Former Child Stars Reveal The Surprising Realities Of Going Back To Regular School
Children can be cruel, and that's especially the case in high school. In some cases, it could lead one to develop thicker skin while in others, it can lead to life-long trauma.
Child stars, specifically, have to grapple with fame, not only through the hyperfocused lens of media but also from their peers. Whether returning to high school or attending college, young actors end up sacrificing their formative years in exchange for early success in Hollywood.
These 19 child stars opened up about their experiences returning to school. Some of them experienced unbearable levels of bullying that they'd eventually use in hopes of inspiring the next generation to overcome adversity. However, there are many others who actually figured out ways to maintain a balanced life in the limelight.
1.Jonathan Taylor Thomas
Known for voicing Simba in the original The Lion King and starring alongside Tim Allen on Home Improvement, Jonathan Taylor Thomas graduated from Columbia University in 2010. However, a 1994 interview with People revealed that he was always quite studious. When Home Improvement was on hiatus, he attended a public high school in Los Angeles where he was a straight-A student. "You have school, friends, learning your lines and making sure your performance is up to speed," he told the outlet at the time. ''I can't tell you how many shows I've done with full-blown migraine headaches
Before delivering Emmy-nominated performances on Big Bang Theory, Mayim Bialik made strides as a child star with roles on shows like Blossom and Webster. However, she maintained a relatively regular life when she wasn't on set.
"Yes, I had a normal elementary school kind of life. I was active in school plays. I felt comfortable in drama class when we had to do plays and stuff, but I was not a hammy kid. I wasn’t an exceptionally outgoing or theatrical kid," she explained to Edge Magazine. "When I would meet other child actors they were very theatrical and always kind of 'on.' That wasn’t me at all. Actually, I’m considered a late bloomer for a child actor because I started acting when I was almost in junior high school. Even though I was in Beaches when I was 12 — and that came out when I was 13 — I had just started acting about a year before that. Most child actors have been acting since they were toddlers. That’s a very different kind of personality."
3.Dylan & Cole Sprouse
From Big Daddy to The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Cole and Dylan Sprouse became staples in the childhoods of anyone who grew up in the early 2000s. However, the two eventually decided to put acting on a backburner and attend college, ultimately graduating from NYU. However, their experience on campus wasn't like that of average students.
"The amount of rumors that were spread about Dylan and I were incredible,” Cole told Variety. According to Cole, one of those rumors surrounded a story about how he fell from a flight of stairs at the school library. “When you’re a public figure, people use you to build their identities. And I think that was a bit daunting. But also because I’d been homeschooled, I had no idea what it was like to interact with other people socially.”
4.Michelle Trachtenberg
Michelle Trachtenberg saw success on shows like Buffy The Vampire Slayer and movies like Harriet The Spy. Unfortunately, her rising profile as a child star in Hollywood didn't translate well among her peers at school. In 2020, she shared an Instagram post around Valentine's Day where she revealed that she faced extreme levels of bullying from her peers and teachers including physical abuse.
"The kids were cruel. There is no need to harp on the past. But I still have scars from being thrown down stairs and slammed into lockers head first," she wrote." I write this to every child, teen, person, out there who is bullied. You are something. Do not put your value in someone else. Not letting them win, is your win."
5.Sarah Michelle Gellar
Speaking of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, Trachtenberg's co-star also faced bullying from her school peers because she was a child star. Sarah Michelle Gellar once explained to The Independent that she was "ostracized" while attending a rich prep school in Manhattan while simultaneously working on sets. "I was different and that's the one thing you can't be at school, because you're ostracised. I didn't have the money these kids had," she said. "I can remember this kid having an engraved Tiffany money-clip when I barely had enough money for my bus pass. It was amazing to see what excessive wealth at an early age and lack of parental supervision breeds."
6.Taylor Momsen
Before landing a role on Gossip Girl, Momsen's most prominent role was on How The Grinch Stole Christmas with Jim Carrey. Unfortunately, that role resulted in much bullying when she returned to class.
