Three months before Hayden Panettiere died aged 36, she published a memoir. In it, she described being pushed through illness and injury to keep working. Being encouraged to use drugs to manage the pressures of fame. Being sexually harassed by industry figures who faced no consequences. Being dropped by Neutrogena as a spokesperson after she spoke publicly about her postpartum depression. She described operating, from childhood onward, like what she called "a little soldier." Hit your marks, know your lines, keep going.
I have spent most of my adult life working in the high stakes worlds of entertainment and academia that put outsized expectations on kids. I am not easily shocked. But this week, sitting with a list, curated by a researcher who sits on Minor Performer Alliance’s Mental Health Committee, composed of child actors who’ve faced unimaginable adversity dating back as far as the 1920s, I find myself sitting with a list of names that is tragically long.
Michelle Trachtenberg. Panettiere's co-star in Ice Princess. Dead in February 2025 at 39, following years of health struggles. Her Harriet the Spy co-star Rosie O'Donnell recounted: "She struggled the last few years. I wish I could have helped."
Daveigh Chase. The voice of Lilo. The face behind the television set in The Ring. Dead this past June at 35, her final years marked by homelessness and addiction. Her boyfriend wrote that she had "faced more than her share of hardship."
Kianna Underwood. A performer who appeared on Nickelodeon's All That and toured nationally in Hairspray. Killed in a Brooklyn hit-and-run in January at 35. She had been homeless for years. Former castmates had been publicly pleading for someone to help her since 2023.
Tylor Chase. Nickelodeon's Ned's Declassified. Found homeless in Riverside, California last fall. A TikTok of him on the street went viral.
Aaron Carter, who performed professionally from age seven, died at 34 after years of public struggle with addiction and mental illness. Lee Thompson Young, Disney Channel's Famous Jett Jackson, dead by suicide at 29. Evan Ellingson, who began acting at 13, dead from a fentanyl overdose at 35.
Amanda Bynes was one of Nickelodeon's most beloved stars. By her mid-twenties she was cycling through substance abuse, psychiatric holds, and a conservatorship. The Quiet on Setdocumentary raised serious questions about what she and others experienced under producer Dan Schneider at Nickelodeon.
Demi Lovato was 17 and actively working on a Disney Channel series when she first used cocaine. She survived a near-fatal overdose in 2018.
Lindsay Lohan spent the better part of a decade in public freefall after a childhood at the center of the Hollywood machine.
Judy Garland. Elvis Presely. Raquel Lee. River Phoenix. Corey Haim. Corey Feldman. Britney Spears. Macaulay Culkin. Brad Renfro. Amy Winehouse. The Olsen Twins. Shia LeBouf. Drake Bell. Jennette McCurdy. Alyson Stoner. Miley Cyrus. Ariana Grande.
And those are just the names you’ve heard about. It doesn’t include the list of A-listers and household names including the Jonas Brothers, Justin Timberlake, Ryan Gosling, Ed Sheeran, Selena Gomez, Emma Watson, Daniel Radcliffe and more who’ve confirmed suffering from depression, anxiety, PTSD and other mental health concerns.
And it doesn’t include Jenna Ortega, who last week, told Esquirethat as a nine-year-old on her first film set she went entire days without eating or asking for water because she was so determined not to be an inconvenience.
These aren’t coincidental, novel cases. They are all part of a pattern attributable to systemic issues that we are all fully aware of. Children enter an industry built for and by adults. They are treated as adults, they are expected to behave like adults and they are judged as adults - all while having the needs, resilience and coping mechanisms of a child. Without the proper support system (and sometimes even with it) these moments build up as a child struggles to understand and cope with things that children aren’t equipped for – staring at themselves in the mirror for hours on end, unending attention from adults, regular exposure to adults not trained in working with kids, high stakes business environments, identity discovery in a public forum – and result in the unending list of mental health struggles we watch play out on TMZ.
The legal frameworks we have in place are important. Hours restrictions, welfare workers, Coogan Act protections all exist because they do protect the kids working in the industry. But even these protections do not address the insidious cultural and environmental nuances of having a child working in a professional production, especially when billions of dollars are at stake.
To address those things we need proactive solutions. We need programs that arm children with mental health tools and resources before they enter the industry. We need to foster community among minor performers and their families through mentorship programs and other socially focused opportunities. We need to enhance educational opportunities like tutoring scholarships and work/study programs that don’t stop and start at the convenience of a production. We need welfare that includes comprehensive mental health access before it's needed. We need financial education courses, social media and digital wellness training, we need to teach kids how to deal with the fame, the money, the publicity, the pressure – all of it.
In the weeks since Hayden’s passing, there have been many calls for the end to children working in Hollywood. I’m not sure I agree with that, nor do I believe it is feasible or likely. Similarly, there have been many calls for structural and cultural change often using a phrase akin to “Hollywood must do better.” But I want to challenge that language, because it isn’t Hollywood that needs to do better, we need to do better.
So for the parents and industry professionals to whom this newsletter reaches, I want to urge you to take it upon yourself to do better. Parents, you must take a clear-eyed look at whether your child actually wants this. Agents, you must keep a closer eye on your clients wellbeing. Producers and directors, you must pay closer attention to crew behavior when a child is on set and studio executives you must fight in the offices and boardrooms for vendors and practices that put child welfare above profit. Because while it is easy to complain that Big Bad Hollywood is the problem, it is much more difficult to accept that responsibility on ourselves and act on it. To hold ourselves to a higher standard.
I believe that it is possible for a child to have a positive experience in the industry. But until we address these deeply systemic subtleties, until we stop looking toward Hollywood and start looking at ourselves, the list above will only continue to grow.
The Minor Performer Alliance works with productions, families, agents, and industry professionals to build the frameworks and culture that make navigating a career in entertainment safer for young performers. If you want to do better by the children in your care, we are here. www.minorperformeralliance.org.
Executive Director,
Matt McGee
Minor Performer Alliance
