How Hayden Panettiere's death may be inspiring celebrities to protect child actors in Hollywood
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death → inspire → Hollywood
Anna Paquin, Melissa Gilbert, others say young stars can face premature sexualization, exploitation, addiction
Several former child actors are speaking out following the death of Hayden Penettiere, saying there's a lesson Hollywood needs to take from it: young actors need better protections.
Over the past week, former child actors including Anna Paquin and Melissa Gilbert, have been sharing their own challenges with balancing fame and mental health, describing how vulnerable they felt while working at a young age, and sharing ideas to bring change to the industry.
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they → say → industry
Panettiere died earlier this month at age 36.
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Panettiere → die → age
While the cause of her death is still unknown, it has revived discussions about her struggles with mental health and substance abuse, which she detailed in her memoir This Is Me: A Reckoning, released in May this year.
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This → revive → May
She isn't the only recently deceased former child actor to have faced such issues.
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She → decease → issues
Hayden Panettiere, troubled star of Heroes and Nashville, remembered as 'brave and brilliant soul'
Hayden Panettiere’s on-and-off boyfriend was with the actor when she died: police report
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she → remember → actor
In June, actor Daveigh Chase, who voiced Lilo in Disney's 2002 animated feature Lilo & Stitch, died at 35, of complications from AIDS and polychronic substance abuse, according to the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner.
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who → voice → Examiner
In the days after her death, her father confirmed to media that she had been homeless.
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she → confirm → media
In February last year, Harriet the Spy and Buffy the Vampire Slayer actor Michelle Trachtenberg died as a result of complications from diabetes.
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Harriet → die → diabetes
She also underwent a liver transplant in the months before her death at age 39.
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She → undergo → age
Paquin, a Canadian-born actor who has been acting since she was 11-years-old when she won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for The Piano, said in a post on Instagram last weekend that their untimely deaths are no coincidence.
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deaths → bear → Instagram
She wrote that children on sets are prematurely sexualized, and many of these "female, child 'stars' have profoundly sad lives and untimely ends."
The systems in place to protect these young actors may look good on paper, Paquin said, but her experience was they weren't as protective as they should have been.
Naming the problem
Gilbert, who worked as a child actor on the series Little House on the Prairie starting in 1974, wrote about the deaths of the former child actors on her Substack saying, "when three of us die so close together, something is very, very wrong."
She said that child actors are expected to deliver without question, no matter what, lest they seem difficult, something she suggested makes them prone to exploitation.
"These young professionals are children, and we should make sure they are allowed to be children.
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they → write → exploitation
They should be allowed to say 'no'.
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They → allow → ?
And most certainly not to be followed everywhere they go by cameras, phones and prying, exploitive eyes," wrote Gilbert.
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Gilbert → follow → cameras
Her comments come as her husband, actor Timothy Busfield, is currently awaiting trial on charges of child sex abuse that are tied to his work as a director on the set of the TV series The Cleaning Lady, which ran from 2022 to 2025.
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which → come → 2025
Gilbert has defended Busfield, who denies the allegations.
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who → defend → allegations
Daveigh Chase, former child star in Lilo & Stitch and Donnie Darko, dead at 35
Actress Michelle Trachtenberg, best known for roles in Buffy and Gossip Girl, dead at 39
The public is just starting to understand the cost of becoming famous at an early age, wrote Even Stevens actor Christy Carlson Romano in an opinion piece for Elle magazine last week.
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Romano → know → magazine
She also highlighted how much the job can affect a young actor's self confidence, writing, "Kid actors have something major in common: rejection.
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actors → highlight → something
We’re rejected from auditions more times before we’re 10 than most people accrue in 10 lifetimes … All before our frontal lobes have fully formed.
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lobes → reject → lifetimes
Is it any wonder so many of us struggle with addiction?"
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many → struggle → addiction
Carlson Romano — who started working at 12 and was acting in three Disney Channel projects simultaneously by the time she was 18 in 2002 — compared early fame to Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy, or CTE, a progressive degenerative brain disease linked to repeated hits to the head.
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she → start → head
"We now have language for youth sports: protocols, helmets, parents worried about concussions.
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We → have → concussions
But we have almost no language for what happens when stress, scrutiny, rejection, adult pressure, and the collapse of privacy become the architecture of a childhood," she wrote.
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she → have → childhood
A new reckoning
The world of children's television was recently the subject of a 2024 Investigation Discovery documentary series called Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV.
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world → call → TV
The series focused on working conditions at Nickelodeon, which former child actors and employees have alleged included sexual abuse, underpayment and a hostile work environment rife with misogyny.
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actors → focus → misogyny
- Group Chat
Quiet on Set: how Nickelodeon failed to protect its child actors
- Q with Tom Power
Alyson Stoner on the cost of child stardom
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Nickelodeon → fail → stardom
Now, in the wake of such allegations and the recent deaths, veteran actors are publicly discussing ways to take matters into their own hands.
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actors → discuss → hands
Paquin addressed part of her Instagram post to other child actors, asking them to contact her.
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Paquin → address → her
"I believe you and will stand by your side.
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I → believe → side
You aren't alone," she wrote.
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she → write → ?
"Let's have each other's backs.
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's → let → backs
It might make public disclosure less terrifying."
Gilbert took Paquin's show of support as a call for former child actors to band together, writing that it was clear that no one else would act on their behalf.
"Our union has really been unable to do anything substantive about this," she wrote.
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she → make → this
"Sure, there’s a young performers committee, but it is essentially toothless, political and tends to get short shrift because there are always bigger fish to fry.
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it → ’ → shrift
They have handbooks and orientations but no real functioning, well-funded, far-reaching support group."
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They → have → handbooks
Gilbert, who served as president of the Screen Actors Guild (SAG) from 2001 to 2005, suggested that she and other former child actors should start their own group and meet with the head of networks.
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she → serve → networks
Jennette McCurdy opens up about child stardom in her memoir I'm Glad My Mom Died
- Q with Tom Power
Elijah Wood reflects on how he avoided the curse of child stardom
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he → open → stardom
In a statement provided to CBC News, a spokesperson for SAG-AFTRA disputed Gilbert's claim that the union hadn't taken meaningful action.
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union → provide → action
"The contracts negotiated by SAG-AFTRA for minors include comprehensive protections for young performers.
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contracts → negotiate → performers
Additionally, the union often improves these provisions," the statement said.
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statement → improve → provisions
"Additionally, the union recognizes the important role that educators, like the Studio Teacher members of IATSE Local 884, play in protecting minor performers."
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educators → recognize → performers
…and 8 more, not listed.
The Aporia
