Latest news with #Toddlers&Tiaras
Express Tribune
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- Express Tribune
Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson reveals reality TV earnings and financial struggles
Alana Thompson, better known as "Honey Boo Boo," recently spoke out about her reality TV earnings and financial difficulties. Despite her long-running presence on shows like Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, Toddlers & Tiaras, and Dancing with the Stars Juniors, Alana revealed in an interview with People that she has never seen the money she earned from her initial TV success. Alana stated, "I have never, ever received the Here Comes Honey Boo Boo money. I don't know what happened to it." She also accused her mother, Mama June Shannon, of taking $35,000 of her earnings from Dancing with the Stars Juniors in 2018. Although June reportedly returned the money, Alana claims she never received an apology. The issue of Alana's earnings has been a major storyline on Mama June: Family Crisis, where the family drama surrounding the money continues to unfold. Alana mentioned she considered suing her mother but hesitated because 'by law, she did what was right,' explaining that 20% of her earnings were placed in a Coogan account—a trust designed to protect minors' earnings. Alana is currently working on a Lifetime film, I Was Honey Boo Boo, which she says has helped her pay for college. Since her sister Pumpkin gained custody in 2022, Pumpkin has set up a Coogan account for her, though Alana has yet to access the funds, preferring to save them for future needs. Fans can watch I Was Honey Boo Boo to learn more about her rise to fame and ongoing journey.
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
"Honey Boo Boo" Is A 19-Year-Old College Student Now, And Here's What She Looks Like Today
Y'all remember when first heard the words "Honey Boo Boo"? Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson was an instant reality TV superstar and she was just a tiny tot at the time. She went viral for her hilarious one-liners (as seen above) on Season 5 of the TLC reality television show Toddlers & Tiaras. Then her time on Toddlers & Tiaras landed her a spin-off show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alongside her mother June "Mama June" Shannon, and sisters Lauryn "Pumpkin" Shannon, Jessica "Chubbs" Shannon, and late sister Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell. She went on Dancing With The Stars: Juniors and in 2008 with dance partner Tristan Ianiero and coach Artem Chigvintsev. They were eliminated in the fourth week. In 2021, Alana competed in Season 6 of The Masked Singer as "Beach Ball" with Mama June. And now, I hate to do this to you, but you're about to have you're mind blown and you're going to feel ancient. Related: Here's How Dramatically Different Everyone Dressed At The Met Gala Afterparties Vs. The Actual Met Gala It's been a hot minute, and Alana's no longer a tiny little toddler in a tiara or a kid in a reality TV competition. Here's Alana "Honey Boo Boo" now: John Nacion / Getty Images for Empire State Realty Trust Now she's a 19-year-old college student living with her boyfriend, Dralin Carswell, in Colorado, working on getting her nursing degree. Related: Years After Usher Recalled Seeing 'Wild' Things When He Lived With Diddy At Age 13, His 'Sad' Response To A Question About His First Kiss Has Sparked A Load Of Discourse Yeah, the star of the show about toddlers is 19 years old now. Some people are definitely shocked she's not a little kid anymore. "Shes all grown!!!!!" one person exclaimed. This person said, "Gorgeous gal. That face! Same as when you were little but all grown up!" Over the years, Alana's experience as a very young TV personality had its ups and downs, which will be revisited in the Lifetime movie I Was Honey Boo Boo (2025), but she's come a long way and remained transparent about the journey. Recently, Alana was featured in People discussing her family life, reality TV career, and what she's been up to now. "Honey Boo Boo" still has that natural star power. Fans have shown her mad love, praising her for being resilient and living her truth after all these years. One fan wrote, "Your a smart young adult now and don't let anyone tell you differently. Beautiful person in and outside. Sending love and support to you and your siblings." "You are looking really good super proud of you even though I an [sic] a stranger," someone else wrote. "You look beautiful, so proud of your success at breaking the cycle. Going to CO was the best decision you ever made. And nurses make good money!" another fan wrote. This person left a lengthy, heartfelt message, writing, "its amazing that you all blossomed into such lovely, well-rounded, intelligent young women despite the unfair and unnecessary hardships you faced. To be able to hold your head high, have strong moral standards and continue to prove so many doubters wrong is lovely to witness." Whew. Seeing Alana older and still thriving really makes me feel old. I can't handle this anymore. Also in Celebrity: 23 Celebrity Sex Secrets I Could've Gone My Entire Life Not Knowing, And Yet Here We Are Also in Celebrity: 28 Celeb Facts That Feel Like They're Made Up But Are Shockingly Real Also in Celebrity: Nessarose From "Wicked" Called Out The "Deeply Uncomfortable" Jokes About Her Disability
Buzz Feed
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Honey Boo Boo From Toddlers And Tiaras Is 19 Now
