Refinery 29
Besides Britney: is there a better way to be a fan of young celebrities?
I’ve been a super fan of Britney Spears for a long time. I remember jumping up and down on my best friend’s floral bedspread, shouting the letter “Lucky” on a brown hairbrush when I was just 6 years old. “Why do these bees come at night!?” I sang until my best friend corrected me. “These are tears,” she said. But then, I really couldn’t imagine why Spears would have asked that question. All I could see was that Spears was successful and talented; she “had it all” even before she turned 20. Why would these tears come at night? Over the years, it became increasingly clear why the question was being asked, even though I still didn’t understand what the answer would be. I was in elementary school in 2007, when Spears went through his widely publicized mental health crisis. At that time, I found Spears’ photos in the tabloid shocking, but I couldn’t quite relate what she was going through with her celebrity. I remained a loyal fan – my mom remembers me defending Spears for shaving my friends’ heads as a “personal choice”. While I was still too young to understand the nuances of the situation at the time, the recent documentary Framing Britney Spears from FX and the New York Times gave me a chance to revisit Spears’ story. The film helped me – and many people – to better understand what really led to the events of 2007. The documentary generated instant indignation on the part of the singer – and many, many reaction pieces. Some praised the framing of Spears’ documentary as someone who was ashamed to be in control of her positive sexual image, while others, including Tavi Gevinson’s essay for The Cut, questioned the documentary’s claim that Spears had a real agency about her image and narrative. “By suggesting that she already had full control, the documentary fosters a sense of injustice when that control is removed,” writes Gevinson, adding later: “But it is absurd to discuss your image from that time as if there were no device behind it. ”Gevinson, whose experience with children’s fame originated from his time as a teenage fashion blogger who then launched the Rookie website, declined to comment on this story, but acknowledged in his article that it is not as simple as saying that Spears had total or none control, that she was a freelance artist or the puppet of the adults around her; it is much more complicated than that. But the fact that Spears achieved notoriety at such a young age certainly dilutes the autonomy she had over her career, which has also always been linked to her personal life. And while conversations about who is responsible for the well-being of young celebrities tend to focus on parents and paparazzi, the media and entrepreneurs, there is another group that can be considered an accomplice: the public. Mara Wilson, an actress and writer who achieved fame as a child for playing Matilda in the eponymous film and who wrote an article for the New York Times about Framing Britney Spears, has been especially vocal on this subject. “We need to think about how we objectify these people and take responsibility for that,” Wilson told Refinery29. “People say, ‘Hollywood does this, Hollywood does that.’ And I think it’s totally good and acceptable to criticize Hollywood and its treatment. But I think people need to remember that what Hollywood is doing is giving people what they think they want. ” DashDividers_1_500x100 Spears, whose advisor did not respond to Refinery29’s request for comment, is far from being the only example of a child star who has fought openly against mental health. In the past decade or so, Lindsay Lohan, Amanda Bynes, Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber have gone through similar journeys – initial fame followed by a heavily publicized period of what the media called “acting”. But there is a history of decades of this type of narrative. From Judy Garland to 1970s comedy star Danny Bonaduce to the youngest Oscar winner Tatum O’Neal, countless young stars have dealt with mental health challenges and addictions after reaching fame in their formative years. Famous or precocious children – who may include a mega-star like Bieber or a niche celebrity like Gevinson – face constant attention, industry pressures and often financial stress, all while being emotionally immature, says Chris Smith, LCSW, supervisor Looking Ahead’s social work program, a program that helps young artists and their families navigate the entertainment industry. “My research shows that fame is experienced as an impact, like a car accident,” says Donna Rockwell, PhD, psychologist and celebrity mental health coach, who has published research on the dynamics of fame and mental health. “Life becomes so different after the spotlight finds you. I always say that it would take an extraordinarily well-grounded human being not to be pushed out of the center by the celebrity experience. So, did Britney Spears have mental health problems or is the bright light of fame too much for anyone to bear – especially as a child star? ”Paul Petersen is a former child star and founder of A Minor Consideration, an