Being a child star is tough enough as it is, but it’s arguably even more challenging for girls specifically. They’re often subjected to more inappropriate commentary and objectification from the public, even at such young ages. That’s a phenomenon we don’t talk about enough.
So here are some now-adult celebrities who spent their childhood or teenage years in the spotlight, and were sexualized in such disgusting ways, they deserve an apology from society as a whole:
1.
Mary-Kate and Ashley, are, in my mind, the most iconic pair of child stars from the past several decades. Well, in the early ’00s leading up to their 18th birthday, there were countdown clocks all over the internet leading up to their legality. One was even made by the hosts of a popular radio show called Lex and Terry — the countdown was displayed right there on their website, dubbed “The Olsen Twin Jailbait Countdown Clock!”
2.
Billie Eilish rose to fame in her early teens with her hit “Ocean Eyes” in the 2010s. She was always well-known for wearing baggy clothing — and the first time she was spotted wearing a tank top, at age 18, the internet went into a frenzy. “I have big boobs,” she said 3 years later. “I’ve had big boobs since I was nine years old, and that’s just the way I am. That’s how I look.”
3.
Similarly, Bella Thorne was scrutinized at age 14 when a photo of her in a bikini made massive waves on the internet. “There was a fan — they got a photo of me on the beach, I almost got fired,” she said, referring to the Disney Channel, since she was starring in Shake It Up alongside Zendaya at the time. “It was all over the media — it was literally viral in that time.”
4.
Emma Watson had more attention on her as a child star than most, since she starred in eight Harry Potter movies over the course of her youth. That unfortunately came with tons of attention on her appearance as she began to hit puberty — an SNL skit from 2004 called “Hermione Growth Spurt” is a notable example. But Emma also shared a horrifying anecdote from four years after that: “On my 18th birthday, I came out of my birthday party and photographers laid down on the pavement and took photographs up my skirt, which were then published on the front of the English tabloid.”
5.
Natalie Portman was a huge star growing up in the ’90s, and has openly discussed the rather dark parts of that time in her life. “As a kid, I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are onscreen,” she said. “I felt very scared by it. Obviously sexuality is a huge part of being a kid, but I wanted it to be inside of me, not directed towards me.”
6.
When her debut single, “…Baby One More Time,” came out in 1998, Britney Spears was only 16 years old. She immediately started facing scrutiny for her body and constant sexualization from the public, at a volume so astronomically high. Many people don’t even realize Britney was so young when it all started. If you don’t believe me, just listen to “Piece of Me.”
7.
You probably recognize Mara Wilson as the titular character in Matilda. Although her parents deliberately dressed her in conservative clothing as a child star, she was sexualized from the “age of six.” “It was cute when 10-year-olds sent me letters saying they were in love with me. It was not when 50-year-old men did,” she recalled. “Before I even turned 12, there were images of me on foot fetish websites and photoshopped into child pornography. Every time, I felt ashamed.”
8.
Ariel Winter was only 11 years old when she was cast as Alex on Modern Family. She quite literally grew up on the set, which came with tons of body-shaming as she went through the (extremely normal) changes that come with puberty. And on top of that: “By the time I was on a laptop and cell phone, I was getting inappropriate messages from older men,” she added, saying that it has been a major source of “trauma” for her.
9.
Millie Bobby Brown was only 12 when Stranger Things started, and over the next few years after that, the public had problematic and disgusting reactions to her body at such a young age. For one, an 18+ subreddit was counting down to her turning 18 in 2022 before it would open to the public. And it had over 6,000 members (before it was eventually banned).
10.
Emily Ratajkowski opened up about being the subject of sexualization a ton in her memoir My Body (a fascinating read, BTW) — not just during the whole Blurred Lines music video catastrophe, but also before then, too. “I developed very young, so I was more conscious of sexuality and being a pretty girl-woman. Having men look at you and really having no idea what sex is a very strange experience,” she said.
11.
We all know Miley Cyrus as the legendary Hannah Montana, a role she took on when she was only 13. A few years later, she became more open and sex-positive during her Bangerz era in 2013, and became more and more sexualized during her young adulthood. “In the beginning, it was kind of like saying, ‘Fuck you. Girls should be able to have this freedom or whatever.’ But it got to a point where I did feel sexualized,” she said.
12.
Danielle Fishel rose to fame as a young teen star on Boy Meets World in the ’90s. She has since opened up about “getting adult male attention as a teenage girl,” and not thinking of it as “creepy or weird” at the time. “I felt like it was validation that I was mature and I was an adult and I was capable and that they were seeing me the way I was, not for the number on a page. And in hindsight, that is absolutely wrong.”
13.
Just like Miley, Selena Gomez grew up on the Disney Channel and rose to meteoric fame as a young teen. And looking back, she’s reflected on feeling “exploited” as a child actor. “I remember just feeling really violated when I was younger, even just being on the beach. I was maybe 15 or 16 and people were taking pictures, photographers,” she said. “I was a young girl and they were grown men. I didn’t like that feeling.”
14.
Chloë Grace Moretz was 14 in her first starring role in Carrie, and begun facing tons of scrutiny from the public following the film’s release. From some, Chloë felt “infantilized,” and simultaneously sexualized by others. “You’re telling me that a group of people looked at a 16-year-old girl in the screen tests and they said her breasts didn’t look big enough and they ordered wardrobe to bring me two chicken cutlets and a push-up bra at 16,” she recalled in an interview.
15.
One of the most-famous child stars of the ’80s was Drew Barrymore, who has since gone on to become an absolute Hollywood legend. In an episode of her talk show, she said, “I experienced so many things that were so inappropriate at a such a young age, that I’m so confused about — what was I accountable for? What did I put myself into?”
16.
And speaking of Drew, in that same episode, she asked Brooke Shields about her thoughts on the #MeToo movement in relation to her own experiences. Her response? She doesn’t know where she fits in it, because she was “made to feel culpable” as a child actress. “You victim-shame yourself…but we were so young, and it was so ‘appropriate,'” she said with air quotes. “I did not know how to handle any of that, so I just pushed it under the rug.”
17.
Finally, you might know Rivkah Reyes from playing the bassist in School of Rock, when she was only 10 years old. Well, in an essay she published in 2020, she recalled hearing tons of gross comments from adults online at the time. “On message boards (what a time 2003 was), grown men would sexualize me, commenting, ‘The bassist is going to grow up to be hot’ and ‘Can’t wait ’til she’s 18,'” she said.
Are there any other child stars you think deserve a huge apology for the sexualization they experienced growing up in the public eye? Let’s open the conversation and chat about it in the comments below.