Latest news with #WorkIt
Yahoo
16 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pigtails, pink tracksuit, 'permanent performance mode': Alyson Stoner pulls back the curtain on childhood stardom
Come for the juicy child star gossip, stay to dismantle the system. Alyson Stoner's life radically and irreversibly changed in the aisle of a grocery store in 2002. A week after the MTV premiere of Missy Elliott's 'Work It' music video, which featured a 9-year-old Stoner dancing for a few brief seconds in pigtails and a pink tracksuit, a stranger approached the child with a request. 'Are you the little white girl in the Missy video?' the man asked, before adding, 'Can you do the dance?' The young dancer obliged, soon surrounded by customers watching the spectacle. This was the beginning of what Stoner, who uses they/them pronouns, calls 'permanent performance mode.' Stoner's career as a child star took off from there, and they became a mainstay on the Disney Channel for many years, appearing in Camp Rock and Mike's Super Short Show but never fully breaking out with their own series or movie like fellow Mouse House stars Miley Cyrus or Demi Lovato. It's an unusual trajectory, and Stoner's new book, Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything, is not the typical kid performer memoir. It's OK if you think so at first, though. It's all part of the plan. 'Copy-and-paste downward spirals' Stoner says they noticed a series of recent memoirs and documentaries highlighting a 'repeated pattern of former child performers … experiencing copy-and-paste downward spirals,' but no one had yet unpacked the ecosystem that creates that kind of pattern, nor tried to intervene and prevent it from continuing to harm children. 'I thought, 'I want to not only share my lived experiences — yes, all of the juicy details from the sets growing up — but also connect new dots for people across media, culture, child development and the industry,' Stoner, now 32, tells Yahoo over Zoom. 'Folks might show up to read about the childhood chaos of it all, but I hope they stay for the cultural critique.' Stoner is still an entertainer, and they recognize that their work onscreen is probably what you know them from. But they're also a mental health practitioner. For every reveal of childhood trauma or candid tale about a familiar name in their book, there's a revelation about something broken in the entertainment industry and a proposal to fix it. Knowing that fame and trauma would be the draw for a lot of readers, Stoner worked with a writing supervisor to strategize about what exactly to include. It's written chronologically and guided by Stoner's inner monologue over time, pulling directly from journal entries. With that in mind, the vulnerability on display is impressive. Stoner details heart-wrenching stories from their life: public and private scrutiny that contributed to an eating disorder that they sought treatment for in rehab, a tumultuous home life with an abusive stepfather and alcoholic mother, run-ins with stalkers and extortionists, rape and suicidal ideation. There are even stories about the inner workings of Hollywood and its stars that became tabloid fodder the same day the book was released. But that's just Stoner's real life. They're working with what they've got. 'There are ways you can speak about your direct, personal experience and still honor the humanity of everyone involved while calling for some accountability, while accepting that there are consequences beyond my control, no matter what I do or don't say,' Stoner says. 'So I wanted to make sure that even though the truth is not always polite, I could still deliver it with integrity … if I'm going to write a memoir, now is the time to get it [all] off my chest.' 'We're speaking about children as commodified products' Though the Disney Channel stars of today have a new playbook, Stoner says their learnings from childhood fame are more relevant than ever. 'Anyone with a Wi-Fi connection and social media profile can deal with challenges related to privacy, to safety, to parasocial relationships, mental health challenges due to our tech use,' they say. In June, I saw Stoner speak on a panel at VidCon, an annual convention for content creators and their fans. Their bravery stuck with me. Stoner interjected as experts discussed how the kid influencer industry could protect the young and famous, speaking clinically and professionally about the laws and regulations in place to protect them. 'I do want to ground the conversation in the reality that we're speaking about children as commodified products at the moment. I was one of them,' they said onstage. 