There used to be a time when young, youthful faces to the acting, music and modelling industries would attract viewers by the thousand. They would provide quality performances in their respective fields and were touted to become the champions of the industry in the future. That all went downhill as the late teen years came along and these young kids started doing things that were considered wrong. Wrong meant that they disobeyed the law or had little care for their fans or maybe committed acts which totally went against what their personalities appeared to be.
So, I must ask, is this late teen phase that bad that it causes these stars to lose themselves? There are many examples of such stars of course. The first person that I read about going through this troubled life was Macualay Culkin. For those who don’t recognize the name, this is the guy who played Kevin McCallister in the hit family comedy series, Home Alone. He was a star in the making. He used to wow audiences with good acting as such a young age but he retired at the age of 14. When he returned to it in 2000, he caught on to drugs. How was he exposed to these exactly? Friends maybe or contacts in the industry.
Then there were Justin Bieber and Miley Cyrus. The first to break between the two was Miley. She started doing drugs, first privately and then was caught by the police. When it became public that the Miley Cyrus took drugs, she started portraying her ugly side. Her music videos and stage performances now clearly show how troubled she was and how much change there is in her now from the Hannah Montana era. Justin Bieber was the same. Fans of his used to tell me that he was fine and his music was good but personally, I knew that he was heading down the same path as Lindsay Lohan and countless others with his sporadic outbursts and rude actions. It was bound to happen sooner or later.
The question really is, why. Why does it seem that all these young stars are headed straight to their doom? How do you stop it from happening? Do you get out while you can? The Matilda star, Mara Wilson left the acting industry to move on to being a flourist. When prompted years later on why she left,she said that she lost interest in acting and that she doesn’t feel nostalgic about it, just relief. That seems to point out, at least to me, that the younger celebrities have a lot more problems in dealing with fame than older people. Is this because they are not as mentally tough as older people are? Is it because they can be influenced easily in to doing something wrong? I certainly don’t know for sure but I can guess.
The trouble now is not to decide how these young celebrities are taken apart by drugs and stress but how they can counter it. Young singers, actors and models going in to the industries now have to prepare themselves to be able to deal with the obstacles along the way. They have to have family and friend support too. They have to come out successful and give the next generation some hope for the future of young stars. For the moment though, the fate of such stars does not appear to be headed in the correct direction.