LITTLE HOUSE’s Melissa Gilbert is one of many former child stars who are calling to protect young actors following the tragic death of Hayden Panettiere.
“Within one year, Michelle Trachtenberg, Daveigh Chase and Hayden Panettiere have died. DIED! Three former female child actors of the same generation are gone. Tragically, heartbreakingly, agonizingly too soon,” Gilbert wrote in a Substack essay, referring to two other former child actresses who died recently.
Panettiere, who began acting at 11 months, died earlier this month from an apparent overdose. Trachtenberg died last year from complications of diabetes mellitus, while Chase passed away earlier this summer from AIDS.
Gilbert pointed to the lack of privacy young actors have, due to smartphones that allow anyone to become a paparazzo. However, she also questioned, “Where is our Union in all of this? Where is the collective outrage? Where are the regulations? Where is the protection of privacy?”
She also wrote about the pressure to perform as a young actor, saying she often showed up to set will illnesses, injuries or during mental health crises because she felt she had to.
Related: REMEMBER THE TITANS Actress Hayden Panettiere Dies at 36
“That is what we are taught as young actors,” Gilbert wrote. “These young professionals are children, and we should make sure they are allowed to be children. They should be allowed to say ‘no.’ Not push through physical or emotional pain. Not be made to support their entire families. And most certainly not to be followed everywhere they go by cameras, phones and prying, exploitive eyes.”
Many other actresses who started in the industry have shared similar comments. Anna Paquin, who made history as the second-youngest winner in Oscar history when she won Best Supporting Actress at 11, wrote that it’s “not a coincidence that so many former, specifically pre-sexualized female, child ‘stars’ have profoundly sad lives and untimely ends.”
“We were not as protected by the ‘systems’ that look great on paper, as we are supposed to be,” she continued in her Instagram post.
CHARMED actress Rose McGowan, who started acting as a teenager, also shared an Instagram post in tribute of Panettiere’s death, writing, “Don’t put kids in show business. None of this is normal.”
Gilbert, Paquin and McGowan’s comments on Panettiere’s death are a troubling reminder of the consequences that come from early child stardom.
Read Next: Actress Christy Carlson Romano: Child Stars Need More Protection
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