Why Disney Kids Take Over Everything - Corporate Girlhood 

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Lindsay Lohan was used as such a punchline and now I realise people were literally putting a young girl down and being so cruel.

Children are sexualised but are then expected to be cute and innocent. WHAT DO YOU WANT?!

"corporate girlhood" -- wow. Couldn't have phrased it better.

The story of the Olsen Twins is so tragic. They were only babies when they started on Full House, and had to deal with the media sexualising them. I hope that they're far happier away from the spotlight.

“I was probably the least paid person on my [Hannah Montana] cast because I didn’t know any better. I was just like, 'I can be on Disney! Yeah, I want to do it!' My name was Miley on my show, but I didn’t own my name.” -Elle, 2016

I think this went a little too easy on the "new generation" Disney is churning out. It's just as manufactured as the one of the early 2000's and the stars are likely just as exploited, it's just been repackaged to reflect modern ideals.

What's so cynical about this is that the public image is innocent while the industry literally abuses, sexualizes and drugs (or enables drug use) it's young stars.

Olivia Rodrigo I don't know...she seems like she loved her time at Disney (She is still working there) but she has a contract with them that allows her to write songs fot her TV show. I think it was good these stars spoke out because they warned the future generation about reading their contract carefully

I feel bad for the child stars whose parents sold them out. Many of them were exploited and preyed on by pedophiles. 😔

There was an episode of Hannah Montana where Miley couldn't do or say anything without kids blindly following her example, so she was forced to never take sides or have her own opinions in order to not upset any parents or accidentally indocrinate any children who were too young to think for themselves.

I’m pretty glad Zendaya ended up becoming one of the best modern Disney girls. That Emmy win was well-deserved.

I have the problem both with Dan Schneider and parents of future stars who tolerated his behavior for the sake of success

One relevant topic you guys could've discussed is nude leaks - Vanessa Hudgens, Jeanette McCurdy, and Adrienne Bailon all had their careers potentially threatened by it. In reality for girls growing up this is a real experience/life lesson that many people face and just move on from. But the media blows it out of proportion because they're held to that impossible child moral standard. Obviously Bella Thorne faced this too but she was already way post Disney

We all owe the early 2000s Disney stars the biggest apologies ever. When their lives were falling apart, when they were struggling and when they needed help we mocked them, made them the butt of jokes. We just sat back and watched these people suffering. We became part of the problem.

I think Zendaya and Hilary Duff were so clever in how they slowly started detaching themselves from their disney persona. It's sad how kids they have to mature so fast but I am glad these two used that maturity for their advantage to owning their image as they slowly detached and grew up in front of the harsh scrutinizing tabloids and just claimed their adulthood so smoothly.

I'm surprised you didn't mention the fact Disney stars were talking about wearing purity rings to save themselves for marriage in the early 2000s. Things have changed so much in the past decade.

All of it feels so manufactured to me. Whether it’s the ‘pure girlhood’ or the ‘young adult rebellion’ or the ‘modern tolerance’, it’s all just a neat corporate package, designed to be a bland money making vehicle. There’s no challenge to anything, just status quo.

I personally think that the least problematic and sometimes even kind of forgotten disney girl is Hillary Duff. 🤷‍♀️

Nickelodeon also tried to emulate Disney's success with their stars.

I don’t think I can forgive Disney Programming for not acknowledging Raven’s potential. She is such fun and so talented.

One thing that bugs me about the Disney channel brand of femininity is that when a brown-haired girl acted feminine or put on a dress, it was sweet and wholesome. But when a blond character acted feminine, she was stupid and shallow. I'm not saying this applied to every blond character - there are certainly some noticeable exceptions. But more often than not, girls with chocolate brown hair were presented as smart and down-to-earth, while blond characters were presented as vain peppy airheads.

I remember seeing a comment section somewhere that pointed out Disney was the only one who consistently had female leads in their animated movies and they were sad when they halted that in the 2000's. I imagine the same thing here, television was willing to cater to boys and teens, while Disney Channel had multiple female-driven shows, from sitcoms to Kim Possible, that must've been like finding water in a desert.

I love Zendaya so much it literally makes me so happy to see her becoming so successful

You should read/listen to Alyson Stoner on being a child actor. It's chilling.

