Here's What 19 Child Stars Have To Say About Being Thrust Into The Spotlight By Their Parents

See the words "child star" and I'm sure someone immediately springs to mind for you. Sparkly-eyed and smiley, it seems like they were born for the stage. But how many of these mini-mega stars actually enjoyed the path their parents forced them onto from the second they arrived Earth-side, and how many would never have chosen the route for themselves?

Content warning: This post contains mentions of child abuse and sexual exploitation

From there, her career was controlled by Joe, from her music to her acting jobs to her image.

Jennette became the main breadwinner of the family, but never liked being in the spotlight. She continued acting in an attempt to win her mom's approval, but eventually confessed to her mom that she didn't want to act anymore. Debbie's reaction was so hysterical that Jennette continued on the path she never wanted to be on in the first place.

Following her mom's death, Jennette has worked through her feelings with therapists to dissect the complicated nature of the relationship they shared, and has finally been able to untangle herself from the dreams her mom made her believe were hers. Now aged 30, Jennette has quit acting and plans to write or direct for the foreseeable.

3. Cole and Dylan Sprouse

While their dad originally wanted the twins to live normal lives after he won custody of them, the monetary benefits of their budding acting careers soon overtook his initial desire.

Talking to the Call Her Daddy podcast about his feelings around being pushed into child acting, he said he didn't regret his childhood but definitely has some feelings to work through about it.

Taylor realized that acting wasn't something she actually wanted to do, telling Revolver: "My parents signed me up with Ford [Modeling] at the age of two. No two-year-old wants to be working, but I had no choice. My whole life, I was in and out of school. I didn't have friends. I was working constantly and I didn't have a real life."

5. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen

While the twins said their parents did try to ensure they had a normal life as well, the girls were targeted by paparazzi, with Ashley being reduced to hysterical crying when they were photographed in bikinis as teenagers on vacation in Hawaii.

It makes sense that the twins turned their attention to their passion: fashion. They quit acting and established two clothing lines, one called The Row and one called Elizabeth and James, named after their siblings as well as their desire to explore masculine and feminine trends.

As a teenager, his parents split up and Macaulay finally learned that he was worth a massive $50 million.

Macaulay has since dipped his toes back into the acting waters, this time on his own terms. He said he'd originally planned for his exit from acting to be permanent but had an epiphany after a few years.

At 14, she appeared in the infamous Blue Lagoon. Dubbed as "soft porn" by the Daily Mail, Brooke was topless with her hair glued to her breasts and constantly encouraged to pursue an off-screen relationship with her 18-year-old costar, Christopher Atkins.

Brooke spoke out about how she believes the constant sexual exploitation from such a young age made it difficult to express or understand her own sexual identity, especially when the press dubbed her "America's most famous virgin" at age 22. She said: "I was such a naïve, innocent child. I wasn't Lolita. I didn't have that precocious understanding of my sexuality."

While Ariel was too young to have had much of a say at the start of her acting career, she does now enjoy the path she's found herself on.

However, she's always craved a sense of normalcy and doesn't like being famous as a result of her profession.

Sadly, with the "combination of incredible emotional abuse from (his) father" and a lot of manipulation from his mother, his own experiences set him up well to play Gordie Lachance in his breakout role.

10. Christy Carlson Romano

She instead remembers desperately trying to please the adults around her, and feeling that she couldn't quit because she and her mom were "a team" and felt like she'd be "letting her down."

Donny detailed a time when he woke up after an operation to find a photographer from Tiger Beat magazine in the room.

As for Lindsay, it seems she's one of the lucky few who liked the career assigned to them at birth.

13. Sarah Michelle Gellar

While her dad wasn't in the picture, Sarah has a good relationship with her mom, Rosellen. She once shared a throwback pic of the two of them, stating that "without her, none of this would have ever been possible." Many fans thanked Rosellen for encouraging Sarah in the comments.

While things may have seemed pretty great for Kylie, she struggled with being in the spotlight from such a young age.

Shortly afterward, she told then-best friend, Jordyn Woods, that people like her sister Kendall, Bella Hadid, and Hayley Bieber were "made for (fame)" and "look so good every day", but she doesn't "want (her) picture taken, and (doesn't) want people to see what outfit (she's) wearing."

She told Teen Vogue: "I can't look at my life and be like, ‘I wish this was different,’ because I don't know if it would get me to where I am right now."

While Drew has been back in the acting world, when asked about whether she thought her daughters following in her professional footsteps was a good idea, she said: "I was thinking, ‘My daughters will never be actors! God, no!’ And then I’m, like, wait, it’s a great family trade. I’m a Barrymore. My family has been doing this for hundreds and hundreds of years, and multiple generations.”

Talking about her desires for her own children, she said: "I’d never put any daughter of mine through acting because, while I loved acting and was happy working as a child, looking back, my happiness always came from pleasing other people — always. It came from satisfying the director or my mother or my acting coach, not from pleasing myself."

What do you think? Should parents put their children into the spotlight before they're old enough to have a say? Let me know what you think in the comments!