'There are well-meaning people in all areas of the [entertainment] industry, [but] the entire system of it is warped here … we're talking about a child who cannot legally consent, who doesn't have legal rights to control what their parent shares of them.' Stoner brought humanity to a hot-button issue often discussed by the people revolving around and profiting from famous children. They had made their point — kids aren't products, nor do they know what might affect them later on in life. I asked them about it a month later on our call. 'I think any string of experiences that is too overwhelming for any young person will take its toll in one shape or form. You may not always be able to recognize it right away, because young people oftentimes want to please the adults around them.' Stoner explains. 'They also don't have any alternative map of reality to compare their experience against. So whatever we normalize for them is what becomes the patterns that dictate their trajectory.' I thought of the early chapters of Stoner's book, in which they describe the constant pain and rejection of the audition process as a child actor. On a plane to Hollywood for a series of TV pilot auditions at 7 years old, Stoner recalls thinking, 'I just want to show them all I'm special … I better make it count.' In order to feel good, they had to successfully book projects over and over again. While meeting with their agent, they were encouraged to alter their appearance and learn more special skills to become more marketable. 'It didn't register that I was being groomed to be sold. I was no longer a child; I was a commodity … physical beauty — coupled with high versatility— increased my price tag,' Stoner writes in their memoir. In 2025, kids don't need an agent or auditions to experience this. Anyone who's posting online can. Drawing on their mental health expertise, Stoner tells Yahoo that young people are losing the opportunity to have a 'play-based childhood,' where they're allowed to fail and experiment in private, giving them time and space to process what they're going through and better 'find equilibrium after intense experiences.' 'It's when it becomes a chronic and incessant experience with no respite that we start to see young people developing their own coping strategies,' Stoner says. That can lead to eating disorders and harmful obsessions. For child social media stars, it might even be worse. 'They're not portraying a character … this is actually the literal commodification of their humanity. And that's worth spending some time reflecting on,' they say. The plan to stop the spiral The more I talked to Stoner and read about their traumatic experiences as a child star, the more I was surprised that they were still in show business. I would have run for the hills to never think about this again. I was a big fan of Stoner when we were both kids, and I never considered why their disappearance from Disney might have been strategic, until they went viral in a 2021 YouTube post about the 'toddler to train wreck industrial complex' that they 'narrowly survived.' The reason Stoner isn't running away from the entertainment industry entirely is fairly simple, but perplexing — and it speaks volumes about their strength. Their 'unique and unexpected upbringing' gave them an understanding of both children and Hollywood, they tell me. 'I'm hoping that I can hold the middle in a way that allows people on all sides to be able to hear each other … so we can think about these things holistically and always … center the fact that children are not just mini adults,' Stoner says. 'Their brains and bodies are at literal different developmental stages and phases.' The child star industrial complex desperately needs to be rebooted. Discussion and legislation help, but Stoner has a practical and actionable plan. They created the Artist Wellbeing Essentials, a toolkit for performers and parents to learn about the pitfalls and potential risks they may face. It's made up of over 50 videos about specific experiences that performers go through, from learning to get into and out of character to managing audition rejection, and how they may affect other areas of their lives, like finances and education. 'I'm hoping [that material] is something that becomes standardized as a preventative resource, just like anyone would get if they're onboarding to a new job,' they say. Maybe Stoner's desire to stay in and overhaul an industry they 'narrowly survived' is less of an act of defiance than a genuine calling. Destiny is rarely this apparent outside of the Disney movies Stoner once acted in, but their real-life story is far more compelling.
