10 Celebrities Who Were Treated Disgustingly As A Child Star
It is believed that the lives of celebrities are packed with star-studded parties and red-carpet fashion. However, Hollywood isn’t glamorous as we imagined.
One of the most persistent problems in Hollywood is the sexualization of celebrities, particularly young girls. They were even treated disgustingly in the media. This issue has happened over the years because many famous women choose to stay silent about it. Thankfully, some are brave enough to open up about how gross it felt and how it became their nightmares for years.
Here are 10 famous women who were sexualized at a very young age.
#1. Brooke Shields
Source: Courtesy Everett Collection
The sexualization Brooke Shields experienced in Hollywood from a very young age has just come to light. The actress revealed that she starred as a child prostitute in Pretty Baby at age 11 and then filmed in The Bule Lagoon, which depicted the sexual awakenings of two teenagers.
Shields said that “They wanted to make it a reality show. They wanted to sell my actual sexual awakening. The irony was, I wasn’t in touch with any of my own sexuality.”
Source: John Lamparski / Getty Images
Moreover, her mother let her pose nude at age 10 and the photos were published in a magazine. Later, she tried to prevent them from being reprinted but lost in court.
In 1997, when she was a preteen, journalist Ed Dwyer wrote: “She's a sweet temptation to all but blind men and eunuchs. She's sister, daughter, sex object, victim, lover, tramp.”
#2. Drew Barrymore
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As a child, Drew Barrymore was sexualized but at that time, she had no guts to speak up. She said, “I didn’t feel like I could speak to it because I experienced so many things that were so inappropriate at such a young age that I was so confused about what was I accountable for, what did I put myself into, where was I, was I a part of things. We were children,”
Source: Universal Pictures
The E.T. star had previously claimed not to have experienced sexual harassment in Hollywood, but her interview with Shields suggested she was in denial. “I felt like I couldn't speak to the movement, and I was so happy that it was happening, but I felt like I experienced too many things that were so gray and so awkward and I didn't know were wrong at the time,” Barrymore said.
The actress had to face sexualization when playing in Poison Ivy.
#3. Christina Applegate
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At age 16, Christina Applegate faced a ton of sexualization when filming in Married... with Children. She said, “Looking back on it in hindsight, it’s pretty gross. Yeah, that part of it kind of sucked. Men had posters of this little 17-year-old, with me holding pearls. Like, who let me do that? I didn’t even know what the connotation was,”
Source: Gilbert Flores / Getty Images
She experienced a tough time she struggled to get a serious role after being Married... with Children due to the image it gave her.
#4. Mara Wilson
As a child star, many people hated Mara Wilson due to her cuteness. She was hated for her tiresome cute act. Even when growing up, she kept struggling with aging out of being cute.
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During filming in Thomas and the Magic Railroad, she was required to wear a sports bra. At the age of 12, she stumbled upon an article that said she was entering “the awkward years when she’ll be old enough to have breasts, but not old enough to show them legally.”
#5. Alyson Stoner
Source: 20th Century Fox Film
Alyson Stoner, who was famous for her role in Missy Elliott’s “Work It” music video, spoke up about the impact of being sexualized. She wrote an op-ed where she mentioned the results of hitting puberty in the public eye.
Source: Jerod Harris / Getty Images
She wrote, “The onset of puberty has turned my waist and bust into the main objects of attention and inspection,... This will also categorize my career trajectory. I've learned that it is safer to dissociate in order to survive what my mind and body are subjected to daily. I'll be numb for another five years, but all you will see is the ever-highly-functioning,”
#6. Mary-Kate and Ashley
Mary-Kate and Ashley rose to stardom at a very young age when staring in Full House. They were extremely famous in the 2000s and were loved by everyone, especially grown men.
Source: Richard Corkery / Getty Images
NBC News wrote that the countdown to the twins’ 18th birthday contained the innocence of children and the sultriness of sexpots. People seemingly were obsessed with the way they seem always to be touching in photographs.
#7. Natalie Portman
There was also a countdown for Natalie Portman. The actress said during the 2019 Women’s March, “A countdown was started on my local radio show to my 18th birthday — euphemistically, the date that I would be legal to sleep with,”.
She revealed that viewers discussed her budding breasts in reviews but at that time she was just 13 years old. Portman felt unsafe when thinking that men would feel entitled to discuss and objectify her body if she were to express herself sexually.
When she starred as a 13-year-old who was with an older man in Beautiful Girls, she experienced being sexualized. On Dax Shepard’s podcast, the actress shared, “Being sexualized as a child, I think, took away from my own sexuality because it made me afraid,”
#8. Millie Bobby Brown
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Millie Bobby Brown noticed a difference in the way people and the media treated her after her 18th birthday. She called it “gross” and said, “I think it's just a very good representation of what's going on in the world and how young girls are sexualized. And so I have been dealing with that, but also have been dealing with that for forever.”
Source: Courtesy Everett Collection
When she was 13, she showed up on W Magazine’s list of why the TV was “sexier than ever.”
#9. Bella Thorne
Source: Jason Kempin / Getty Images
Bella Thorne spoke up about the time she was sexualized by male fans who pushed her sexy magazine cover and asked her to sign them. She totally regretted when posing for those pics and revealed the pressures of being under the spotlight.
Source: Bruce Birmelin / Disney Channel
She was devasted when a photo of her in a bikini at age 14 went viral. Disney Channel was forced to fire her from Shake It Up because people's reactions were “How dare this little girl do this? This is so disgusting.”
#10. Scarlett Johansson
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Our Black Widow was “hyper-sexualized” early in her career because people considered she was older than she was. She said she was in different situations that were not age-appropriate and was grateful for her mom who protected her.
Source: Focus Features
She was actually concerned that she had been in sexual and mature roles. She was afraid of being ejected from Hollywood when she reached a certain age, despite working in Hollywood for many years. She portrayed a dissatisfied young wife in Lost in Translation at the age of 17.
Whose stories make you angry the most? Share your thought in the comments.