The Kids Need Tween Idols
Miley, Selena and Demi helped me grow up
I didn’t expect to get emotional when Miley Cyrus took the Grammys stage last month for her Tina Turner-style rendition of the hit song “Flowers.” I like her music — I throw on her Backyard Session version of “Jolene” every few months and casually follow what’s going on with her (something about her mom marrying her sister’s ex..? Seems like I want that to remain none of my business). But I wouldn’t call myself a huge fan.
Still, when Cyrus started rocking around that stage in her silver dress singing about how Liam Hemsworth is an asshole, I felt a familiar sting behind my eyes. It reached a crescendo when Cyrus called out “I just won my first Grammy!”
For millennials of a certain age, Cyrus has been in our collective awareness since we wore our first Uggs and cropped vests and begged our mom and dad to let us hang out at the mall. I can specifically remember the first time I ever watched Hannah Montana, which was at my friend's house — a place I always wanted to be because she had a pool and her parents filled the snack drawer with those individually-wrapped cosmic brownies. We listened to the familiar sound of “and you’re watching Disney Channel,” clinging our damp towels around our bodies as we watched a 13-year-old newcomer throw jokes back and forth with her dad, laughing when she said “sweet niblets.” Little did we know that barely-a-teen would still be with us when we were nearly 30.
Cyrus of course isn’t the only teen idol turned serious adult artist. Disney and Nickelodeon have churned these stars out factory-style. It feels like half the pop princesses and actresses still making headlines today got their start on shows like Wizards of Waverly Place, Sonny with a Chance, The Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Victorious, Unfabulous, Lizzie McGuire, That’s So Raven and movies like High School Musical and Camp Rock. Watching Zendaya making the rounds for Dune 2 alongside Timothée Chalamet, Florence Pugh and Austin Butler, it’s easy to forget the two-time-Emmy-winning actress got her start bouncing around with Bella Thorne on Shake It Up. Vanessa Hudgens, who shot to fame as Gabriella Montez, hosted the Oscars red carpet show over the weekend. Even for those whose careers I don’t follow closely, there’s a comfort in knowing they’re still around, and many of them are thriving.
But the specific type of tween idol that was established during the early aughts is almost completely extinct. In a recent post, Rachel wrote about the decay of a cohesive popular culture, and that certainly applies to the stars whose pictures we had plastered to our bedroom walls in the early 2000s. Those young teenagers — including Cyrus, Selena Gomez, Demi Lovato and the Jonas brothers, all of whom I really believed really had ended climate change with that song “Send It On” — rose to fame thanks to a very specific formula put together by Disney and its counterparts. I’d argue their particular brand of teen star never existed before them, and certainly won’t exist after. While there were no doubt iconic kids and teens who became household names thanks to shows like Saved By the Bell and Boy Meets World, landing a show on Disney in the early 2000s came with the potential (maybe even likelihood) of a record label, movie deals and enough attention to launch you into actual Hollywood.
Nowadays, you may have a better chance on TikTok. Teenagers are following influencers from a million corners of the internet, and juggling dozens of streaming services with thousands of TV options instead of flipping through the limited age-appropriate channels. In an article for Primetimer this month, Philiana Ng wrote about the potential end of the TV teen star pipeline. “It’s no wonder the teen TV havens that once ruled the roost have largely been dismantled, the formulas that once influenced their brand identities abandoned in acknowledgement of the current fragmented era of YA offerings,” referencing Disney and Nickelodeon, but also teen TV favorites like The WB, which brought us Dawson’s Creek, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and Gilmore Girls. While Ng points out that Netflix is somewhat filling the gap by throwing kids into stardom, I don’t think tweens and teens are following the lives of the Stranger Things actors as collectively as the 2000s kids did the Disney teen idols. There are remnants of the specific brand of teen star that existed during our childhood, like Olivia Rodrigo who came from Disney’s High School Musical: The Musical: The Series and Bizaardvark and Sabrina Carpenter, who became popular on Girl Meets World. But there’s a hole in pop culture the Disney pipeline used to fill.