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pigtails, pink tracksuit, 'permanent performance mode': Alyson Stoner pulls back the curtain on childhood stardom
Come for the juicy child star gossip, stay to dismantle the system. Alyson Stoner's life radically and irreversibly changed in the aisle of a grocery store in 2002. A week after the MTV premiere of Missy Elliott's 'Work It' music video, which featured a 9-year-old Stoner dancing for a few brief seconds in pigtails and a pink tracksuit, a stranger approached the child with a request. 'Are you the little white girl in the Missy video?' the man asked, before adding, 'Can you do the dance?' The young dancer obliged, soon surrounded by customers watching the spectacle. This was the beginning of what Stoner, who uses they/them pronouns, calls 'permanent performance mode.' Stoner's career as a child star took off from there, and they became a mainstay on the Disney Channel for many years, appearing in Camp Rock and Mike's Super Short Show but never fully breaking out with their own series or movie like fellow Mouse House stars Miley Cyrus or Demi Lovato. It's an unusual trajectory, and Stoner's new book, Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything, is not the typical kid performer memoir. It's OK if you think so at first, though. It's all part of the plan. 'Copy-and-paste downward spirals' Stoner says they noticed a series of recent memoirs and documentaries highlighting a 'repeated pattern of former child performers … experiencing copy-and-paste downward spirals,' but no one had yet unpacked the ecosystem that creates that kind of pattern, nor tried to intervene and prevent it from continuing to harm children. 'I thought, 'I want to not only share my lived experiences — yes, all of the juicy details from the sets growing up — but also connect new dots for people across media, culture, child development and the industry,' Stoner, now 32, tells Yahoo over Zoom. 'Folks might show up to read about the childhood chaos of it all, but I hope they stay for the cultural critique.' Stoner is still an entertainer, and they recognize that their work onscreen is probably what you know them from. But they're also a mental health practitioner. For every reveal of childhood trauma or candid tale about a familiar name in their book, there's a revelation about something broken in the entertainment industry and a proposal to fix it. Knowing that fame and trauma would be the draw for a lot of readers, Stoner worked with a writing supervisor to strategize about what exactly to include. It's written chronologically and guided by Stoner's inner monologue over time, pulling directly from journal entries. With that in mind, the vulnerability on display is impressive. Stoner details heart-wrenching stories from their life: public and private scrutiny that contributed to an eating disorder that they sought treatment for in rehab, a tumultuous home life with an abusive stepfather and alcoholic mother, run-ins with stalkers and extortionists, rape and suicidal ideation. There are even stories about the inner workings of Hollywood and its stars that became tabloid fodder the same day the book was released. But that's just Stoner's real life. They're working with what they've got. 'There are ways you can speak about your direct, personal experience and still honor the humanity of everyone involved while calling for some accountability, while accepting that there are consequences beyond my control, no matter what I do or don't say,' Stoner says. 'So I wanted to make sure that even though the truth is not always polite, I could still deliver it with integrity … if I'm going to write a memoir, now is the time to get it [all] off my chest.' 'We're speaking about children as commodified products' Though the Disney Channel stars of today have a new playbook, Stoner says their learnings from childhood fame are more relevant than ever. 'Anyone with a Wi-Fi connection and social media profile can deal with challenges related to privacy, to safety, to parasocial relationships, mental health challenges due to our tech use,' they say. In June, I saw Stoner speak on a panel at VidCon, an annual convention for content creators and their fans. Their bravery stuck with me. Stoner interjected as experts discussed how the kid influencer industry could protect the young and famous, speaking clinically and professionally about the laws and regulations in place to protect them. 'I do want to ground the conversation in the reality that we're speaking about children as commodified products at the moment. I was one of them,' they said onstage. 'There are well-meaning people in all areas of the [entertainment] industry, [but] the entire system of it is warped here … we're talking about a child who cannot legally consent, who doesn't have legal rights to control what their parent shares of them.' Stoner brought humanity to a hot-button issue often discussed by the people revolving around and profiting from famous children. They had made their point — kids aren't products, nor do they know what might affect them later on in life. I asked them about it a month later on our call. 'I think any string of experiences that is too overwhelming for any young person will take its toll in one shape or form. You may not always be able to recognize it right away, because young people oftentimes want to please the adults around them.' Stoner explains. 