Bella Thorne got her start on Disney Channel, playing CeCe Jones on Shake It Up alongside Zendaya. And like many child stars, she had a tough time dealing with all the pressure that came with it.
Speaking on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast on Wednesday, August 5, Thorne opened up about the scrutiny she faced as a young actress, including being constantly compared to Lindsay Lohan.
Life on the Disney channel
Thorne looked back on her Disney days, discussing the people she was closest with behind the scenes.
“I didn’t so much hang out with people from the network. I hung out with Zendaya. We hung out,” she said.
The actress noted that her show came along just as Disney channel was moving into a new phase.
“Shake It Up was in a different time when Miley [Cyrus] and Selena [Gomez] and Demi [Lovato] and those shows, they were all, I think, 16, 17 when we were starting, so the eras are so different, and yet they intersect.”
Comparisons
Thorne said she was just 12 when the comparisons to other young stars started rolling in. “I remember … people asking me if I was gonna be, you know, comparing us, all the Disney girls, with Miley and Selena in this new era.”
People also wanted to know who would end up being the next “bad girl.” She recalled being asked, “Are you gonna be like Lindsay Lohan?” She added, “All these things at 12, 13. You’re just, your brain is trying so hard. Like, ‘Am I gonna be like, what? What is the question?’”
Like Thorne, Lohan became famous early, starring in The Parent Trap as a kid. She’s spoken about her struggles with drugs and alcohol over the years, including several trips to rehab earlier in her career.
Advice to younger self
Speaking with People in 2024, Thorne talked more about how fame affected her childhood and shared what advice she would give her younger self.
“Advice I would give to my younger self? I don’t know that I would really give her advice. She was a little too angry to take advice. I’d probably just get in a fight with her,” she quipped.
“I’m very thankful for it [childhood]. Of course, when I deal with things in therapy and whatnot, therapy has helped me a lot to figure my own s*** out. It’s really helped me understand and not be so angry in life. I think I always felt like I didn’t necessarily have a voice, the way I grew up. It was like everyone else’s voice was on me.”
More support
Thorne doesn’t place the blame on Disney or her family specifically. Instead, she pointed to a larger issue with the way society treats child stars.
“I think it’s the world. There should be real therapy mandated for children growing up and becoming famous overnight,” she continued to People.
“If the correct guardrails aren’t in place — and even when they are in place — things can still go wrong. I definitely wouldn’t give my younger self advice except, ‘Go talk to somebody.’ But when I grew up, therapy wasn’t really … That was still taboo. And even now, it’s still quite taboo, where you’re like, ‘Guys, what world are we living in? I think we all need therapy.’”