We grew up with the Disney idols. We watched them discover dating and friendships and bullies while we were doing the same, and now they’re dealing with career changes, mature relationships and the burdens of being an adult alongside us. We now know that those glossy covers of Tiger Beat and Bop weren’t telling their whole stories, and at the same time, we’re reflecting on how our childhood and teenage years look different with age and maybe even a little wisdom.
It was obviously not a smooth ride. Gomez, who has been on the small screen since her Barney days, released a whole documentary about how her challenges with mental health have nearly derailed her career. Heartthrob Zac Efron has talked about how the pressure to stay buff gave him severe depression. Countless child actors on these channels (Thorne, Cole Sprouse, Keke Palmer included) have said they felt the burden of financially supporting their parents. Alyson Stoner who, among many things, was the one who was ~really good~ in Camp Rock, is a very vocal advocate of The Kidinfluencer Protection Act. Jennette McCurdy of iCarly found herself back in the spotlight with her 2022 book “I’m Glad My Mom Died” all about her mom’s abuse and how unprotected she felt as a Nick star — and there’s a docuseries coming out this month about how dangerous of an environment Nickelodeon sets were for children. The fact that the performers I loved were being harmed for the sake of my entertainment is something I am still and probably always will be coming to terms with.
But for the stars who have come out on the other side, hearing them talk about their struggle is a form of catharsis. I remember when their troubles began, and now I’m watching them heal. I can’t tell you the number of times I have seen Lovato’s 2020 Grammys performance of “Anyone” — a triumphant return after her 2018 hospitalization for an overdose — and it’s hard to watch every time. Lovato has to start over after singing just one line because she gets choked up, but then she goes on to belt “I feel stupid when I sing, nobody's listening to me… Anyone, please send me anyone.” By the end, the audience is on their feet and you can hardly hear Lovato over the cheering. After watching Lovato soar to fame in 2009, having a front-row seat to who she’s dated and who she’s feuded with and her battle with various substances, it’s impossible to not root for her. She represents an ability to overcome.
Watching these teens struggle in smaller ways was significant, too — and maybe even more so, since we can all relate to the trials and tribulations of people whispering about our new relationship in the school cafeteria or hearing a snide remark by the lockers. If you’re a 2000s girl you probably have some memory of a very grainy video of Cyrus and her friend Mandy saying “yo yo, yeah I said it twice you got a problem with that?” clearly mocking Lovato and Gomez, who posted one with the exact same dialogue. I remember discussing this video in depth between class in middle school and studying the clip with friends like we were going to have to write one of those DBQ essays on it. I still gasp when Cyrus says “cause you got a gap” pretty clearly referring to the gap Lovato had between her front two teeth at the time. I went to a high school where kids famously sabotaged one another’s college applications but this Cyrus-Lovato-Gomez showdown was mean. It’s hard to think of this Cyrus as the same one who in recent years brought both Lovato and Gomez onto her Instagram Live, and has called both of them friends. But that transition is probably familiar to a lot of us: Friendships ebb and flow, they forgive us for our worst and celebrate us for our best.
Following the same stars as my peers since before I had a cell phone helped me grow up. I admired them, but I could also project myself onto them. When they struggled, I knew it was okay to do the same. When they overcame, I knew I would too.
I do wonder whether, as we all become wiser to the detriment the industry can do to a young person’s wellbeing, it’s possible to develop a tween star audiences can have a connection with without the exploitation. So much of the trauma experienced by these young entertainers was kept in the dark. While they seemed accessible to us, their real struggles weren’t; there were no podcasts for them to come on, no Instagram or TikTok for them to share their experiences. The emergence of social media has given us a plethora of potential teen stars and much greater access to them, but in a way that has also made them disappear. If a 12-year-old doesn’t have to borrow their friend’s copy of Seventeen Magazine to catch a rare quote from the young celebrity they race home from school to catch on TV, does that star become less shiny?
There’s something special about and dare I say healthy (maybe I shouldn’t say it) about having a collective pool of celebrities to love, mourn, crush on and criticize alongside your peers — and years later, I feel a kinship to those stars even if I don’t like their every move. Was I appalled when Vanessa Hudgens posted that bizarre video about the inevitability of deaths during the pandemic? Yes. But when I watched her dodge her ex-boyfriend of eight years at the Oscars last year, I couldn’t help but feel for her. I’ve been with her since 2006 when I performed “Bop To The Top” at my elementary school talent show.