'They also don't have any alternative map of reality to compare their experience against. So whatever we normalize for them is what becomes the patterns that dictate their trajectory.' I thought of the early chapters of Stoner's book, in which they describe the constant pain and rejection of the audition process as a child actor. On a plane to Hollywood for a series of TV pilot auditions at 7 years old, Stoner recalls thinking, 'I just want to show them all I'm special … I better make it count.' In order to feel good, they had to successfully book projects over and over again. While meeting with their agent, they were encouraged to alter their appearance and learn more special skills to become more marketable. 'It didn't register that I was being groomed to be sold. I was no longer a child; I was a commodity … physical beauty — coupled with high versatility— increased my price tag,' Stoner writes in their memoir. In 2025, kids don't need an agent or auditions to experience this. Anyone who's posting online can. Drawing on her mental health expertise, Stoner tells Yahoo that young people are losing the opportunity to have a 'play-based childhood,' where they're allowed to fail and experiment in private, giving them time and space to process what they're going through and better 'find equilibrium after intense experiences.' 'It's when it becomes a chronic and incessant experience with no respite that we start to see young people developing their own coping strategies,' Stoner says. That can lead to eating disorders and harmful obsessions. For child social media stars, it might even be worse. 'They're not portraying a character … this is actually the literal commodification of their humanity. And that's worth spending some time reflecting on,' they say. The plan to stop the spiral The more I talked to Stoner and read about their traumatic experiences as a child star, the more I was surprised that they were still in show business. I would have run for the hills to never think about this again. I was a big fan of Stoner when we were both kids, and I never considered why their disappearance from Disney might have been strategic, until they went viral in a 2021 YouTube post about the 'toddler to train wreck industrial complex' that they 'narrowly survived.' The reason Stoner isn't running away from the entertainment industry entirely is fairly simple, but perplexing — and it speaks volumes about their strength. Their 'unique and unexpected upbringing' gave them an understanding of both children and Hollywood, they tell me. 'I'm hoping that I can hold the middle in a way that allows people on all sides to be able to hear each other … so we can think about these things holistically and always … center the fact that children are not just mini adults,' Stoner says. 'Their brains and bodies are at literal different developmental stages and phases.' The child star industrial complex desperately needs to be rebooted. Discussion and legislation help, but Stoner has a practical and actionable plan. They created the Artist Wellbeing Essentials, a toolkit for performers and parents to learn about the pitfalls and potential risks they may face. It's made up of over 50 videos about specific experiences that performers go through, from learning to get into and out of character to managing audition rejection, and how they may affect other areas of their lives, like finances and education. 'I'm hoping [that material] is something that becomes standardized as a preventative resource, just like anyone would get if they're onboarding to a new job,' they say. Maybe Stoner's desire to stay in and overhaul an industry they 'narrowly survived' is less of an act of defiance than a genuine calling. Destiny is rarely this apparent outside of the Disney movies Stoner once acted in, but their real-life story is far more compelling. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
21 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Pigtails, pink tracksuit, 'permanent performance mode': Alyson Stoner pulls back the curtain on childhood stardom
Come for the juicy child star gossip, stay to dismantle the system. Alyson Stoner's life radically and irreversibly changed in the aisle of a grocery store in 2002. A week after the MTV premiere of Missy Elliott's 'Work It' music video, which featured a 9-year-old Stoner dancing for a few brief seconds in pigtails and a pink tracksuit, a stranger approached the child with a request. 'Are you the little white girl in the Missy video?' the man asked, before adding, 'Can you do the dance?' The young dancer obliged, soon surrounded by customers watching the spectacle. This was the beginning of what Stoner, who uses they/them pronouns, calls 'permanent performance mode.' Stoner's career as a child star took off from there, and they became a mainstay on the Disney Channel for many years, appearing in Camp Rock and Mike's Super Short Show but never fully breaking out with their own series or movie like fellow Mouse House stars Miley Cyrus or Demi Lovato. It's an unusual trajectory, and Stoner's new book, Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything, is not the typical kid performer memoir. It's OK if you think so at first, though. It's all part of the plan. 'Copy-and-paste downward spirals' Stoner says they noticed a series of recent memoirs and documentaries highlighting a 'repeated pattern of former child performers … experiencing copy-and-paste downward spirals,' but no one had yet unpacked the ecosystem that creates that kind of pattern, nor tried to intervene and prevent it from continuing to harm children. 