Celebrities - Child Stars

By: Michael Russell
Submitted: 2007-01-17 11:26:29
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Many of us grew up watching young children make names for themselves on the nightly sitcoms. Whether it was Lucile Ball, Ron Howard or Gary Coleman every era had its share of child actors. We all wondered how great it could be to have such astonishing successes and wealth at quite an early age. The sky was the limit for these child celebrities because for the most part they weren't gaining fame solely based off of their age and stature, these children were really good actors. If they were that good at such a young age they would surely be masters of their crafts by time they hit their adulthood. Unfortunately except for certain rare cases many of the stories of the once prosperous child celebrities are rather tragic ones. From poverty to drug addiction, these celebrities rarely turn out the way one would expect them to. So why is it that for the most part child celebrities don't succeed in the long run?

When we were young children our parents use to tell us to enjoy it while it lasted! We would wonder what they were talking about as to us childhood wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. In fact many of us couldn't wait to grow up. What we didn't understand was the fact that, for at least 16 years of our lives we weren't going to be called upon to work, nor were we expected to be overly responsible. On the flip side of that we also weren't given everything we asked for nor did we expect anyone to bow down or constantly stroke our egos. All this is what constitutes being a child. You don't get much but you're not expected to do much either. Sadly child celebrities never had an opportunity to experience these things. Their childhood in a sense was non existent. They lived in a world where they were expected to be the sole bread winners of their families and their immediate nucleus of society would cater to their every need. To say that was a far cry from the real society is an understatement. Child celebrities have an extremely hard time adjusting to the real world after their initial success wares off. There are so many factors at work here that it's hard to blame them. The fact that they were the cute lovable child on television is the very thing that stunts their ability to get any serious work after they outgrow this stage. All most of society remembers and wants to see from these child celebrities is the cute lovable role they made famous.

Some of you might be saying that there should be life after acting especially since they made a considerable amount of money. This should be the truth but in a lot of cases these child celebrities' parents quit their own jobs and used the child's income to support the rest of the family. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to realize that at this rate the money doesn't last long. Anyone who has ever taken the stage or field and felt the admiration of a crowd will tell you that this feeling is as addictive as any drug. Grown adults have a hard time dealing with no longer being in the limelight so you can only imagine the effect it would have on these child celebrities. They say your most impressionable years are when you're between 4 and 8 years of age. Many of these child celebrities were already working during those years. Acting is all they know and it is quite hard to adapt to anything else. What was once a euphoric feeling from a crowd of admirers is usually replaced with drugs and alcohol! There are many child celebrities that have made great careers from themselves in the adult age but when the comparison of the amount of failures and the magnitude of these failures is made its clear to see that creating a child celebrity might not be in the best interest of most parents.

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