Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book aims to bring together scholarly thinking and research in the emerging hybrid discipline of Childhood and Celebrity. It presents an abridged version of the story of the child star across the twentieth century, demonstrating how celebrity children, and their representations on-screen, have always been informed and shaped by wider social, economic and cultural factors. The book also reminds the issues around preserving childhood in the glare of celebrity are not new by taking back to the golden age of Hollywood and the rise of the musical child star in the 1930s. It also discusses the psychosocial and ideological construction of childhood in and around Hindi films. The book also discusses the child band Parchís which was hugely successful in Spain and Latin America in the 1980s, with spin-offs reconstituting the band until the 2010s.