Child Star

My mother tells this story, sometimes, of when my grandfather was in hospital after a knee replacement. We went to visit him, she and I, and as I sat on the edge of his bed, the nurse on duty tried to engage me in small talk. My name, my age, (seven and a half), what I wanted to be when I grew up. “Would you like to be a nurse?” she asked me. My mother said this is when I coolly took my lollipop out of my mouth, looked that woman dead in the eye, and said, “I’m going to be a famous actress, actually. Would you like my autograph now?”

It’s hard, isn’t it, when the unlikeable female character in your stories is a) you and b) you at seven years of age?

There were times in my childhood when I thought about other careers – a lifeguard (yes, Baywatch was responsible), a nun, (yes, Catholicism was responsible) – but I never fully wavered from my desire to be an actor. When I was maybe eleven or twelve, I sent away to a stage school in London for application forms, and presented them to my parents. This is where I want to go, I told them, this is where my dreams will come true. My parents did not have any frame of reference for the Sylvia Young Theatre School; you’ll be shocked to hear that in the late 90s in rural Ireland, they did not know anyone else who had attended there. But there was a well-known Irish actress living in West Cork at the time; she used to come in to my father’s butcher shop so he pulled her aside one day and asked for her advice. We want to support our daughter, he told her, but we don’t know anything about this world. She smiled at him. The industry is no place for a child, she said, and I certainly wouldn’t allow a child of mine to work in it. If your daughter is good enough and more importantly, if she wants it enough, she will still want it enough at eighteen. Allow her to enjoy her childhood.

That was that. Bye bye, Sylvia Young Theatre School. We could have really had something.

That conversation stayed with me because it suggested that the industry was aware of its inherent dangers. It reminds me of an article I read years ago, about how no one in Silicon Valley permits their children to use screens or social media- they know how addictive it is, the damage it has on our neural pathways, our attention spans, and they do not want such things for their own. And yet, we still allow children to be devoured by the machine of show business; we have watched the damage it causes play out for generations and yet nothing changes. Jackie Coogan, star of 1921’s The Kid, who sued his mother and stepfather for squandering his film earnings. Judy Garland, filming The Wizard of Oz, given pills to keep her awake, to keep her thin, to put her to sleep. Drew Barrymore in rehab at the age of 12. Macaulay Culkin legally emancipating himself from his parents at 14. Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes. Justin Bieber and Demi Lovato. Liam Payne. On and on I could go, but you already know the stories. You remember their cute faces, their big smiles, then, of course, the headlines splashed across the tabloids, accusing them of drug use, rehab, DUIs, mental health struggles, suicide attempts. Bad role models, the lot of them. Some of those kids make it. Some don’t. But there is always a new child fresh off the conveyer belt, young and innocent and so, so adorable. A child who hasn’t been broken yet.

Being a young person is difficult enough, trying to figure out who you are and what you want and building your identity, piece by piece. I cannot imagine what it must be like to do that in the white-hot glare of the public eye, millions of people around the world watching you do so. People who would rather you stay young and sweet; like a puppy you get at Christmas, they do not want to witness your awkward, gangly phases. You must remain unchanged, untouched by the ravages of time. And besides that, what does it mean to be a young person who is the breadwinner for your family, financially responsible for your parents, your siblings? What kind of pressure would that put on a child’s shoulders? How is that fair or right? Oh, but the kid wanted it! the stage parent will insist. It was their dream! What was I supposed to do?

I don’t know… Maybe tell your child to act in amateur drama productions and school plays until they’re an adult and can make their own choices? It was my dream to eat ice-cream for dinner and skip school to watch Home and Away in my pyjamas and my parents didn’t say, sure Louise, we don’t want to stand in the way of such lofty ambitions! Isn’t that your job, to protect your child?

My new novel, Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone? is about two former child stars, twin sisters Chelsea and Madeline Stone. When they were children, their mother, the prototypical stage parent, is given a prophecy that one of the twins will become the most famous woman of her generation while the other will die young. In 2025, it seems that the prophecy has come true- Chelsea was the star, Maddie disappeared in her mid-twenties. But then a storage unit containing Maddie’s old belongings is discovered and for the first time in nearly two decades, Chelsea has hope she might uncover what actually happened to her sister all those years before. She goes to meet her their old agent, Nancy Taylor, and this is what the woman says to her:

It’s funny,’ Nancy said. ‘I can always tell the kids who’ll be okay, and it’s the ones whose parents aren’t excited by any of it. The ones who insist their kids go to high school and prom and apply for college. The parents who don’t uproot their entire families to try to make this crazy dream come true. Because it doesn’t for most of them, you know? I’ve had some amazing kids on my book, talented and cute and hardworking, kids who seemed destined to make it, and it still doesn’t work out. If you have parents who are depending on that kid to pay their bills,’ She let out a low whistle, ‘it’s a recipe for disaster.’

‘What did you think when you met my mother for the first time?’ Chelsea asked.

Her agent’s mouth thinned. ‘I thought you and Madeline were great. And I really hoped you guys would make it out okay.’

I’m not sure what the answer is. Ban children from the industry? Replace them with AI? The former seems difficult to enforce, the latter chillingly dystopian. Insist all children’s films are animated? Again, I do not have the answers. But something has to change…

Whatever Happened to Madeline Stone? is coming April 9th and you can buy it here. The launch event is happening on the 9th of April at the IFI in Dublin - tickets here. I’ll be speaking at Cúirt festival on the 23rd, tickets here.

Both my Cork city and West Cork events are sold out x