Melissa Gilbert says she's done quietly watching former child stars die. In a Substack essay titled "Enough Is Enough," the onetime Little House on the Prairie star reflects on the recent deaths of Hayden Panettiere, 36, Michelle Trachtenberg, 39, and Daveigh Chase, 35, writing that it feels "personal because I was them." Calling herself part of a "tribe" of former girl actors, Gilbert argues that "something is very very wrong" when multiple women from that world die so close together. She criticizes an industry that "uses, abuses, exploits and then throws away" kids, reports USA Today, noting that smartphones now ensure "everyone is a paparazzo."
Gilbert describes working through serious illness as a child and says young performers are conditioned never to say no—even at the expense of their health. She calls for industry-funded mental health support for child actors transitioning into adulthood and suggests forming a group of former child stars to lobby studios and networks about "mitigating exploitation."
Her essay comes alongside similar warnings from Anna Paquin and Rose McGowan, with Paquin putting it thusly: "It's not a coincidence that so many former, specifically pre-sexualized female, child 'stars' have profoundly sad lives and untimely ends. We were not as protected by the 'systems' that look great on paper, as we are supposed to be," Paquin wrote on Instagram Friday, per the Hollywood Reporter. McGowan was more succinct, posting on Instagram: "Don't put kids in show business. None of this is normal." Panettiere's death came three months after her memoir detailed the psychological toll of being pushed to deliver intense emotions on cue as a child.
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