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journal of Child Development
found that teenagers who work 20plus hours per week have a higher
incidence of drug and alcohol use.
The study underscores a sentiment expressed by former Mickey
Mouse Club member Paul Petersen,
who founded the child-actor support group A Minor Consideration:
“Fame is a dangerous commodity
for a young person. It distorts the
entire maturation process. You are
subjected to forces that are almost
incomprehensible to people who
have never been ‘famous.’”
Disney both acknowledges that
they play a role in its performers’ welfare, and denies liability.
“We give them all of the tools they
might need, but the network is not
responsible for raising their children,” Gary Marsh, the president
of Disney Channels Worldwide told
The Hollywood Reporter in June.
But Petersen says that when networks are pushing their actors to
become multi-million dollar franchises, they do have a responsibility to help them adjust to the inevitable pitfalls of fame.
“Whenever a c hild grows up
in an environment when they
are the income earner, you have
the world kind of turned on its
head,” he says.
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Petersen — whose group has
been called to sets to perform interventions with children struggling emotionally — welcomes the
arrival of programs like Talent 101,
but he says what young stars really
need is support from those who
have been there.
“Outsiders can’t help these
kids — there is so much resistance from a young performer to
Whenever a child
grows up in an environment
when they are the income
earner, you have the world
kind of turned on its head.”
listen to anyone else other than
someone who has been through it
themselves,” he says.
As for Bynes, Petersen observes:
“We are watching what amounts to
a cry for help. And the kind of help
that’s required is not another movie role, or a spread in a magazine.”
Ultimately, he says, “The
solution is often to
take a break.”
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