Are your kids starstruck?
Massively marketed tween idols could be leading some kids to unhealthy levels of celebrity worship
By KIRSTEN SCHARNBERG
Chicago Tribune (originally published October 24, 2006)
DISNEY CHANNEL
Learn more about the
Cheetah Girls, right, and other
tween idols whom your children may be obsessing about.
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Most people in the mosh pit were between the ages of 4 and 12. They had arrived at the concert hours early to sit on the hot concrete and save front-row spaces, completely ignoring the nearby cotton-candy stand and the hypnotic music emanating from the Fun House.
"We want Raven! We want Raven!" they began to chant, demanding the appearance of the central character in the Disney Channel's mega-hit That's So Raven. Minutes later, Raven, the 20-year-old actor-singer phenom launched into her performance, and the children began to sing along.
The scene recently at this show in Hawaii was, on the surface, not so different from decades of concerts geared toward young, impressionable Americans. Elvis made teenage girls faint; the Beatles made them weep; posters of Britney Spears wallpapered boys' bedrooms from coast to coast.
But experts say much is remarkable today -- in ways often troubling -- about how youths respond to celebrity idols such as Hilary Duff and Miley Cyrus, names that may mean next to nothing to many adults but that are intimately familiar to most kids younger than 15.
Shaped by a Brangelina world, where people don overpriced T-shirts indicating whom they support in the Brad Pitt-Angelina Jolie-Jennifer Aniston love triangle, kids increasingly obsess over celebrities at younger ages, experts say.
They can worship their chosen stars nearly round-the-clock, with many youth-geared sitcoms aired nightly and offered for download onto iPods for mobile viewing. Fan clubs offer e-mail alerts that can be sent to children's cellphones should news about their favorite celebrity break. Elementary-school kids log onto Web sites where debates center on issues such as whether Duff would ever accept a role that required nudity; whether heartthrob Zac Efron of the Disney TV movie High School Musical is gay; whether a Connecticut girl is truthful in her claims that she "made out with" Dylan Sprouse, one of the twin 14-year-olds who star in The Suite Life of Zack and Cody.
Even the snarkiness that often accompanies celebrity gossip -- an art form that takes many adult gossip columnists years to perfect -- seems to come easy to school-age youngsters.
Over several hours on a recent school night, kids who identified themselves in a chat room as being between 8 and 14 argued about who most adored Duff, the star of the Disney Channel's Lizzie McGuire, a show no longer in production but which still airs.
"I love her more than any of you and she knows it too," bragged one girl whose screen name was Hil4Ever. "I have her personal e-mail and phone number but I wouldn't share it with any of you losers."
James Houran, a psychologist who has studied celebrity worship for years, cringes at such examples. "When you reach the point where kids feel they have an intense personal connection with a celebrity, that's when they are beginning to cross into unhealthy obsession," he said.
But what makes kids' obsession with Duff or the Sprouse brothers so different from their parents' now-cooled love for David Cassidy, the idol from The Partridge Family? The answers, experts say, can be summed in two words: tangibility and saturation.
Cassidy was worshiped because he seemed an impossible-to-meet superstar. But with kids' favorite stars frequently offering live, interactive chat groups with their fans, today's children have come to think of perfect-stranger celebrities as close friends.
In worst-case scenarios, experts say, those are the kind of delusions of intimacy that can fuel unhealthy celebrity worship; in most kids, however, they simply blur the line between fact and fantasy that confuses children in even the best of circumstances.
Also, kids are estimated to get more than six hours of media exposure every day, according to Dr. Michael Rich, the director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children's Hospital Boston. Where The Partridge Family was on once a week, That's So Raven airs up to seven times per day.
There is a solid reason Disney -- and other networks such as Viacom's Nickelodeon -- are working so hard to ensure young viewers are addicted to not only their shows but also to their shows' stars. Marketing research indicates that the nation's 26 million children between the ages of 9 and 14 have a spending power of between $39 billion and $59 billion, so when stars are found to be popular with kids, they are put in as many shows as possible.
Drake Bell and Josh Peck, for example, were cast members on Nickelodeon's The Amanda Show. But when their popularity grew, Nickelodeon gave them their own show, Drake & Josh.
What worries many experts is that kids may be worshiping celebrities for reasons more disturbing than simply mirroring the society in which they live.
Linda Sonna, a psychologist who studies "tweens," kids who are not toddlers but not yet teens, says she has seen statistics that show the average parent spends only about 15 minutes a day talking with his or her kids, an estimate that does not include the time spent issuing orders and giving directions or specific guidance.
"Celebrity worship is not a new phenomenon," Sonna said. "What's new is the depth of emotion and energy these kids are putting into it at earlier and earlier ages. I worry that they are doing that in an effort to fill a deep sense of longing that exists somewhere in them."
Indeed, one study -- conducted in England -- shows that while youngsters a decade ago tended to describe parents or other family members as their heroes, today they are more likely to cite a teenage celebrity.
A current favorite is The Cheetah Girls, a TV movie starring Raven and three other actresses. Though the movie was by Disney, things weren't exactly Pollyanna-like among the four stars. "Catfights" were said to punctuate the filming of the recent sequel -- a juicy piece of dish much discussed among kids in entertainment chat rooms.
Bickering aside, the stars idolized today are not the bad-girl-types -- like Spears and the Spice Girls -- of a few years ago. Raven, a voluptuous young woman who has struggled with her weight, talks openly to girls about embracing their given body type. Duff has vowed to turn down parts that require nudity. Cyrus, the 13-year-old star of new show Hannah Montana talks of being best friends with her dad, country singer Billy Ray Cyrus.