'I thought, 'I want to not only share my lived experiences — yes, all of the juicy details from the sets growing up — but also connect new dots for people across media, culture, child development and the industry,' Stoner, now 32, tells Yahoo over Zoom. 'Folks might show up to read about the childhood chaos of it all, but I hope they stay for the cultural critique.' Stoner is still an entertainer, and they recognize that their work onscreen is probably what you know them from. But they're also a mental health practitioner. For every reveal of childhood trauma or candid tale about a familiar name in their book, there's a revelation about something broken in the entertainment industry and a proposal to fix it. Knowing that fame and trauma would be the draw for a lot of readers, Stoner worked with a writing supervisor to strategize about what exactly to include. It's written chronologically and guided by Stoner's inner monologue over time, pulling directly from journal entries. With that in mind, the vulnerability on display is impressive. Stoner details heart-wrenching stories from their life: public and private scrutiny that contributed to an eating disorder that they sought treatment for in rehab, a tumultuous home life with an abusive stepfather and alcoholic mother, run-ins with stalkers and extortionists, rape and suicidal ideation. There are even stories about the inner workings of Hollywood and its stars that became tabloid fodder the same day the book was released. But that's just Stoner's real life. They're working with what they've got. 'There are ways you can speak about your direct, personal experience and still honor the humanity of everyone involved while calling for some accountability, while accepting that there are consequences beyond my control, no matter what I do or don't say,' Stoner says. 'So I wanted to make sure that even though the truth is not always polite, I could still deliver it with integrity … if I'm going to write a memoir, now is the time to get it [all] off my chest.' 'We're speaking about children as commodified products' Though the Disney Channel stars of today have a new playbook, Stoner says their learnings from childhood fame are more relevant than ever. 'Anyone with a Wi-Fi connection and social media profile can deal with challenges related to privacy, to safety, to parasocial relationships, mental health challenges due to our tech use,' they say. In June, I saw Stoner speak on a panel at VidCon, an annual convention for content creators and their fans. Their bravery stuck with me. Stoner interjected as experts discussed how the kid influencer industry could protect the young and famous, speaking clinically and professionally about the laws and regulations in place to protect them. 'I do want to ground the conversation in the reality that we're speaking about children as commodified products at the moment. I was one of them,' they said onstage. 'There are well-meaning people in all areas of the [entertainment] industry, [but] the entire system of it is warped here … we're talking about a child who cannot legally consent, who doesn't have legal rights to control what their parent shares of them.' Stoner brought humanity to a hot-button issue often discussed by the people revolving around and profiting from famous children. They had made their point — kids aren't products, nor do they know what might affect them later on in life. I asked them about it a month later on our call. 'I think any string of experiences that is too overwhelming for any young person will take its toll in one shape or form. You may not always be able to recognize it right away, because young people oftentimes want to please the adults around them.' Stoner explains. 'They also don't have any alternative map of reality to compare their experience against. So whatever we normalize for them is what becomes the patterns that dictate their trajectory.' I thought of the early chapters of Stoner's book, in which they describe the constant pain and rejection of the audition process as a child actor. On a plane to Hollywood for a series of TV pilot auditions at 7 years old, Stoner recalls thinking, 'I just want to show them all I'm special … I better make it count.' In order to feel good, they had to successfully book projects over and over again. While meeting with their agent, they were encouraged to alter their appearance and learn more special skills to become more marketable. 'It didn't register that I was being groomed to be sold. I was no longer a child; I was a commodity … physical beauty — coupled with high versatility— increased my price tag,' Stoner writes in their memoir. In 2025, kids don't need an agent or auditions to experience this. Anyone who's posting online can. Drawing on her mental health expertise, Stoner tells Yahoo that young people are losing the opportunity to have a 'play-based childhood,' where they're allowed to fail and experiment in private, giving them time and space to process what they're going through and better 'find equilibrium after intense experiences.' 'It's when it becomes a chronic and incessant experience with no respite that we start to see young people developing their own coping strategies,' Stoner says. That can lead to eating disorders and harmful obsessions. For child social media stars, it might even be worse. 