“The Grinch changed my life in a multitude of ways — one of them being I was made fun of relentlessly," she said on SiriusXM’s Podcrushed podcast, per Hollywood Reporter. “Every time I would start a new school or go somewhere else, I don’t even think the kids knew my name. I was just Grinch Girl,” she added. “Not even the character name [Cindy Lou Who], just Grinch Girl.”
7.Rivkah Reyes
Rivkah Reyes couldn't shake off the role of Katie after filming School of Rock. In an op-ed on Mama Mia, Reyes explained how this led to alarming levels of bullying at school. "When I was in high school and college, kids would scream quotes from the movie at me in the halls," Reyes wrote. "It was annoying and embarrassing. I constantly felt trapped. If I reacted to them positively, I was labelled a bragging snob. If I reacted negatively or ignored them, I was labelled a cold, ungrateful b*tch."
8.Jamie Lynn Spears
The youngest of the Spears sisters, Jamie Lynn stepped out of Britney's shadow once she starred in Zoey 101. However, once she announced that she was pregnant, it seemed that it would contribute to the show's ending. However, in 2013, she cleared the air by pulling out from the limelight to have some sense of normalcy. When a fan wrote on a social media post, "Oh wow you didn't quit because you were pregnant, you waited this long tell us," Spears cleared the air once and for all, according to E! News. "Nope...I went home to finish high school and was going to pursue movies," she said. She elaborated further in her TLC special, where she stated, "I needed to go grow up, outside of the world's view."
9.Yara Shahidi
Yara Shahidi racked up quite the resumé at a young age, but what's more impressive is that she graduated from Harvard University. In an interview with Essence, she explained how attending college allowed her to further explore her interests outside of entertainment. "I think for me particularly, the balance of work and college really helps because I think college provided a safe space to do a lot of growing up, particularly in figuring out what I believed and actually having the time to study and figure things out — especially as somebody that’s been outspoken from a young age," she said.
10.Natalie Portman
Born Natalie Hershlag, she started her career at 12 with Léon: The Professional (1994). To differentiate her persona on screen from her regular life, she took on the name Natalie Portman, though it didn't provide the type of work-life separation she hoped for.
"I would get upset if someone at school called me Natalie Portman. I was like, if you know me, you know me as Natalie Hershlag at school. It was kind of an extreme bifurcation of identity that I’ve tried to integrate a little bit more as an adult," she told Vanity Fair. "I felt like it was not accepting that both were part of me, that there wasn’t a 'real' me and a 'pretend' me, and that they didn’t necessarily have different names. And it’s not just two different versions, there are multitudes of ways other people see me, both public and private, and there are multitudes of ways I see myself."
11.Miranda Cosgrove
The iCarly star left for college after she wrapped up the Nickelodeon series. Attending the University of Southern California, the then-19-year-old said she adjusted well to student life in an interview with USA Today in 2012.
"People come up to me and introduce themselves," she said. "My best friends are people who came up to me in class. I guess I'm not the kind of person who goes up and introduces herself, so it's been the best thing ever. Sometimes I forget that I've been on the show, because everyone is just trying to get to class and get their work done."
12.Tia and Tamera Mowry
While filming Sister, Sister, Tia and Tamera Mowry attended Pepperdine University part-time, which provided some balance in their lives. "We would go to class, do a rehearsal or shoot and then come back to class," Tamera told Today. "We would do two classes every other day and then the show on Thursday and Friday. I am happy I did; it taught me about prioritizing, and that education is important. It taught me dedication and hard work too. If you put your mind to it, you can do it. It took me seven years to graduate."
Unfortunately, their high school experience wasn't as smooth. Tia told HLN that they faced harsh treatment from their peers but fortunately, the bag was big enough to drown out the noise. "Our experience as actors in high school wasn't really the best experience," she said. "A kid screamed down the hall, 'Your show sucks.'... I turned around and said, 'Well, the checks don't.'"
13.Jodie Foster
At 12 years old, Jodie Foster was already subject to controversy for her role in Taxi Driver, though it ultimately helped her win an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. Still, even with such acclaim, she attended Yale and graduated with a major in African-American literature.
