Melissa Gilbert pleads to protect child actors after Hayden Panettiere's death at 36

Melissa Gilbert made a passionate plea for child actors in the wake of Hayden Panettiere's death.

Gilbert, 62, admitted that she didn't personally know the "Heroes" actress, but took Panettiere's death personally as she begged for industry changes in a post shared on Substack .

"Within one year, Michelle Trachtenberg, Daveigh Chase and Hayden Panettiere have died," Gilbert wrote.

"Three former female child actors of the same generation are gone.

Tragically, heartbreakingly, agonizingly too soon." HAYDEN PANETTIERE'S CO-STAR JUSTIN CHATWIN 'P----- OFF' OVER HOLLYWOOD CULTURE AFTER HER PASSING "They are gone and the question I have been turning over and over in my head is, ‘WHY?".

Why are these three sweet, wildly talented, vibrant, vital young women gone?" Trachtenberg died naturally of complications from diabetes mellitus in February 2025.

She was 39.

HAYDEN PANETTIERE'S FINAL PETA CAMPAIGN CAPTURED WEEKS BEFORE HER DEATH MARKED LIFETIME OF ADVOCACY WORK Chase died in June from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner's office.

She was 35.

"And why does this all feel so personal to me? I did not know Hayden personally and only worked briefly with Mishy and Daveigh," she wrote.

"It feels personal because I was them.

As were Tatum, Kristy, Brooke, Patty, Anyssa, Dakota, Elle, Shirley, Britney, Jodie, Drew and my sister Sara, to name a few." Gilbert wrote that the women were "all members of the same tribe" she coined the "Female Former Child Performers," adding that when one member dies, "it runs through all of us like an electrical current." "When three of us die so close together, something is very, very wrong," Gilbert wrote before arguing that while "a combination of many factors," could be to blame – including the invention of cellphones heightening mental health issues – the collective society should "lobby for and enact, real substantive change." LIKE WHAT YOU'RE READING? CLICK HERE FOR MORE ENTERTAINMENT NEWS "All I know is something has got to be done," she wrote.

"I have this image in my mind of Hayden’s little girl who will now grow up without her Mama.

She is eleven years old.