Y'all remember when first heard the words "Honey Boo Boo"? Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson was an instant reality TV superstar and she was just a tiny tot at the time. She went viral for her hilarious one-liners (as seen above) on Season 5 of the TLC reality television show Toddlers & Tiaras. Then her time on Toddlers & Tiaras landed her a spin-off show Here Comes Honey Boo Boo alongside her mother June "Mama June" Shannon, and sisters Lauryn "Pumpkin" Shannon, Jessica "Chubbs" Shannon, and late sister Anna "Chickadee" Cardwell. She went on Dancing With The Stars: Juniors and in 2008 with dance partner Tristan Ianiero and coach Artem Chigvintsev. They were eliminated in the fourth week. In 2021, Alana competed in Season 6 of The Masked Singer as "Beach Ball" with Mama June. And now, I hate to do this to you, but you're about to have you're mind blown and you're going to feel ancient. It's been a hot minute, and Alana's no longer a tiny little toddler in a tiara or a kid in a reality TV competition. Here's Alana "Honey Boo Boo" now: Now she's a 19-year-old college student living with her boyfriend, Dralin Carswell, in Colorado, working on getting her nursing degree. Yeah, the star of the show about toddlers is 19 years old now. Some people are definitely shocked she's not a little kid anymore. "Shes all grown!!!!!" one person exclaimed. This person said, "Gorgeous gal. That face! Same as when you were little but all grown up!" Over the years, Alana's experience as a very young TV personality had its ups and downs, which will be revisited in the Lifetime movie I Was Honey Boo Boo (2025), but she's come a long way and remained transparent about the journey. Recently, Alana was featured in People discussing her family life, reality TV career, and what she's been up to now. "Honey Boo Boo" still has that natural star power. Fans have shown her mad love, praising her for being resilient and living her truth after all these years. One fan wrote, "Your a smart young adult now and don't let anyone tell you differently. Beautiful person in and outside. Sending love and support to you and your siblings." "You are looking really good super proud of you even though I an [sic] a stranger," someone else wrote. "You look beautiful, so proud of your success at breaking the cycle. Going to CO was the best decision you ever made. And nurses make good money!" another fan wrote. This person left a lengthy, heartfelt message, writing, "its amazing that you all blossomed into such lovely, well-rounded, intelligent young women despite the unfair and unnecessary hardships you faced. To be able to hold your head high, have strong moral standards and continue to prove so many doubters wrong is lovely to witness." Whew. Seeing Alana older and still thriving really makes me feel old. I can't handle this anymore.
Yahoo
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson Recalls Days They Had No Food amid Mom's Addiction to Crack Cocaine (Exclusive)
Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson has been a fixture on reality TV ever since her days on Toddlers & Tiaras in 2011. The rambunctious spitfire won over the hearts of fans and snagged multiple spinoff shows featuring her family over the years. But what was her life really like behind the cameras? Alana, now 19, is finally ready to share her side of the story. The former pageant princess' life is being explored in a new Lifetime biopic, I Was Honey Boo Boo, premiering May 17. Among one of the darkest moments that the film depicts is her mother 'Mama June' Shannon's downward spiral into toxic relationships and drug addiction. 'I did not want this movie to be throwing punches at my mama and making her out to be the bad guy,' Alana tells PEOPLE in this week's cover story. 'But I didn't hold back, and if she gets mad, at the end of the day it's the truth.' As Mama June filmed her spinoff series, WeTV's Mama June: From Not to Hot, which first premiered in 2017, she fell into the throes of addiction to crack cocaine. 'I noticed something was off about her,' Alana says. 'She started locking her doors, which really made me think, 'Oh, what is she doing?'" In 2019, Mama June and her then-boyfriend Geno Doak were charged with felony possession of drugs — just days after her family staged an intervention that was captured on Mama June: From Not to then began living with her older sister Lauryn 'Pumpkin' Efird after she told her mom during the intervention she had left "not by choice." "I would love to come home and stay with you, tell you about my day, but I can't do that because I'm scared. I'm scared to stay at your house," Alana said in the 2019 episode. Looking back now, Alana remembers "when Pumpkin came to get me [to live with her], there was no food. Basically, the house had been abandoned." When Alana was 16, Pumpkin was granted full custody of her. Alana recalls the period playing out so publicly on TV. 'People were like, 'I saw your mama on the news with a busted tooth, strung out,'' Alana recalls her classmates saying. 'I'm like, 'Great, like I didn't see that too.'" Never miss a story — sign up for to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. During the time Alana came under fire for pretending to snort cocaine on social media. 'It was really stupid, but I was young, and Mama wasn't really reaching out. I thought if I do this maybe she'll be like, 'I need to stop because Alana's taking after me.' It didn't work.' As the show rebranded to Mama June: Road to Redemption and, later, Mama June: Family Crisis (which returns May 30), Alana recalls a time a producer 'pulled me aside to say, 'Your mama's not going to look like what you think. She's on drugs. You need to prepare yourself.'' Alana and her sisters confronted Mama June about her drug use, and 'she didn't lie,' Alana says. 'But it didn't matter that she fessed up, because she still wanted to do it.' Though critics have accused the show of being exploitative for showing such events, 'I don't think it was,' says Alana. 'But at times I do feel like the camera should have went away.' Now, she and her mom, who says she's five and a half years sober, have mended their relationship, though Alana says it was "hard." "But at the end of the day, she's my mom. When she was bad in her addiction, I just kept thinking about the day she'd recover," she says. "We're going pretty good. Hopefully it lasts. I just no longer have any expectations for her."I Was Honey Boo Boo premieres Saturday, May 17 at 8 p.m. ET on Lifetime. Read the original article on People
