Disney is under massive scrutiny across the board lately. A lot of it has to do with the Florida Parental Right in Education Bill that has been signed into law. Protests for and against Disney’s actions have been happening on Disney property and CEO Bob Chapek has even gone as far as to say that Disney will put money into organizations and efforts to remove the bill.

The discussion around the bill has been leading to some other important observations and conversation about culture and Hollywood.

Now a former Disney child star is talking about Disney’s behavior towards their child actors and specifically their female ones. Cole Sprouse along with his brother Dylan, were the starts of the popular “The Suite Life of Zach and Cody” that ran on the Disney Channel (which my small children often watched). Cole Sprouse is also an actor on the CW show “Riverdale.”

Sprouse recently did an interview with The New York Times, and I found this information through Bounding Into Comics.

During the interview Cole talked about what it was like being on a Disney Channel show and how people talk about the damage done to child actors at Disney.

Here’s what he said:

“My brother and I used to get quite a bit of, ‘Oh, you made it out! Oh, you’re unscathed!’ No. The young women on the channel we were on [Disney Channel] were so heavily sexualized from such an earlier age than my brother and I that there’s absolutely no way that we could compare our experiences.”

He also said:

“When we talk about child stars going nuts, what we’re not actually talking about is how fame is a trauma. So I’m violently defensive against people who mock some of the young women who were on the channel when I was younger because I don’t feel like it adequately comprehends the humanity of that experience and what it takes to recover.”

Sadly, a large number of child stars have run into issues over the years, and it isn’t just from Disney.

Several former Disney Channel stars have talked about the demands on them from the Mouse when they were children. Stars like Lindsey Lohan, Bella Thorne, Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez. Some have even shifted into a much more adult direction after they got away from Disney stating they never liked the “role model” pressure that was put on them.

It’s not the first time we’ve heard about what girls face in Hollywood and I’m sure it won’t be the last time we hear it. Maybe Disney should take some time and money to do more to protect and help their child actors.

Source: Bounding Into Comics