Hollywood keeps failing its child stars, and Hayden Panettiere’s death is another warning

There is something deeply uncomfortable about the way Hollywood treats its child stars.

We love them when they are tiny. We watch them grow up on screen, turn their childhood performances into nostalgia and follow their careers for years. But when those same stars struggle as adults, we seem to treat it as a shocking twist rather than asking whether the industry played any part in creating the conditions around them.

The death of Hayden Panettiere at just 36 is the latest devastating reminder of this. The actor, known for Heroes, Nashville and the Scream franchise, had been working professionally since she was a child.

Via Universal

Her death does not prove that Hollywood caused her struggles, and it would be wrong to reduce her complicated life to one explanation. But the story she told about that life raises uncomfortable questions about what happens when children are turned into careers before they are old enough to understand what fame might mean.

Panettiere’s memoir, This Is Me: A Reckoning, detailed years of addiction, trauma, postpartum depression and abuse. She also described the intense pressures surrounding her career and the expectations placed on her from a young age, and she is far from alone.

Michelle Trachtenberg, who starred alongside Panettiere in Ice Princess, died aged 39 last year. Daveigh Chase, who found fame as a child through Lilo & Stitch and The Ring, died aged 35 earlier this year. Meanwhile, former child stars including Amanda Bynes and Tylor Chase have had their personal struggles play out painfully in public.

These are all completely different people, with completely different circumstances. Their stories cannot simply be lumped together and blamed on being famous as children, but surely the pattern should make us stop and think.

Via Disney

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Hollywood is exceptionally good at discovering children with talent. It is much less convincing when it comes to protecting those children once they are inside the machine.

The problem is that child stars are not just performers. They are also children who are dependent on adults to protect their interests. When their work is generating money and attention, there is an obvious conflict between what is best for the child and what the industry wants from them.

We have seen this especially through the Disney and Nickelodeon pipeline, which has produced generations of hugely successful young actors. Being a former Disney Channel or Nickelodeon star has practically become its own category of celebrity, and so has the fascination with what happens to them afterwards.

We scrutinise their breakdowns, relationships, addictions and appearances, asking what happened to the child star we remember.

There should be far more emphasis on genuinely independent support for young performers, access to mental health care and financial protection, as well as making it completely acceptable for a child to walk away from a career without feeling that they are throwing away their future. 

A child should never have to sacrifice their wellbeing so that an adult can meet a production schedule. Panettiere spent much of her life being watched. In her memoir, she finally got to tell her story herself.

That should be the legacy we focus on – not another celebrity tragedy for Hollywood to mourn, but another reason to question why it keeps happening.

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