Being a child actor sounds like a perfect job. The chance to be rich and famous before you’ve even hit eighteen years old seems like a golden opportunity. But what happens when a child grows up in the spotlight? What happens when the fame wears off and the fortune dries out?

Growing up in an environment like Hollywood isn’t easy. The glamour and appeal are really nothing more than facades. The celebrities, seen on camera, appear to be perfect. Even the youngest children are taught to appear their best at all times. One step out of line, and these children can lose everything. And yet, they don’t even know what they would lose. Their parents are the ones making all of their decisions for them.

When children are taught and held to certain, strict, standards they tend to deviate. They reach a certain age where they question everything they’ve been raised to believe in. There might be a few problems, and sometimes even regular teenagers strive to meet unrealistic expectations, but, everything usually ends up fine. The celebrity teenager, on the other hand, has expectations to maintain perfect images their whole lives. Because of such high expectations, these young adults fall apart.

Miley Cyrus was once considered a role model for children everywhere. For half a decade, Miley played the part of a charming, young, teenage popstar. Unfortunately, the line between the fictional character “Hannah Montana,” and the real, living person, “Miley,” became blurred. Now, just about anything or anyone can be blamed for Cyrus’ downfall; from her parents, to Disney, to Miley herself, it doesn’t matter. They all played a part.

Another example of a child star gone bad is Justin Bieber, who hasn’t been able to keep himself out of the news for more than a few hours the past few weeks. He was arrested twice in two weeks, for various charges, such as smoking marijuana, and driving under the influence of alcohol. Although he was released and even avoided deportation to his native country of Canada, he hasn’t shown signs of stopping his destructive behavior.

There are countless reasons as to why child stars go bad. Parents spoiling them, lack of privacy, constant strain and pressure, no free time, the list goes on and on. Miley along with other fellow Disney stars suffered the same fate, yet parents keep allowing these Disney channel stars be examples to their children.

Even relevancy is a problem. At one time, Macaulay Culkin, aka, “Kevin,” from the Home Alone franchise, was one of the biggest child stars on the planet. Today, a surprising amount of people don’t even know who he is.

Imagine when a child star suddenly loses what made them famous. The moment they aren’t a child anymore is often the moment they aren’t famous anymore, which is a hard reality to cope with. They turn to what so many former child stars have. Drugs and alcohol become their coping mechanisms.

Can you really blame them though? These are people who have lived their whole lives in the public eye. Is it really possible to maintain all sanity? Perhaps not, but then again, does anyone make it through life completely sane?

Who were some of your childhood role models? Comment below, let us know.  If you want more Bingham Prospector Online, subscribe with your email.