Child Acting: Behind the Scenes

Jennette McCurdy shows that child acting is not as glamorous as it seems.

In August of 2022, beloved child actor, Jennette McCurdy released the story of her childhood and how being a child star is as horrible as it gets, in “I’m Glad That My Mom Died”–exposing abuse, competition, and trauma in Nickelodeon Studios. “

Jennette was forced into the acting industry by her abusive mother when she was only 8 years old, and quickly developed anorexia by the age of 11. Aside from receiving off-hand comments from co-workers about how her body should look, her mother taught her that actors had to be one thing: pretty and skinny. She explains to her therapist in her book: “I always played characters that were younger than me, so if I wanted to keep booking, looking younger was important. By teaching me calorie restriction, she was helping me to ensure my success.” In this quote, Jennette was attempting to convince her therapist, Laura, that her mother was a good person. She was currently in denial of the abuse, and brainwashed by her mother’s words.

She was surrounded by pedophiles daily, who took advantage of her and fellow cast members in Nickelodeon shows “iCarly” and later more intensely in “Sam and Cat”, playing favorites to bring out their insecurities. Around the age of 17, she was actively engaging in an inappropriate relationship with her fellow coworker, who was over the age of 30. Staff members everywhere would take advantage of her and her body, the most crucial one being Dan Schneider, the founder of Nickelodeon, who made Jennette do inappropriate things on TV and behind the scenes. Because of a lack of a regular childhood, she was deprived of a normal youth experience and was taught that occurrences like this were normal. “The Victorious kids get drunk all the time! The iCarly kids are so wholesome. We need to give you guys a little edge.”

“When I was six years old she pushed me into a career I didn't want. I'm grateful for the financial stability that career has provided me, but not much else. I was not equipped to handle the entertainment industry in all its competitiveness, rejection, stakes, hash realities and fame. I needed that time, those years, to develop as a child, to form my identity, to grow, I can never get those years back. She taught me about an eating disorder when I was eleven years old, an eating disorder that robbed me of my joy or any amount of free spiritedness I had.”

With her life on set and at home, anywhere she went that increased her independence was overtaken by paparazzi. While her mother was in a coma and dying, Jennette was still unable to get a break. “If this hadn't already happened twenty-five times in this hospital, I'd be shocked if someone had the audacity to ask me if I'm Sam Puckett while I'm sitting across from my dying mother.”

Jeanette was always grateful for the financial stability her career gave her, but as for her and many child actors, abuse is not worth the price. Dan Schneider was actively abusive on other Nickelodeon sets, having girls on Zoey 101 sit in his lap, or wear inappropriate outfits on the set of

Victorious. Daniella Monet, who played Trina Vega in Victorious spoke up about how she was sexualized on set and screen. She begged them to not air a scene of her applying lip gloss while she ate a pickle, but they proceeded to disregard her. Some of the outfits she wore were ones she wouldn’t wear as an adult.