I mean idk if the child star is even an ethical thing to do especially when it comes to TV. I mean we have 12 year olds working full time jobs. We agreed that's a bad thing to do, but entertainment gets a break? Seems a bit icky that we literally exploit children for our entertainment. I mean I could be thinking about it wrong, but lately I've started to question if this is even a thing we should be doing.

I think Girl Meets World and Andi Mack were canceled by Disney for trying to show a more mature and three dimensional version of their characters. Disney Channel didn't want the show to grow up with the actresses.

I would not trust Disney with a kid.

This was the millennial jam for everyone who watched. We all wanted to draw the wand logo- no denying it.

They broke wild, just like the preacher's daughter the first semester in college. What in the world did they expect?

I am an Indian. From an early age I heard stories about how kids in the West are so hard working and independent and our culture is lazy as most of us stay with our parents till at least mid twenties. Many people stay with their parents even after marriage. Our culture like any other culture has its faults and needs to be really mended at many places. But I don't think the idea of kids working SO early in the West is very healthy either. I don't like Indians who want to imitate the West completely to solve our problems. Shows like Euphoria have actually disturbed me how teenagers literally ruin their lives. The West is a deeply consumerist society where the burden of looking good and "hot" fall on kids who are 12. A 12 year old kid in India is mostly really simple and doesn't care much about how they look because they don't have this much of resources and many parents discourage that.The West is seemingly clean and successful because they have sucked the blood of countries like ours to make their and economy and people flourish. India too have a huge chunk of people who can't take a word against the West as if it's the goal. It's just a society with its faults. This video shows how manufacturing kids is so normalised. India suffers from its FAULTS but the West is no solution.

I loved the outfits of the 2000s Disney. It’s like an Aesthetic Acid Trip.

Thanks for making me realize how ancient I am. I don’t even know who tf Olivia Rodrigo is. It’s truly the first sign of aging, when you don’t know what the kids are into.

It's been really great seeing the new generation of disney stars beautifully transition into adulthood without any visible struggle (olivia rodrigo, zendaya, dove cameron, sabrina carpenter, peyton list, etc) because it really symbolizes that if done right, it IS possible for a girl to uphold an image in a disney channel show and at the same time be real and honest outside of that show.

WOW.... I can't believe what I'm hearing (or rather what I'm not hearing). You guys are completely forgetting the first Mickey Mouse Club, and the original Disney Girl who set the mold all these girls have had to try/been forced to fill ever since; Walt's darling, Annette Funicello. The Disney manufactured "purity culture" that was cultivated around and for her followed her throughout her adult career; into beach party movies with Frankie Avalon, Pop cultural references (she had a couple of name drops in "Grease") and Peanut butter commercials. This is not a new phenomenon. It's still tragic, but it's Not new. Walt started it himself.

Zendaya, miley, Hilary Duff, britney, Lindsay, etc these stars all deserve the respect and so much more. I can't even start with the sort of scrutiny miley faced which she's subtly hinted about throughout the years. It's undeniable she was their biggest brand at the time, unfortunately, she owned none of it. All these women deserve your affection, respect and more.

I don't know why but I started crying for no reason at some point of the video and can't stop. Let's hope for a better future for Disney child stars.

I wanted to be a child star but my mother had the better sense to know that it’s a very tough profession. It’s exploitative and that’s all.

Harper in ‘Wizards of Waverly Place’ is my favourite Quirky Girl.

I feel like in Harry Potter, there wasn't that much focus on the three young actors. They seemed protected while the focus stayed on the movies themselves. But with Hannah Montana, there were merch everywhere, the bookshop was covered with her face: backpacks, pencil cases, posters, etc. Obviously, Hannah Montana was about more than just the show. I'm really against exposing minors like that, even though they are being more careful today. The company should absolutely not profit from the personal life of kids, and should rather put in effort to give them a normal childhood.

This take is not wrong but it's only scratching the surface

Disney: “girls rock! We should all be proud of who we are as girls” (“unless you’re not white tho, and you’re not from a middle class family. You have to have two parents, you can have boyfriends but keep it cutesy and innocent. Don’t talk like an adult! It’s ruining your child-like image but also behave like an adult and has big words. Make sure have long hair and wear what the girls in the magazines are wearing but called it $unique$. You’re not allowed to be fat but you have to pretend to eat like you are.” “Anyways, yes, GIRL POWER” “oh yeah, never ever talk about periods or feminism”

Instead of trying to force children into being role models for children, how about parents cut off the TV and the Ipad and spend time with their own kids?

