Hollywood chews up and spits out another child
Well, here we go again – another Hollywood kid circling the drain. Disney star Demi Lovato is off the stage and in the hospital. Actually, the treatment center. After appearing in Disney’s Sonny With a Chance and with the Jonas Brothers in Camp Rock (both Camp Rocks, in fact), the teenager was a central cog in the Disney machine. Unfortunately she had to go and be all human. She broke.
Reports are that she’s seeking help for an eating disorder and a cutting problem. How incredibly sad is that? A beautiful young woman, one who should be enjoying her rocket to fame, is instead so deeply wounded that she starves and cuts herself. Neither problem is apparently new, but they’re bad enough at this point to force her off an international tour with the Jonas boys.
I have some hope for her, though. She’s only 18 years old and is reportedly making this choice herself. She has acknowledged her issues in the past and talked about self-image, being badly bullied as a kid and continuing to have issues with body image. She doesn’t deny, she doesn’t ignore. Unlike Lindsay Lohan who has to be ordered by the court to go into rehab – several times and after dozens of incidents indicating a downward spiral – Lovato turned directly to treatment after a stress-filled summer ended with a public spat.
She’s just a kid, yet she is in the Hollywood grinder every day. Disney has not given this child a break in months and she finally cracked under the pressure. Not terribly surprising and there should have been people along side her paying attention and tending to her long before she got to this point. When does a Disney performer cease to be a commodity and turn back into a human being? Apparently not until she is self-mutilating and, more importantly, causing scenes in public.
Would Disney have kept pushing if Lovato’s argument with another member of the tour had not been in a public airport? Would she have been encouraged or allowed to leave the tour? Your guess is as good as mine, but in this business, money is more important than children. Just ask Lindsay.
I hope Lovato fares well and deals with her issues. I hope she has a reasonable family that keeps her out of the spotlight as long as possible. Truth? I hope she decides to become an accountant or a chemist or anything that gets her the hell out of Hollywood. She was fragile before she became famous, stardom will only destroy her.
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Sue reads a lot, writes a lot, edits a lot, and loves a good craft. She was deemed “too picky” to proofread her children’s school papers and wears this as a badge of honor. She is also proud of her aggressively average knitting skills She is the Editorial Director at Silver Beacon Marketing and an aspiring Crazy Cat Lady.
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