Child stars, at such a young age, living and working as an adult. Try to comprehend how difficult that is, not even knowing the content of one’s person yet still navigating life. 

    Why do children have this lifestyle? Is it that their parents are trying to live their dream selfishly through their kids? Do the kids genuinely want this? Throughout years of television and movies, Amanda Bynes, Lindsay Lohan, Drew Barrymore, Macaulay Culkin, Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus are examples of what stardom can do to these young impressionable kids.

   At the age of seven, she was a star and by 13, Drew Barrymore was doing cocaine, along with smoking and drinking alcohol. What prompted Barrymore to turn to such harmful methods for coping like drugs and alcohol? In an article with TODAY Barrymore said, “it really is a recipe for disaster….It’s sad that there’s this weird alchemy about kids doing this line of work that f— all of them up, and I’m no different”, she talks about how fame is a “recipe for disaster.”

   Drew was only nine when her mother took her to nightclubs, where she fell into drugs and alcoholism; was this her mother being selfish and trying to put Barrymore into the public eye as she was a struggling actor? Barrymore now has a beautiful relationship with her mother and two beautiful children. She turned her life around and is one of the biggest A-listers known today.

   With fame comes money, status and always being in the public eye. The intense pressure to be a role model for everyone watching has to take a toll on the child; trying their hardest and the best one can be, yet still, a child seeking affirmation from parents, role models and peers themselves. That intense pressure has to be overlooked; people can’t see the struggle in Hollywood, as this would not make a profit. 

   Hollywood is a toxic place, notably this year. It is full of corruption, sexual assault and child abuse; as ordinary citizens, one can only see the glory of Hollywood, wanting no more than to be in the shoes of those child stars. Putting children in this environment where so much can go wrong is something that needs to be addressed.