What Child Stars Can Tell Us About Ideologies Of Childhood

The death of former child star Michael Jackson in 2009 reignited public debates around the potential dangers of early fame. This article explores the ways in which the status of child stars has changed over the course of the twentieth century in line with shifting attitudes toward childhood in general and with the proliferation and diversification of media formats. Starting with the Hollywood "Child Star" era and moving on to child stars of television and more recent films, the connection between the kind of children audiences have demanded to see on screen, and wider ideologies of childhood, will be explored. It will be demonstrated how representations of childhood innocence and naturalness have often been at odds with the "real life" experiences of child stars, and the continuing practice of allowing children to become media celebrities is questioned.