Christy Carlson Romano, a Disney Channel teen icon after playing Ren Stevens on “Even Stevens” and voicing the title character on “Kim Possible,” published an emotional essay on Elle’s website in the wake of Hayden Panettiere‘s death. The two actors got their breakthroughs in 2000, the year both “Even Stevens” and “Remember the Titans” premiered, and came of age in Hollywood at the same time.
“Crushed. Another performer I grew up with, gone too soon,” Romano wrote before talking openly about how being a child star is like suffering Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease caused by repeated hits to the head that’s often associated with football players.
“Kid actors have something major in common: rejection,” Romano explained. “We’re rejected from auditions more times before we’re 10 than most people accrue in 10 lifetimes. Those of us who make it are given the adoration of saints—and then, if we don’t climb to A-list fast enough, we’re torn down as if we’ve committed some unspeakable mortal sin. All before our frontal lobes have fully formed. Is it any wonder so many of us struggle with addiction? The industry gives us the wound and then acts surprised when we reach for something to treat it.”
“The former child actor exists in a category the world does not know how to hold,” she continued. “We are children when the public wants to feel protective of us, professionals when the industry wants to profit from us, and spoiled celebrities when we eventually show symptoms of having been both… Early fame is like CTE. Not as a diagnosis. As a way of thinking about repeated impact. We now have language for youth sports: protocols, helmets, parents worried about concussions. But we have almost no language for what happens when stress, scrutiny, rejection, adult pressure, and the collapse of privacy become the architecture of a childhood.”
Romano starred on all three seasons of “Even Stevens” opposite Shia LaBeouf from 2000 to 2003 and reprised the role in “The Even Stevens Movie.” Her voice role on “Kim Possible” spanned four seasons. In recent years, Romano has spoken out on social media about the grave realities child and teen stars face after the spotlight moves on from them.
“Right now, there are children smiling on screens. Children working long days or nights. Children learning how to charm adults before they even know themselves. Children being praised for their maturity when what they need is protocols from safe adults,” Romano wrote. “We put youth athletes in helmets and pads. We invented entire sciences around protecting them from long-term damage. Why can’t we pad the children paid to make the world smile?”
Panettiere died on Aug. 16 at the age of 36 and wrote openly in her memoir about her addiction struggles after teen stardom. Her death is currently under investigation, but there were “not any signs of foul play or suspicious circumstances,” according to police.
Read Romano’s full essay on Elle’s website.