Emily Osment, who also stars in Hannah Montana, feels all the celebrity adoration from the other side. Polite to a fault, she will acknowledge only that "it's a little odd sometimes" when strangers come up and say, "Oh, I've known you for so long."
But the 14-year-old, the sister of The Sixth Sense star Haley Joel Osment, finds it scary when people pretend to be her to liven up online chat rooms and bat around nasty gossip, either online or on the playground.
"It saddens me a little," she said during an interview, "that they're so young and debating things like that."
Regardless of any consequences of celebrity obsession, it is nearly impossible to reverse. And star-watching has become a bond between some parents and kids.
Marilyn Scruggs, who has a 9-year-old daughter, Kendall, admits to rushing out each week to buy magazines such as Us Weekly to keep current on the goings-on in Hollywood.
"When I'm done with them, Kendall looks through them for her favorite stars," Scruggs said.
Kendall often then clips pages about her favorite teen celebs and files them into a folder she keeps next to a mostly blank autograph book. She occasionally uses the information she finds to post questions or comments on various stars' Web sites. So far, no one has written back.
WHAT PARENTS CAN DO
Got a starstruck kid in your house? Here's how to deal with your little gossip hound:
Reduce exposure: The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends only 1 to 2 hours of quality programming per day for children older than 2 and no screen media for kids younger than 2.
Co-viewing: Watch what your kids are watching; visit the Web sites they're visiting. This allows for conversation about controversial topics and provides a chance for adults to help children understand and synthesize what they have seen in the context of a parent's perspective.
No TV or computers in the bedroom: Research has shown that children who have television, video games, or computers in their rooms get less sleep, read less and are more overweight.
Set a good example: Kids learn media-use patterns from their parents, so use what you want them to use.
Instill critical viewing skills: Help your kids ask and answer five questions: Who created this message? What techniques are used to attract my attention? How might different people understand this message differently from me? What lifestyles, values and points of view are represented in or omitted from this message? Why was this message sent?
Encourage creativity, not passivity: Encourage your kids to use their imagination to invent plays, make collages from advertising or magazine images, take photographs, or make videos to create the kinds of messages they would broadcast if they were in charge of the media.
SOURCE: Center on Media and Child Health
NAMES IN THE FAME GAME
Which celebrities have tweens atwitter these days? If you're thinking Britney Spears or Justin Timberlake, you're showing your age. Molly MacDermot, editor-in-chief of M (music, movies and more) magazine -- who has been charting tween tastes since the invasion of Britney and the Backstreet Boys in the '90s -- says tween idols today spring more from the TV than the music world. And, because of network control, they're less likely to have edgy reputations. Some of today's tween idols:
Raven (born Raven-Symone Pearman), 20
Best known for: Star of Disney Channel program That's So Raven, on which she has played psychic teen Raven Baxter since 2002, and two "Cheetah Girls" movies.
Tween trivia: Can't recall playing Olivia on The Cosby Show when she was 3 years old.
What kind of role model? Having spoken out regularly and convincingly about not letting weight be a major concern in her life, Raven is a terrific role model for girls bombarded with images of anorexic-looking actresses. "I'm beautiful just how I am, no matter if I'm a size 2 or a size 12," she says in an interview posted on pbskids.org.
Zac Efron, 19
Best known for: Played Troy Bolton in High School Musical, a hugely popular Disney Channel movie about a romance between a high school athlete and a brainy girl.
Tween trivia: A celebrity magazine hinted at a link with actress Amanda Bynes.
What kind of role model? High School Musical certainly has a positive message, and so far Efron, like most of the stars in the Disney stable, has a squeaky-clean reputation, MacDermot says. But he's moving into adult fare, such as next year's movie version of the musical Hairspray, which could mean more freedom for the handsome actor to misbehave.
Vanessa Anne Hudgens, 17
Best known for: Played the female lead, Gabriella Montez, in High School Musical, and recently released her debut album, V.
Tween trivia: Come Back to Me, her single, is not a song about Zac.
What kind of role model? A mix of Filipino, Chinese, Hispanic, Irish and American Indian heritage, she's a role model for multiracial kids. Her popular Gabriella character, an academic whiz, is a model for girls being brainy.
Jamie Lynn Spears, 15
Best known for: Plays the title character on Nickelodeon's Zoey 101, about an outspoken girl attending a formerly all-boys school.
Tween trivia: She played the younger version of big sister Britney's character, Lucy, in the movie Crossroads.
What kind of role model? Projecting an athletic, rather than a hypersexed image, she has so far avoided the kind of parental concern that her singer sister engendered as a teen. But, her lower-key image also means less adoration from tweens than Sis enjoyed, MacDermot says.
The Cheetah Girls (Adrienne Bailon, 23; Kiely Williams, 20; Sabrina Bryan, 22; and Raven)
Best known for: Two Disney movies about a quartet of best-friends singers.
Tween trivia: Today is Adrienne Bailon's birthday.
What kind of role model? The makeup of the group is a message of diversity and acceptance.
Cole and Dylan Sprouse, 14
Best known for: The new twins on the block -- forget Mary-Kate and Ashley -- Cole and Dylan play the title characters on Disney Channel's The Suite Life of Zack & Cody.
Tween trivia: The boys were named after Nat King Cole and Dylan Thomas. (Look 'em up, kids.)
What kind of role model? At their tender age, the boys have barely had time to be role models for anything other than chubby cheeks, though they did sign a merchandising deal with the Olsen twins' company in 2005, and they have a new magazine that features Sprouse goods. Consider them role models for making a buck.
-- Cathy Frisinger, Special to the Star-Telegram
SOURCES: M magazine, www.imdb.com, www.disneychannel.com, www.jamielynnspears.com, http://psc.disney.go.com/disneychannel/originalmovies/highschoolmusical/