I got scouted to be an anchor on a new kids TV channel when I was six because I accidentally met the producer/director on the train and he liked me. I remember always going upto his seat and playing with him, obviously I didn't know who he was. He asked to speak with my parents and then told them if they consented I would be his first choice for the position. To this day, I can't believe my parents said no. And that new channel is now vastly successful. I often half jokingly ask them why on earth. But they always give me these reasons for what they did: First being that they didn't want to choose for me and they thought I was too young to consent to a commitment like that that might prevent me from having a normal childhood. Second they didn't want to ruin my personality with childhood fame and if not addicted to substances didn't want me to turn out shallow. Third even though I have an uncle who is an anchor and successful frankly they didn't trust me with anyone since show biz is filled with pedos. And fourth they thought if it was meant to be I would grow up and become an actress anyway. Ik for a fact that they just thought since they were both researchers I would end up being some kind of academic genius and didn't want to mess with that which is kind of sad cause I'm dumb. And the thing is these opportunities are literally so rare. I often think about how crazy it is that if they had said yes my life and personality would have been completely different. But I'm grateful to them. I had a fulfilling childhood and a chance to develop my own hobbies. I want to become a writer now and I've won several prizes for writing. And if I change my mind I can always try my luck the old fashioned way.

"You gotta give the people what they want, even if it kills you, even if it empties you out until there's nothing left to empty. No matter what happens, no matter how much it hurts, you don't stop dancing, and you don't stop smiling, and you give those people what they want." - Bojack, Prickly Muffin

So many people comment "I can't believe we behaved like this and that toward young pop stars back in the day and no one thought it was wrong blablabla" while probably still being toxic on stan twitter which it's at its worst right now lmao

Also, the actor who played Cyrus, Joshua Rush, came out as bi shortly after the show ended!

It's a sobering thought to realize how damaged most celebrities are and how they live in toxic environments that are controlled by corporate execs, and are disconnected from how most people live and yet people adhere to advice about life from them constantly.

Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan, Miley Cyrus, Hilary Duff, Raven Simone, and so many other millennial Disney and Nickelodeon pop stars walked so that Gen Z stars could run, and hopefully take celebrity culture in a healthier direction.

This video came just at the right time . I recently stumbled upon old Mickey Mouse clubhouse videos and that was when I realized Ryan Gosling and Kerry Russell were also Disney Kids alongside Justin T , Britney and Christina . It took me down this rabbit hole of old children's entertainment ,trying to figure out how many transitioned well into adulthood and how many child stars crashed and burned and how many of them are still mentally stable. It's even worse when you look at other 80s/90s kid's shows like Kids Incorporated and realize the only one still sorta famous from that one as adults are Fergie and Jennifer Love Hewitt. Nickelodeon is worse with the number of troubled former child stars ; Drake Bell , Amanda Bynes etc The best transition I've seen so far is Ryan Gosling , Zendaya ,Ariana Grande and Olivia Rodrigo (so far) . It seems there are 3 choices when you grow out of this kind of fame 1) Beautiful transition into serious actor/singer -Ariana , Ryan Zendaya ,Olivia 2) Success to some extent but many mental health and personal issues that make you wonder if it was worth it - Britney ,Demi etc 3) No success and and lots of problems - Amanda Bynes , Drake Bell etc. The one who breaks my heart is Britney Spears ,she has worked her entire life and has paid a steep price for her success every step of the way but her net worth makes absolutely no sense to me.

I'm grateful for all these actresses/actors who gave me a form of escape and made my childhood, and sorry that they had and still have to go through all that unnecessary hardship :(

I don't remember exactly but some random channel had posted a picture of Ariana Grande as a teenager with some major stakeholder of her Nickelodeon show. Honestly, the man looked so creepy and was touching her in such an uncomfortable way and Ariana's smile was kinda fake. I thought I was the only one but when I saw the comments, so many people had noticed it! I wonder where their parents were when this was happening to them.

I’m so lucky I grew up with Disney shows and movies that never demonized femininity! Lizzie McGuire, That’s So Raven, Wizards of Waverly Place, Hannah Montana, Suite Life, Phill of the Future, Kim Possible, Camp Rock, Sonny with a Chance, and Cheetah Girls were my childhood! I respect Selena and Hilary so much! Demi was always beautiful and talented!

I’m surprised that there was no mention of all the explicit songs on Olivia‘s album. That album is proof of how much Disney has changed. 10 years ago Disney would’ve never let one of their stars put out an album like that.

