ABSTRACT
This chapter takes a chronological look at high-profile child performers over the twentieth century, and makes links to broader concurrent social and cultural changes in both childhood and celebrity which help explain the position of the celebrity child as an important contemporary cultural figure in Western society. It aims to theorise the experiences of child celebrities by exploring the dual and opposing forces of power and powerlessness which characterise the figure of child star. In an important sense child celebrities are both powerful and powerless, in the same way as all children are, yet magnified a thousandfold through the lens of popular culture and mass media. Former child stars such as Justin Bieber, Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears seem to activate the same narratives of youthful rebellion as experienced by many adolescents. The Disney Channel has also produced a number of young adult celebrities who were formerly adorable and adored child stars, including Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan.