'They're not portraying a character … this is actually the literal commodification of their humanity. And that's worth spending some time reflecting on,' they say. The plan to stop the spiral The more I talked to Stoner and read about their traumatic experiences as a child star, the more I was surprised that they were still in show business. I would have run for the hills to never think about this again. I was a big fan of Stoner when we were both kids, and I never considered why their disappearance from Disney might have been strategic, until they went viral in a 2021 YouTube post about the 'toddler to train wreck industrial complex' that they 'narrowly survived.' The reason Stoner isn't running away from the entertainment industry entirely is fairly simple, but perplexing — and it speaks volumes about their strength. Their 'unique and unexpected upbringing' gave them an understanding of both children and Hollywood, they tell me. 'I'm hoping that I can hold the middle in a way that allows people on all sides to be able to hear each other … so we can think about these things holistically and always … center the fact that children are not just mini adults,' Stoner says. 'Their brains and bodies are at literal different developmental stages and phases.' The child star industrial complex desperately needs to be rebooted. Discussion and legislation help, but Stoner has a practical and actionable plan. They created the Artist Wellbeing Essentials, a toolkit for performers and parents to learn about the pitfalls and potential risks they may face. It's made up of over 50 videos about specific experiences that performers go through, from learning to get into and out of character to managing audition rejection, and how they may affect other areas of their lives, like finances and education. 'I'm hoping [that material] is something that becomes standardized as a preventative resource, just like anyone would get if they're onboarding to a new job,' they say. Maybe Stoner's desire to stay in and overhaul an industry they 'narrowly survived' is less of an act of defiance than a genuine calling. Destiny is rarely this apparent outside of the Disney movies Stoner once acted in, but their real-life story is far more compelling. Solve the daily Crossword
Yahoo
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Alyson Stoner on escaping the 'toddler to train wreck' pipeline and building plans to dismantle the child star industrial complex
Come for the juicy child star gossip, stay to dismantle the system. Alyson Stoner's life radically and irreversibly changed in the aisle of a grocery store in 2002. A week after the MTV premiere of Missy Elliott's 'Work It' music video, which featured a 9-year-old Stoner dancing for a few brief seconds in pigtails and a pink tracksuit, a stranger approached the child with a request. 'Are you the little white girl in the Missy video?' the man asked, before adding, 'Can you do the dance?' The young dancer obliged, soon surrounded by customers watching the spectacle. This was the beginning of what Stoner, who uses they/them pronouns, calls 'permanent performance mode.' Stoner's career as a child star took off from there, and they became a mainstay on the Disney Channel for many years, appearing in Camp Rock and Mike's Super Short Show but never fully breaking out with their own series or movie like fellow Mouse House stars Miley Cyrus or Demi Lovato. It's an unusual trajectory, and Stoner's new book, Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything, is not the typical kid performer memoir. It's OK if you think so at first, though. It's all part of the plan. 'Copy-and-paste downward spirals' Stoner says they noticed a series of recent memoirs and documentaries highlighting a 'repeated pattern of former child performers … experiencing copy-and-paste downward spirals,' but no one had yet unpacked the ecosystem that creates that kind of pattern, nor tried to intervene and prevent it from continuing to harm children. 'I thought, 'I want to not only share my lived experiences — yes, all of the juicy details from the sets growing up — but also connect new dots for people across media, culture, child development and the industry,' Stoner, now 32, tells Yahoo over Zoom. 'Folks might show up to read about the childhood chaos of it all, but I hope they stay for the cultural critique.' Stoner is still an entertainer, and they recognize that their work onscreen is probably what you know them from. But they're also a mental health practitioner. For every reveal of childhood trauma or candid tale about a familiar name in their book, there's a revelation about something broken in the entertainment industry and a proposal to fix it. Knowing that fame and trauma would be the draw for a lot of readers, Stoner worked with a writing supervisor to strategize about what exactly to include. It's written chronologically and guided by Stoner's inner monologue over time, pulling directly from journal entries. With that in mind, the vulnerability on display is impressive. Stoner details heart-wrenching stories from their life: public and private scrutiny that contributed to an eating disorder that they sought treatment for in rehab, a tumultuous home life with an abusive stepfather and alcoholic mother, run-ins with stalkers and extortionists, rape and suicidal ideation. There are even stories about the inner workings of Hollywood and its stars that became tabloid fodder the same day the book was released. But that's just Stoner's real life. They're working with what they've got. 'There are ways you can speak about your direct, personal experience and still honor the humanity of everyone involved while calling for some accountability, while accepting that there are consequences beyond my control, no matter what I do or don't say,' Stoner says. 