999 – 2002.

Amanda Bynes had a high profile breakdown this year. [Source]

Miley Cyrus is the latest child star to hit the headlines for bad behaviour. It was at the age of 11 when Miley was cast in her first significant role in the Disney Channel series Hannah Montana. Since then she has hit the headlines for a number of other less positive reasons including, mostly famously, her ‘twerking’ performance with Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTVVideo Music Awards.

Tia Mowry, former child star who featured on the American ABC sitcom Sister, said "These kids need a lot of support and they need to be kids. They need to be able to realize that this job is cool, but you're still a kid."

Clinical psychologist Eileen Kennedy-Moore said: "Childhood is about finding out who you are and being able to relate to others, and those things are harder to learn when you're famous. That amount of public scrutiny makes it hard on kids to do that. They can't mess up. So they have to adopt a very self-assured, precocious identity very quickly."

But not every child star has fallen into the trap. Justin Timberlake, famous from the age of 11 for his appearances in Disney’s The Mickey Mouse Club is now a singer, actor, dancer and businessman who is celebrating 2013 as the man who created the best-selling record of the year with his album The 20/20 Experience.

Justin Timberlake has escaped the curse of the child star. [Source]

Natalie Portman and Jodie Foster have also emerged from child stardom into successful and respected actresses in their own right.

So there’s a glimmer of hope for the next generation of child stars!