The National
29-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The National
Extreme cases mask the fact that all ‘kidfluencing' is exploitative
The most common criticism of the show – and the pageant scene it portrayed – related to the sexualisation of its young stars, who were taught to preen and pose provocatively for an audience of adults. A spin-off series focusing on one of the girls was abruptly cancelled after her mother's relationships with two different child sex offenders were revealed. READ MORE: Elon Musk lookalike in Scotland goes viral in hilarious video Back then, it was easy to condemn the show, and the adults portrayed in it, as causing harm to their children. Few were swayed by arguments that the children enjoyed what they were doing, or that those viewing it through a sexual lens were the problem. The creators of Toddlers & Tiaras were not making a gritty expose – they were complicit in what many regarded as abuse. Unfortunately, compared to the Wild West of social media in 2025, those were simple times. Parents could push their kids onto the stage, and even TV, but there were limits – and child labour laws – to contend with if a family sought to turn its youngest members into cash cows. Last week – as YouTube celebrated its 20th birthday and YouTube Kids turned 10 – a Labour MP warned that parts of the 2023 Online Safety Act may already be 'obsolete or inadequate due to the lack of foresight and rigour of the last government' in relation to child 'influencers'. READ MORE: Second Kneecap clip assessed by police over alleged 'kill MP' call Reporting the concerns of Chi Onwurah, who chairs Westminster's science, technology and innovation committee, Sky News said that 'experts have raised concerns that there is a lack of legal provision for children who earn money through brand collaborations on social media, which has led to some advertising in their underwear.' That's an interesting sentence. A lack of regulation does not, in itself, lead to children appearing on social media in their underwear. That is the result of an adult – most likely a parent – filming the child in a state of undress and putting the content online. It's important not to shy away from the fact that it is parents who are using their children in this way, and indeed that fully dressed children cannot be protected by politicians if their parents are intent on exploiting them. The title of the recent Netflix series Bad Influence: The Dark Side Of Kidfluencing is similarly worth pondering, implying as it does that there is a light side of 'kidfluencing' that would not merit the scrutiny of documentary-makers. READ MORE: How is snapping photographs of the Pope's tomb 'paying respects'? It tells the story of a US child influencer and her mother who started out on the pageant circuit before switching to YouTube and building an extremely lucrative brand. Tiffany Smith progressed from filming her own daughter to creating content involving her friends, then other child performers seeking to boost their own online followings. It's not entirely clear which aspects of what happened next are the 'dark side' of the title. As the children's content started to bring in huge sums of money, the filming schedules became more demanding. Smith removed her daughter from school, and it was unclear what kind of education – if any – she continued to receive. As the children entered their teens, their videos began referencing crushes and kissing, and fake relationships were staged (albeit they were not always experienced as such by the children in question). Neither Smith nor her daughter agreed to be interviewed, so the story is largely told by the other 'kidfluencer' children (now nearly adults) and their parents. THEY tell increasingly disturbing stories about what Smith was doing, including allegations of sexual assault, psychological abuse and encouraging sexual predators to engage with the children's content. In 2022, YouTube removed Smith's ability to make money from videos posted to its site, on the grounds that she was 'facing multiple allegations of child abuse and exploitation'. But the channel itself was always a form of exploitation, as is every example of 'kidfluencing' and indeed the inclusion of children in content created by their parents. The question for legislators, creators and indeed ethically minded viewers of this content to consider is: where should lines be drawn? The parents featured in Bad Influence were clearly duped, but they are not innocent victims. The show does not delve too deeply into their complicity – if it had done so, presumably they would have been less inclined to take part. Tiffany Smith's daughter is still a social media influencer, and predictably at 17 has begun collaborating with OnlyFans 'models'. The Netflix series may serve to direct even more predatory adults towards her content, and further trap her in a 'career' she never chose. It may be some time before we learn how the creation of social media content featuring children has actually affected their development, their sense of self, and their relationships with others. But the more successful the child star, the more money can be made, and we cannot simply allow parents to decide how many takes, how many ads, how many videos are too many. The stakes are far too high.
