Stage moms, greedy parents, or adults who want to push little girls into an adult world. Regardless of the instigator, the outcome is usually the same. Young girls become too grown up too soon. It happens to almost all child stars eventually, but little girls seem more likely candidates to be pushed harder and farther.
Those cute little darlings are made to wear clothes and makeup that drives their appearance far away from the innocence of their years. Adult actions are added to gain crowd appeal. These delicate creatures are compelled to learn to sway their hips and pout their lips to play to an audience who should not get such pleasure from watching them. It is not always a television show or a movie. Many times it happens at junior beauty pageants. The lure of big bucks from modeling contracts for catalogues and clothing companies are too much to turn down.
The shame comes from the fact that their parents or handlers think that they are doing the girls a favor. They cloak their greed in words that imply that only the child's future is being considered. It might be money for college or to trade a short time of performing for a lifetime of ease. These reasons sound good while the child is young. But, what about as she ages a little. It does not take much just a short trip into her teens may be all that is required for the fame and usually the fortune to disappear.
What is left behind from the effort is a young woman with a sullied life. The impressionable little girl grew up liking the limelight and the good life. She only knew a life where she was the center of attention. Very few times find the adults being grown up enough to shield the girl from believing that she is the center of the world. When this reality hits, it comes like a ton of bricks.
Now, she is a has-been at 13 or 15 or 17 years old. Because of the money that has swirled around her during career, access to things that should be beyond her reach give her the ability to move into the realm of drugs, parties, and alcohol. She has been exposed to many of these as she grew up. At this point, without careful work by her parents or guardian, she may well turn to such things to fill the emptiness left by her loss of stardom.
Desperation can easily replace bitterness at this point. If her money has not been conserved and her life centered on more than a famous career, she will begin to look for peer acceptance in the wrong places. Her famous body may be seen as her ticket to celebrity status again. However, this time it will be for the wrong reasons.
How is this avoided? A sense of being normal must be cultivated in the young life. It is important that young girls learn that they have all of the love and acceptance that they need in their family and close friends. Fame and money should never be put forth as the all-important goal of life. This gives the young girl the opportunity to see her career as just a stage of life that will pass. She may miss it for a while, but that feeling will fade as education and planning a future life takes over.
Her career must always be looked at with the knowledge that it is her career. It does not belong to parents or an agent or a coach. Adults living vicariously through the life of impressionable little girls should never happen. Be happy for their success but resist the temptation to push and shove them farther than they should naturally go.