I kinda find it funny how Zendaya on Disney looks like some happy optimistic quirky kid, but most of the characters she plays these days, whether MJ or Rue Bennet, look like they’re so done with everything.

Zendaya is probably the only Disney star that I think flawlessly transitioned out of Disney. Like no drama.

Imagine in the future, Olivia comes out saying that Disney did not let her date any other guy for years because her whole brand revolved around her entire relationship with her ex and his new blonde girl!!

There are three routes that many of the Disney Channel stars end up in following their time at Disney: 1. Have successful careers as singers or Actors 2. Become either mentally unstable, go crazy or become M-rated due to the peer pressures that they faced during their time at Disney. Or 3. A mixture of the first two

Disney channel has become more diverse with their shows in recent years Alot of things have changed maybe not everything but Disney has changed a lot

Growing up we never had cable tv so all these Disney kids and shows never affected me. We watched what was on UPN, fox kids, pbs, or TGIF. I wish this episode would have acknowledged that. When Christina and Britney came out as pop stars, I had no idea they were Disney kids because we didn’t have cable. So our relationships to these stars is different.

Back in the 2000s, particularly when I was in high school, I thought there was something really gross about the way Disney Channel, and to a lesser extent the live action side of Nickelodeon, presented girlhood, which felt to create more harm than good, and despite claiming to know exactly what was wrong in reality I couldn't really put my finger on it, and sadly my response was far more sexist than I realized it was at the time.

Lizzie McGuire was major when I was growing up. I remember taking a picture of her to my salon to get bangs 😂

Disney still makes more stars than any other kids channel. Disney: Jonas Brothers, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Britney, Justin Timberlake, Olivia Rodrigo, Sabrina Carpenter, Hillary Duff, Demi Lovato, Zack Efron, and many more in the music and film industry. Nickelodeon: Ohhhh Ariana Grande.

Compared to Miley and Demi’s situations Selena’s transition wasn’t really that bad idk Selena ended up pretty fine other than the lupus

Miley’s life story is a whole a*s Netflix series of black mirror.

Well, probably The Take should have comparison between Disney idols - K-pop idols - J-idols

I think we really jumped from one extreme to another when it comes to representation like it feels very much « tokens » on screen rather than meaningful and realistic representation of minorities.

I definitely felt so bad about myself when I compared myself to those perfect Disney channel characters when I was younger. I really hope the next gen has less perfect and more relatable characters to look up to as kids.

Zendaya is actually a late Millennial. 1981-1996 are the Millennial years. Zendaya was born in '96. It's funny that so many people feel sorry for these kids for having to be "perfect", yet most of society today still DEMANDS these celebrities to use their channels or platforms "responsibly" or in other words "perfectly". Celebrities are not politicians. They are entertainers. Yes, if they do something unlawful they should be held accountable. However, I never understood why people feel celebrities should be the spokesperson for every issue in the world or to keep a certain image.

I would love for you to talk about the MARY SUE trope. I've lately heard about it but I can't help to realize that this term is used to devaluate strong female leads while strong male leads are praised.

This pressure was so toxic even for the boy disney stars.

I'm always glad to see "child starts" transition into successful adult careers. It seems very difficult for them to get everyone to see them as real adult entertainers after having been a "manufactured" child/teen star.

Yeah, it’s a really messed up part of the entertainment industry. The level of child exploitation they’ll do just to make a profit is pretty disgusting. Good video. By the way, can you talk about Loki on Disney+?

Love it. I want to say that all these TV shows and products that were marketed towards girls, were part of training them to become future consumers. Ya'll forgot Annette Funicello?

Now Disney needs an Asexual Spectrum character who isnt this perfect girly girl

5:30 after Miley says that, the little girl tells her she doesn't want her to change ( an unhappy coincidence or a manipulative move by disney? conspirancy) ironic either way

The overzealous patriot trope. Ngl, they scare the hell out of me.

I’m starting to think it’s intentional; this video is whitewashed Raven Symone paved the way for the girlhood trope and it was just briefly mentioned. We all know THAT SO RAVEN set the standard and Her life literally reflects everything that was mentioned but instead Y’all chose frame Demi , Miley and Selena as THE trailblazers. guys try to come across like you care about black representation but you ALWAYS skip over it.

Oh boy, this gave me immense nostalgia. I miss being a kid.