'So I wanted to make sure that even though the truth is not always polite, I could still deliver it with integrity … if I'm going to write a memoir, now is the time to get it [all] off my chest.' 'We're speaking about children as commodified products' Though the Disney Channel stars of today have a new playbook, Stoner says their learnings from childhood fame are more relevant than ever. 'Anyone with a Wi-Fi connection and social media profile can deal with challenges related to privacy, to safety, to parasocial relationships, mental health challenges due to our tech use,' they say. In June, I saw Stoner speak on a panel at VidCon, an annual convention for content creators and their fans. Their bravery stuck with me. Stoner interjected as experts were discussing how the kid influencer industry could protect the young and famous, speaking clinically and professionally about the laws and regulations in place to protect them. 'I do want to ground the conversation in the reality that we're speaking about children as commodified products at the moment. I was one of them,' they said onstage. 'There are well-meaning people in all areas of the [entertainment] industry, [but] the entire system of it is warped here … we're talking about a child who cannot legally consent, who doesn't have legal rights to control what their parent shares of them.' Stoner brought humanity to a hot-button issue often discussed by the people revolving around and profiting from famous children. They had made their point — kids aren't products, nor do they know what might impact them later on in life. I asked them about it a month later on our call. 'I think any string of experiences that is too overwhelming for any young person will take its toll in one shape or form. You may not always be able to recognize it right away, because young people oftentimes want to please the adults around them.' Stoner explains. 'They also don't have any alternative map of reality to compare their experience against. So whatever we normalize for them is what becomes the patterns that dictate their trajectory.' I thought of the early chapters of Stoner's book, in which they describe the constant pain and rejection of the audition process as a child actor. On a plane to Hollywood for a series of TV pilot auditions at 7 years old, Stoner recalls thinking, 'I just want to show them all I'm special … I better make it count.' In order to feel good, they had to successfully book projects over and over again. While meeting with their agent, they were encouraged to alter their appearance and learn more special skills to become more marketable. 'It didn't register that I was being groomed to be sold. I was no longer a child; I was a commodity … physical beauty — coupled with high versatility— increased my price tag,' Stoner writes in their memoir. In 2025, kids don't need an agent or auditions to experience this. Anyone who's posting online can. Drawing on her mental health expertise, Stoner tells Yahoo that young people are losing the opportunity to have a 'play-based childhood,' where they're allowed to fail and experiment in private, giving them time and space to process what they're going through and better 'find equilibrium after intense experiences.' 'It's when it becomes a chronic and incessant experience with no respite that we start to see young people developing their own coping strategies,' Stoner says. That can lead to eating disorders and harmful obsessions. For child social media stars, it might even be worse. 'They're not portraying a character … this is actually the literal commodification of their humanity. And that's worth spending some time reflecting on,' they say. The plan to stop the spiral The more I talked to Stoner and read about their traumatic experiences as a child star, the more I was surprised that they were still in show business. I would have run for the hills to never think about this again. I was a big fan of Stoner when we were both kids, and I never considered why their disappearance from Disney might have been strategic until they went viral in a 2021 YouTube post about the 'toddler to train wreck industrial complex' that they 'narrowly survived.' The reason Stoner isn't running away from the entertainment industry entirely is fairly simple, but perplexing — and it speaks volumes about their strength. Their 'unique and unexpected upbringing' gave them an understanding of both children and Hollywood, they tell me. 'I'm hoping that I can hold the middle in a way that allows people on all sides to be able to hear each other … so we can think about these things holistically and always … center the fact that children are not just mini adults,' Stoner says. 'Their brains and bodies are at literal different developmental stages and phases.' The child star industrial complex desperately needs to be rebooted. Discussion and legislation help, but Stoner has a practical and actionable plan. They created the Artist Wellbeing Essentials, a toolkit for performers and parents to learn about the pitfalls and potential risks. It's made up of over 50 videos about specific experiences that performers go through, from learning to get into and out of character to managing audition rejection, and how they impact other areas of their lives, like finances and education. 'I'm hoping [that material] is something that becomes standardized as a preventative resource, just like anyone would get if they're onboarding to a new job,' they say. Maybe Stoner's desire to stay in and overhaul an industry they 'narrowly survived' is less of an act of defiance than a genuine calling. Destiny is rarely this apparent outside of the Disney movies Stoner once acted in, but their real-life story is far more compelling. Solve the daily Crossword
