By Nida Afzal Aqif
On Sept. 17, 2024, actress and singer Demi Lovato released a documentary about the lives of young celebrities in Hollywood. In Child Star, Lovato invited fellow celebrities to share their tribulations as she revealed the standard behavior they all experienced.
The documentary directly interviews actress Christina Ricci, singer and personality JoJo Siwa, and child stars Raven-Symoné, Drew Barrymore, and Alyson Stoner, the latter with whom Lovato shared the spotlight in Disney Channel movies Camp Rock and Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam.
Lovato is familiar with sharing her personal child star story. However, this is the first time she has brought in other celebrities to make others aware of the uncomfortable abuse that was normalized.
She went ahead on episode 83 of actor Penn Badgley’s podcast Podcrushed. Lovato discusses why she believed filming a documentary such as this was important. She also makes it known that while having a tough career, she would never wish it had not happened.
“One of the reasons why I made this film was, like, ‘Why did we turn out the way that we did?,’” said Lovato.
Badgley responds to Lovato and asks the singer if she believes she has succeeded in finding her answers. Lovato said, “I do.”
The singer believes that projecting other child stars’ stories and her own has helped her in her current career, sharing such tribulations in life.
For audiences, it should be known that many sensitive topics are mentioned and can be seen to extreme levels. These topics include Lovato, Ricci, and Barrymore’s drinking habits as young children. It also includes Stoner and Lovato’s eating disorder and mental health problems that were developed in toxic environments. Siwa’s interview shares her struggles of being blacklisted from Nickelodeon, a network which had a huge part in the success of her career. Audiences can expect to see raw footage of celebrities in the documentary.
“Demi Lovato’s starry documentary Child Star offers hard truths,” said The Guardian.
The documentary has begun to spread widely and has created a discussion in Hollywood. Other celebrities who were also child stars are starting to chime in with their personal experiences. Actress Dakota Fanning has recently expressed the inappropriate questions she was asked often during filming, not speaking but indicating that the questions should have never been brought to the tongue.
“I was in an interview as a child and somebody asked, ‘How could you possibly have any friends?’ It’s like, Huh?” said Fanning to The Cut.
Although already included in the documentary, Stoner believes the topic has just begun. They say they “will not hold back” on sharing the truths of a child star and hope to publish a memoir in the near future.
“Child Star, while cathartic in a sense, is never especially dark, and whenever it does touch on more serious matters—eating disorders, drug abuse, self-harm—it doesn’t linger too long, nor does it accuse anyone or anything specific for contributing to it,” said The Daily Beast.