So many of todays stars started out as child actors. Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Zendaya, Hilary Duff, Ariana grande, Demi Lovato, Vanessa Hudgens all got their first fame from teen shows. But then you've got Jeanette Mccurdy and Bella Thorne who faced the worst end of it. Miranda Cosgrove and Bridget Mendler could have had great career but weren't willing to sell their soul for it and opted out. And then you've got Ariana Grande who knew exactly what she wanted, and used her show as a stepping stone to launch her into the industry, and became the most successful (which is cool considering she was only a supporting character). I'd say Olivia comes under this category too.

I have one questions: where were their parents when all thoose bad things were happening to theese kid stars?

I’m glad the stars have evolved and that Disney has as well

I remember as a kid being so confused that every Disney actor also had to release music. It bothered me.

It was really humbling for me when I first heard the stories of Britney spears and the Olsen twins. I also really hated on Hannah Montana as a preteen and when she started being provacative as Miley Cyrus. I've always been a hater of the mainstream and still am, but it occured to me that I hate the systems that created these characters and corrupted these young girls who were just trying to get by with the lives they didn't necessarily ask for. I also feel society's tendency to pit women against eachother played a role in my disdain for their over sexualized performances in adulthood. I'm glad to hear newer generations of child stars have a fighting chance.

I feel like this makes it seem like Disney stars got messed up because of the characters they played, and not because they were literally abused by all the adults behind the scene. Hannah Montana's personality isn't why Miley was under pressure...the people running Hannah Montana were.

It's kinda feasible for celebrities to be not fond of their child star time of their lives, considering it was filled with constant peer pressure, stupid beauty standards and over-sexualization by media all which no children should experience 😢

Not to get off-subject, but is anyone else seeing parallels between American pop stars like this and the Japanese idols and South Korean K-pop industry?

2:39 -- Nooo, that goes further back than 1989. The original version of the Mickey Mouse Club was made in the 50s too, which gave the world Frankie and Annette--also giants of pop culture in their day

corporate girlhood is such a great phrase, a spark of genius

Lizzie Mcguire (Hilary Duff) and Raven Baxter(Symone) where/are Still my role Models, every since I was 9 years old, and I'm about to be 30 now.

It speaks volumes that some of the most beloved, empowering girls from our childhoods suffered from the very thing they fought against behind the scenes. It's the definition of corporate girlhood. Companies like Disney couldn't grasp the concept of practicing what you preach. The 2000s era of girlhood will always mean the world to me. Loving feminine/girly things, while still being able to accomplish anything, is STILL an important message. But I am glad that we are addressing these concerns now more than ever.

Well it's because Disney owns everything. So being a Disney star is sort of like the ultimate nepotism. If you can rise to the top of the Disney food chain, you'll pretty much always find work if you want it- and if you haven't crossed your Disney overlords. If you do, be prepared to have the entire world obsessed with destroying you for their entertainment.

A lot of the new stars seem to learn from the mistakes of the older ones

Zendaya had an amazing transion from Disney star to normal person

How did they not even mention Alyson Sttoner?

Wow, the Take is really on a roll! I'm absolutely eating these tasty Takes up lately!

A bit ironic that this video has ads for a diuretic 'cleanse' when it highlights the pressure teen stars had to stay thin.

i wonder if the corporate girlhood will change. like in disney right now, olivia rodrigo is already showing that she can still work in disney and also be a pop star separately from disney.

What about the Disney boys : Ryan Gosling, Justin T, Sprouse twins, Zac Efron, etc?

This video was understandably Miley-heavy, but I feel like there's more to be said about Hilary Duff, who was shown but not mentioned. She was the first to have a show centred around her character, and her own starring movie. Her first album Metamorphosis is the first CD I ever desperately wanted. Because of the success of Avril Lavigne, some of the tracks on that are quite punk rock inspired, so I don't feel like Olivia Rodrigo's sound is particularly fresh but rather nostalgic. I remember feeling quite betrayed as a fan when Hilary became anorexic and dyed her hair, but by the time Miley Cyrus started changing I was fully on board and completely understood what she was doing. I felt like I was going through those same radical changes at the same time, cause I was 17. The term "corporate girlhood" is so perfect; Alyson Stoner's recent testimony and Jennette McCurdy's podcast are excellent resources for understanding how making a 9-year old the breadwinner for an entire family is an extreme amount of pressure in itself.