Bella Thorne looks back on child stardom: 'I always felt like I didn't have a voice...'
Bella Thorne - who shot to fame as a teenager on Disney Channel - felt as if she "didn't have a voice" as a child star.
Bella Thorne felt as if she "didn't have a voice" as a child star.
The 27-year-old actress shot to fame in her early teens when she was cast opposite Zendaya in the Disney Channel sitcom 'Shake It Up' and thinks that all children who find themselves in a similar position should have "real therapy" offered to them to help them deal with the pitfalls of early success.
She told People: "I’m very thankful for it [childhood]. Of course, when I deal with things in therapy and whatnot, therapy has helped me a lot to figure my own s*** out. It’s really helped me understand and not be so angry in life. I think I always felt like I didn’t necessarily have a voice, the way I grew up. It was like everyone else’s voice was on me. "
Bella mentioned singer Chappel Roan - who has been open about feeling "unsafe" in encounters she has had with some fans - and agreed that it can all be "too much" at times.
She said: "I think it’s the world. There should be real therapy mandated for children growing up and becoming famous overnight. I think Chappell Roan just spoke about this too — how you’d be crazy not to go crazy because it’s just too much at points in your life."
The 'Rumble Through the Dark' star insists that the only advice she would give herself would be to seek help by speaking to someone and even though the idea of therapy can still be seen as "taboo" in today's world, she thinks it is something that everyone "needs" at some point in life.
She said: "If the correct guardrails aren’t in place — and even when they are in place — things can still go wrong. I definitely wouldn’t give my younger self advice except, 'Go talk to somebody.'
"But when I grew up, therapy wasn’t really... That was still taboo. And even now, it’s still quite taboo, where you’re like, "Guys, what world are we living in? I think we all need therapy."