NBC News
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- NBC News
'Camp Rock' actor Alyson Stoner on the true cost of child stardom
Starting at the age of 7, Alyson Stoner's spunky dance moves, precocious acting chops and signature pigtails ensured a successful Hollywood run in movies like 'Camp Rock' and 'Cheaper By the Dozen.' These days, however, Stoner is pulling back the curtain to reveal the hazards of child stardom. 'What I wish we would have known is that your overall longevity and holistic development are so much more critical than trying to capitalize off of an interest before you can even write in cursive,' Stoner tells 'It's actually absurd.' Stoner, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, is still working through the fallout of what they call ' the toddler-to-trainwreck industrial complex.' Their new memoir, ' Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything,' shares a heartbreaking account of family disfunction, disordered eating and mental health crises. 'I was riding the highs and just trying to meet the moment of a busy schedule every day,' Stoner says of their childhood. 'It's hard to take inventory when you're going 150 miles an hour.' Today, Stoner finally has time to breathe ... and a mission to heal personal wounds and encourage reform in the entertainment industry. Work it One of Stoner's first career breaks was a small but standout role in Missy Elliott's 'Work It' in 2002. Stoner was one of several young dancers, but they stood out from the rest. The video led to 10-year-old Stoner teaching the dance to Ellen DeGeneres on the very first taping of her talk show. As Stoner grew, so did their fame: a long-running relationship with the Disney Channel, a role as Channing Tatum's younger sister in 'Step Up,' and voiceover roles in shows like 'Phineas and Ferb.' But at the same time, Stoner's perfectionistic people-pleasing behaviors increased their stress level to unsustainable heights. The academic schooling Stoner had been receiving didn't qualify for a college entrance, they were exercising too much and eating too little and a large sum of the money had been taken by their former business team. At 17, Stoner checked into a rehab facility and changed the course of their life. 'The industry, by design, disrupts every single domain of development,' Stoner says with an emphatic nod. 'When you're at the beck and call of agents and managers in a highly competitive environment where scarcity drives this willingness to comply with whatever breadcrumb you can get, you end up losing consistency, structure, routine,' they explain. 'Without space to recover, it starts to tax and corrode the body.' Why Hollywood is such a dangerous place for kids Stoner says that a 'stage parent' is mistakenly seen as someone who is controlling and wants to live out their dreams through their children. 'In my experience, more often than not, I encountered well-meaning parents who genuinely were aiming to support their child's interests and even to protect them,' Stoner says. 'The absence of resources prevent families from understanding how to pursue this passion in a healthy and sustainable way.' Stoner, who works as a mental health advocate, has created a toolkit to help families navigate tricky situations in the entertainment industry, and they were recently certified to be an on-set mental health coordinator for television and film. They want to help parents see past 'the facade that we expertly curate in the media.' But it can be difficult to give a child actor a childhood. 'The moment that you commodify the talent and that legal teams, corporations, mass media, general public are involved, it takes on a much different life of its own,' Stoner says. 'It becomes an adult workplace with adult responsibilities. There are lots of areas of vulnerability for your young one to be taken advantage of, even if you're doing your absolute best to protect them.' And what happens after a child star reaches the height of their fame? Well ... nothing. 'One of the tragic elements here is that after we extract from that child, they're discarded, and we move to the next child,' Stoner says. 'We forget that there's a real person who has to somehow figure out what to do after they've completed that early peak.' A change of scene Stoner says their mother 'went above and beyond to put forth her best effort to protect me, and the reality is the industry is such an indescribable, unrelatable environment for a young person to grow up, and there were no instructions.' Despite everything Stoner went through, they say it's not impossible to navigate child stardom in a positive way. 'There's a world where some version of this, along with hopefully changes within the industry and at the policy level make it a healthier pursuit,' Stoner says. Luckily, Stoner isn't alone in pushing for change in the industry. Other peers are speaking out in documentaries like ' Quiet on Set ' and ' Child Star.' Stoner appeared in the latter with 'Camp Rock' co-star Demi Lovato. 'I'm eager for more of my peers to come forward, and I recognize they can help tell the story, and I can help, hopefully accelerate the pace that some of these protections are are put into place,' Stoner says.
