As a millennial growing up in the golden age of Nickelodeon, child stars like Jennette McCurdy are no strangers. As she built her name on hit TV shows like iCarly and Sam & Cat, McCurdy was destined to be a star. But the reality of her life growing up in a rough household and being under the care of an abusive mother, is all poured out in Jennette’s heartfelt memoir titled ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’. With its attention-grabbing title, Jennette details years of abuse and manipulation from her Mother. As a fan of Jennette myself, I was excited to get my hands on her book. As a kid, I watched and glamorised child stars like Jennette and Zendaya during the glory days of Nickelodeon and Disney Channel, but after reading this book, it really did change my perception of the harsh realities of child stars and why they shouldn’t exist in the first place.
Jennette McCurdy was six years old when her mother started putting her into acting. It was her mother’s lifelong dream of becoming a star, and when that didn’t come to fruition, her mother forced that dream onto her six-year-old daughter who had no interest in acting at all. The book explores her mother’s desperation in seeing her daughter as a successful actress and Jennette, who would do anything to make her mother happy. She shares details of her life that were shared with her mother, such as her email, diaries, income, and her mother’s over-possessive nature of watching and controlling her daughter in every aspect of her life. The most disturbing fact shared by McCurdy was that she was showered by her mother until she was sixteen, while dealing with self-loathing, anxiety, and shame, which resulted in her eating disorders.
After reading this book, it gave me a perspective on why child stars are extremely vulnerable in public spaces. For example, in Hollywood, only the rich and famous dominate, whilst those who are vulnerable and marginalised are taken advantage of by those who are superior and powerful within the industry. This is why child stars should not exist in the first place. More specifically, we should ask ourselves the question “are child stars something that we need”? If they do exist, under what circumstances, and should children be famous regardless of the circumstances that they are in? In many circumstances, child stars often carry the burden of having to provide for their families at a very young age. Jennette writes about this in her book; she shares details on how she felt pressured to provide for her family despite not wanting to pursue acting as a career and instead wanting to be an aspiring writer.
Due to their age and lack of experience in life, child stars don’t have the capabilities to stand up for themselves and quite frankly don’t know what’s right and wrong. The point that’s worth bringing up is that it is still unclear the extent to which this is still happening today to children who work in the show business. Just because it’s not happening to Jennette anymore doesn’t mean that it’s not happening to other kids. Due to signed NDAs and underneath hush money, many former child stars have not or are not able to come forward with such allegations. This is not to say that child stars or any young kid that has the desire to be an actor should be wiped off from the face of the earth, but should be placed in circumstances where they actually want to act and not be forced into it. There should be strict regulations that protect kids from people in positions of power and the adults in their life should be held accountable for their actions.
After reading this memoir, I personally think that there is going to be a new wave of former child stars depicting their experiences through books. McCurdy’s experiences as a child star may only represent the tip of the iceberg. Despite people reading this book, we still don’t know the true experiences child stars face within the industry because many are still silent about the issue due to signed NDAs and underneath hush money. We so often hear about celebrities, especially female celebrities, experiencing mental abuse and breakdowns (Britney Spears, Selena Gomez, Rihanna, etc.) and Jennette’s experience is a testament to this being an ongoing issue with women and girls in show business. I think we as audiences have to be mindful of what we watch especially when there are kids involved, because what we see through a screen may not reflect what is actually happening behind the scenes. Moving forward, we need to start thinking critically about the media that we consume and hold those who are accountable.