ABSTRACT
This chapter explores some concepts in the spirit of a style of history-writing which is constructed from personal history and artefacts, rather than through a history based on official documents, institutional history or the history of social movements. In contemporary life, celebrities proliferate across the globe and their antics are enthusiastically followed by both children and adults. Their exposure is greatly assisted by older media such as magazines as well as by newer media, especially online social media. The ways in which children are represented on the screen reflects broader cultural norms and expectations regarding the place of children in decades past and how they are perceived today. Kathy Merlock Jackson points out that the child stars who emerged in the 1930s were both precious and precocious; both pre-adult and often wiser than those adults around them. Shary argues that 'very few child actors have ever been able to maintain their success and visibility as they grow into adulthood'.