organization that works to improve the working conditions of young actors. He says that of the nearly 1,000 “showbiz boys” he worked with, only about a third of them went through a famous childhood without facing mental health problems. These children tend to have conscientious parents who protect their children from the media, fans and criticism. Still, Wilson says the celebrity has affected her, despite her parents’ efforts to protect her. “There is an image of child actors as spoiled children, with a lot of rights,” says Wilson. “This was not my experience. My experience is that many of us tend to please people. And that can lead us to do things that are not the best for us, or to say yes to things that we are not comfortable with. Wilson was not able to set boundaries on his own when reporters started asking if she had a boyfriend; she was six at the time. She was also unprepared for answers when asked about Hugh Grant being arrested for soliciting a prostitute, or wondering who she thought was the sexiest actor. When a tabloid called her a printed “brat”, she didn’t have the prospect of not taking it seriously. Wilson says the transition from a child to a young adult was particularly difficult to make under the public eye. Another complicating factor was that the children at school started to make fun of her for acting only in “children’s films”, for which her parents purposely took her to auditions so she would not be sexualized in the media (spoiler alert: it happened anyway) . Starting from these types of functions was not so simple. “When children are small, they play with Barbie dolls and when they get a little older, they throw them out, and they tear off their heads, draw on them, cut their hair, they will destroy them,” Wilson says. “And I felt that this was happening to me too. And it is worth noting that there was even a Matilda doll that looked like me. Britney Spears had that too. ”DashDividers_1_500x100 It would be a disservice to current and future children’s stars to say that they will all fail or end up” damaged “in some way, because it is not true, says Wilson. There have been some real breakthroughs for showbiz kids in the past few decades. Talking about mental health is more normalized today than it was 15 years ago. Organizations like A Minor Consideration and Looking Ahead are working to make things better for young artists, starting with legislation and getting child protection information for parents and managers. But that means there is also more responsibility for us, the fans, to change our relationship with young stars as well, says Petersen. “We are not improving,” he says. “In fact, with the emergence of the internet and social media, it has gotten worse. The absence of privacy is a critical problem during childhood. ”We feel“ empowered ”to say things to or about young celebrities that we would never dream of saying to or about young people in any other context, partly because we forget that they are real people. We often dehumanize celebrities, no matter what their age, explains Dana Dorfman, PhD, psychotherapist and co-host of the 2 Moms on the Couch podcast. “Child stars really need the public to be more concerned with them,” says Dr. Rockwell. “To value the fact that they are children, so that they can have a somewhat normal emotional development. If we had a kinder society and started seeing all child stars as our own children, we might think twice before overcrowding them when they see them on the street or comment on something sarcastic in their Instagram posts. ”Commenting on a child’s appearance – even positively – is especially damaging, Smith says:“ Tell these children, ‘My worth is tied to my appearance.’ ”Instead, if you have to comment, he suggests focusing on praise your skills. And if you can’t say anything nice … I assume you watched Bambi and you know where that sentence is going. The more we can do to humanize young celebrities, the better: Dr. Dorfman recommends remembering what you were like at that age before commenting on a star’s behavior. Another tip: teach children from the beginning to be kind to celebrities, as well as everyone around them. And sometimes the best thing to do is to look away. We don’t need to look for information about a child or young person who is clearly going through a personal struggle, whether that means not following gossip accounts on Instagram or not buying a particular tabloid. “Perhaps the best way to be compassionate is to not consume,” notes David Giles, PhD, a reader in the psychology department at the University of Winchester who studies celebrities and the media. The truth is that we could perform better with our child stars and take responsibility for our individual interactions and malicious comments about them, both for the good of celebrities and for the children around us who are watching us make judgments. “It would be great if we could learn from Britney Spears’ pain,” says Dr. Rockwell. “We must treat all children as children, not as adults. Celebrities included. ” Like what you’re seeing? How about a little more R29 goodness, right here? Jamie Spears says Britney could end guardianship