While growing up as a child star does have its perks, the amount of pressure being put on them in unbelievable, just ask Demi Lovato.
We spoke about women in the music industry on this episode of It’s Been A Big Day For…
In a new interview with Bustle, the Camp Rock star opened up about the eating disorder she had when she was on the Disney Channel and exposed the toxic culture around it. Ultimately, the star chose to leave the Disney Channel after just two seasons of her show, Sonny with a Chance after realising that eating disorders in the industry were “normalised.”
Demi said, “I kind of looked around and had a moment where I was like, ‘Wow. This is so terrifyingly normalized’… I came out of (rehab) with the choice of talking about my struggles or my journey with the possibility of helping people, or keeping my mouth shut and going back to Disney Channel… I was like, that doesn’t feel authentic to me. So, I chose to tell my story.”
This isn’t the first time Demi Lovato has opened up about her eating disorder. Earlier this year, Demi Lovato spoke to Ellen about how her old management controlled not only her schedule as a child star but her diet. “If I was in my hotel room at night, they would take the phone out of the hotel room so that I couldn’t call room service, or if there was fruit in my room they would take it out because that’s extra sugar. Like, we’re not talking about brownies and cookies and candies and stuff like that. It’s like, it was fruit.”
But, these problems, as Demi Lovato said, aren’t specific to just her. In fact, many child stars have grown up in the entertainment industry which normalises eating disorders and thus, we’ve seen so many stars speak out years later.
Hilary Duff is another Disney Channel star that went through a similar issue. After rising to fame in the early ‘00s for her portrayal as Lizzie McGuire, this child-star has since spoken out about how she used to skip meals, struggled to maintain a healthy weight and felt too thin. In 2015, Hilary Duff told Health, “I was totally obsessed with everything I put in my mouth. I was way too skinny… Not cute. And my body wasn’t that healthy, my hands would cramp up a lot because I wasn’t getting the nutrition I needed.”
Another star who suffered through eating disorders is Mary-Kate Olsen. According to her publicist, this child-star received anorexia treatment back in 2004, saying: “This is a challenge that Mary-Kate has made a decision to face. This is a challenge she will meet.”
Also, Zayn Malik opened up about his eating disorder in his 2016 autobiography. Rising to fame in 2010 through the boy-band One Direction, Zayn described how he would sometimes go 3 days without eating, saying: “I didn’t feel like I had control over anything else in my life, but food was something I could control, so I did.”
Ultimately, it begs the question: when will the unrealistic expectations of children shift in the Hollywood industry? As social media allows for a two-way conversation between fans and stars, it’ll be interesting to see if the culture around eating disorders and child-stars begins to shift.
Always be in the loop with our snackable podcast breaking the biggest story of the day. Subscribe to It’s Been A Big Day For… on your favourite podcast app.