Disney alum Christy Carlson Romano rips Hollywood for failing child stars after Hayden Panettiere’s death
For years, Christy Carlson Romano has used her platform to expose the pitfalls of Hollywood.
Now, in the wake of Hayden Panettiere’s death , the former child star is calling for stronger safeguards to protect young actors from the lasting consequences of growing up in the spotlight.
In a new op-ed for Elle , the Disney alum — who starred on "Even Stevens" from 2000 to 2003 as a young teen — compared early fame to CTE (chronic traumatic encephalopathy) while ripping Hollywood executives, networks and stage parents for failing to do more to protect young performers during their most formative years.
"The former child actor exists in a category the world does not know how to hold," she wrote.
"We are children when the public wants to feel protective of us, professionals when the industry wants to profit from us, and spoiled celebrities when we eventually show symptoms of having been both." BELLA THORNE SAYS HOLLYWOOD TREATED HER LIKE A KID ON SCREEN AND AN ADULT OFF CAMERA "Early fame is like CTE.
Not as a diagnosis," Romano continued.
"As a way of thinking about repeated impact.
We now have language for youth sports: protocols, helmets, parents worried about concussions.
But we have almost no language for what happens when stress, scrutiny, rejection, adult pressure, and the collapse of privacy become the architecture of a childhood." "We put youth athletes in helmets and pads.
We invented entire sciences around protecting them from long-term damage.
Why can’t we pad the children paid to make the world smile?" she later added.
FORMER DISNEY STAR MAITLAND WARD SAYS YOUNG ACTORS WERE TREATED LIKE A 'PRODUCT' IN HOLLYWOOD FACTORY Romano argued that despite decades of stories about former child stars struggling later in life, young actors continue to be viewed as fortunate exceptions rather than children performing demanding professional work.
"Young performers are still treated as exceptions.
Lucky exceptions.
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