Demi Lovato’s Life as a Child Star Was ‘Traumatic’: Inside Her Complicated Rise to Fame

Demi Lovato may have been a child star — on Barney & Friends, As the Bell Rings and Camp Rock — but as she revealed in the documentary Child Star, the 32-year-old struggled with what that meant. In her directorial debut, the Disney vet alongside fellow child stars like Raven-Symoné, Drew Barrymore and her Camp Rock costar Alyson Stoner, shared their not always great experiences with early fame. “I didn’t realize that child stardom could be traumatic,” Demi said in the Hulu show.

“And it isn’t traumatic for everyone, but for me, it was.” At one point, she revealed, some of her classmates — the “popular girls” — created a “suicide” petition telling Demi, who later dealt with mental health issues and substance abuse, that she “should kill” herself. Looking back, however, the “Sorry Not Sorry” singer realized she also treated people badly. After Alyson, 31, reluctantly agreed to appear in the doc, the two had to have a “healing” conversation where Alyson shared her pain. Said Demi, “I’m genuinely sorry.”