by Lucy Crabtree

Created on: May 29, 2008

When you are 4 years old and dreaming of performing on stage in front of thousands of people you probably wouldn't believe it could come true. Well for many famous actresses and actors of today it did! But being a child star does not seem to be all its cracked up to be.

Drew Barrymore made her debut in 1980 in a film called Altered States, she was 5! But a year later she landed a role in one of the worlds most famous movies of all time, E.T. This would then be the start of her long lasting career, and her ruined childhood. Yes she shot to fame, made lots of money and a profile for her self, but she also went down the dangerous path of being able to have what ever she wanted. She starting smoking at 9, drinking alcohol at 11 and snorting cocaine at 13 then finishing it all of by going into rehab at 14. Most people don't go through this in there life times but she managed it all in under 10 years. Drew is an extreme case of a child star getting out of control, fame hit her at a very young age and because of the people she was surrounded by and the publicity she was getting temptations were to big to refuse. Other stars such as Lindsey Lohan, Britney Spears, Macaulay Culkin and jack wild have all suffered from the childhood stardom.

And if this can happen to the stars of the past then what about the stars of the present. We are seeing some amazingly talented children on our screens at the moment, but were will they be in the future?

We have watched stars like Drew Barrymore and Jack Wild go though the life of drugs and booze, but we are still witnessing younger stars like Lindsey Lohan and Britney Spears go through the same troubles.

And is there ever going to be an end to it? I doubt it! If anything it will just get worse, the drugs get worse the crimes get worse and with the press we have today the publicity will get worse. And anybody who reads the papers or watches the news will see that celebrities get a lot of publicity for the bad stuff they do, maybe even more than the good work they do. Which will not help them recover; it will only encourage them to keep behaving badly if they know it will bring more publicity.

But how is this setting a good example to the children who have a talent and want to be on our televisions, all they see in the papers are celebrities who they look up to and admire getting drunk and falling out of taxi's. Is this suppose to inspire them to make there dreams come true and if they do reach fame will they think its acceptable to take drugs and break the law.

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