B Plot
Question: What was your favorite Disney TV movie?
Mallika: There are so many things about the 2000s ones to love, like the Harriet the Spy-style thrill of Lindsey Lohen’s Get a Clue, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato’s real-life friendship coming through the screen in Princess Protection Program and the sexual tension between Hilary Duff and Christy Carlson Romano’s characters in Cadet Kelly. But Cheetah Girls really was superior. They gave us bop after bop (my favorite being “Why Wait” from Cheetah Girls 2), made us cry and prepared us for the the drama and dismantling of bands like One Direction. Should I revisit when the Cheetah Girls went to India?
Rachel: Mallika PLEASE revisit when the Cheetah Girls went to India also Get a Clue is such a great one. I think for me, the most formative DCOM was Smart House. The way their rooms had full wall projections of beaches or mountain ranges or space and that house party he throws where they dance to Backstreet Boys under the strobe lights. I wanted it. I needed it. And watching it back now it gets even better realizing Disney did the smartest possible casting getting sitcom queen mother Katey Sagal (Married with Children, 8 Simple Rules) to play the generative AI mother gone haywire Pat. Pat was the OG Alexa, she was Her before Spike Jonze had even DIVORCED Sofia Coppola. 1That movie was so ahead of its time. Also speaking of a futuristic y2k vibe, from a fashion perspective, I still think often and fondly of the iconic pink shimmery dress Elisabeth Harnois wears in My Date with the President’s Daughter. I know I overuse the phrase “rewired my brain chemistry” but…
C Plot
Hot off the presses, Bridgit Mendler does NOT have her PhD. The former Disney actress took to X to clear up some confusion about her LinkedIn: “I am 2 months away from a JD and I don’t already have a PhD. The PhD is something I started working towards in 2020 and I pursued it jointly with my law degree but when I moved to California last summer and decided that for family reasons we would stay on the west coast, it had to go on pause.” Okay but even her correction is such a flex — she’s on her way to having a JD from Harvard and PhD from MIT while launching a satellite data startup after giving us the masterpiece that is “Hurricane.” She also could have let it be and it would have been fine. It’s like that time Mallika accidentally saw a classmate’s answer on an eighth grade science test and took three days to work up the courage to tell the teacher only for said teacher to say “I really don’t care.”
Hollywood needs to take a page out of Ariana Grande’s book and start casting Evan Peters as a boyfriend — and no Tate Langdon from American Horror Story doesn’t count2. Peters appeared in Grande’s new music video “we can't be friends (wait for your love)” as a cute and smiley ex she erases from her memory. Look how happy he is when he doesn’t have to play a psychopath and/or serial killer!
Speaking of alleged killers, Margaret Qualley is set to star as Amanda Knox in an upcoming Hulu miniseries. That soundtrack is about to be a little too synth pop for our tastes but we’re excited to watch.
Also, Nika King, who plays Rue’s mom in Euphoria, got real during a recent standup set:“People are like, ‘We need Season 3.’ I’m like, ‘Bitch, I need Season 3, too!’ I haven’t paid my rent in six months, and Zendaya’s over in Paris at Fashion Week. I’m like, ‘Bitch, come home! I need you. Mama need you.'” Zendaya you heard her!! Ditch Timmy’s skinny ass and put that glitter eyeshadow back on, girly (coming from two girlies who have not seen Dune 2).
Only Murders in the Building has done it again… Zach Galifianakis has been officially cast in season four alongside newcomers Eva Longoria, Molly Shannon and Eugene Levy. If they announce one more A-list cast member we s2g…. It better be Kate Middleton so we know she is alive and well (or so Selena can solve her murder).
This was undoubtedly playing on TV while Jonze was staying in some hotel while they were going through the separation and you CANT tell me he wasn’t inspired.
Ok but Kyle Spencer from Coven should count.
Wait why is Taylor in tears tho