However, despite the success she saw early in her life, she had a sense of normalcy throughout her high school years, though she accepted the benefits that fame would have as a college student. "I'm not that well-known," she told Roger Ebert in a 1980 interview. "I'm not the only person who ever went to college. And, besides...being a little known is an advantage, because you don't have to go in saying Hi! to everyone and carefully explaining yourself, presenting yourself, which is basically what the first day of college is.
She added, "If people have seen you in a movie, they feel they know you a little. My reputation in the movies is like having a little shadow running around with me and it's a nice shadow."
14.Mary Kate and Ashley Olsen
The twin sisters' success came through sacrificing their childhood, but apparently, it also meant that they couldn't have a regular college experience. In fact, they were met in a hostile and unsafe space. "When I came to [NYU], it was really tough for the first couple of months because I couldn’t show up to some classes, because there’d be paparazzi outside," Ashley Olsen told Marie Claire in 2007.
15.Christina Ricci
It must've been a trip to have Wednesday Addams in your class. What must've been a bit more peculiar is that no one ever addressed the elephant in the room. In an interview with Hayley Campbell, Christina Ricci explained how she managed to separate her school life from her work life. "I was smart enough at the time to immediately understand that I would not be accepted by my peers if I spoke about my career when I came back to school, so I never talked about it. I made a point of ignoring it and avoiding it. I was able to be very focused and disciplined in a way I think people were surprised by because it's not necessarily a trait children have very often. But other than that I think I was pretty normal," she said.
16.Rebecca Black
The world knew her from "Friday," and that one song tragically ripped Rebecca Black's formative years away from her. Following the song's viral success, Black faced scrutiny online and also, at school. "One minute, I was a normal girl and then, in the next, millions of people know who I was and they were ruthless in hurling the most vile words my way," Black wrote in an essay for NBC News. "In my life, there were people I personally knew at school and in my inner circle who verbally abused me."
17.Haley Joel Osment
From Forrest Gump and Sixth Sense to A.I., Haley Joel Osment cemented his place as a child star in '90s films. Once he was 18, he enrolled in New York University's Experimental Theatre Wing of the Tisch School of the Arts. He explained to the New Yorker that it was an invaluable experience that allowed him to work on his craft without public pressure. Though his schoolmates would crack jokes about his role on Sixth Sense, he wasn't boxed into this identity of a Hollywood star. "A lot of my peers were people who had more stage experience than me and who weren’t necessarily trying to break into Hollywood,” he said. “That diversity of career goals made things easier for relationships to grow.”
18.Michael B. Jordan
Though known for his roles in the Black Panther and Creed franchise, Michael B. Jordan got his start in the HBO series The Wire, though his affinity for theatre didn't necessarily win him any cool points in high school. In 2023, Jordan confronted who he believed to be a school bully, The Morning Hustle host Lore'l, on the red carpet for Creed III. The actor specifically called her out for allegedly calling him "corny" on the radio, though that wasn't actually the case.
Lore'l previously discussed attending school with Michael B. Jordan on her radio show where she explained that he would get picked on because of a) his name and b) his budding acting career. "... we teased him all the damn time because his name was Michael Jordan. Let’s start there, and he was no Michael Jordan,” she said on the podcast. “And he also would come to school with a headshot. We lived in Newark, that’s the hood. We would make fun of him like, ‘What you gonna do with your stupid headshot!?’ And now look at him!”
While Michael B. Jordan hasn't necessarily opened up about getting bullied in high school, that interaction makes me believe he was harboring years of resentment.
19.Jodie Sweetin
The Full House alumni was also subject to bullying when she returned to school. In an interview on Steve-O's Wild Ride podcast, she detailed the cruel treatment she received from classmates. "I remember walking through the quad in the 7th grade on the first day of school, and someone just chucked an apple right at my head," Jodie Sweetin said. "They'd write shit on my locker, or intentionally try to trip me...it gave me a real thick skin. It prepared me well for the internet, that's for sure."
