Christy Carlson Romano, a Disney Channel teen icon after playing Ren Stevens on “Even Stevens” and voicing the title character on “Kim Possible,” published an emotional essay on Elle’s website in the wake of Hayden Panettiere‘s death. The two actors got their breakthroughs in 2000, the year both “Even Stevens” and “Remember the Titans” premiered, and came of age in Hollywood at the same time.
“Crushed. Another performer I grew up with, gone too soon,” Romano wrote before talking openly about how being a child star is like suffering Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disease caused by repeated hits to the head that’s often associated with football players.
“Kid actors have something major in common: rejection,” Romano explained. “We’re rejected from auditions more times before we’re 10 than most people accrue in 10 lifetimes. Those of us who make it are given the adoration of saints—and then, if we don’t climb to A-list fast enough, we’re torn down as if we’ve committed some unspeakable mortal sin. All before our frontal lobes have fully formed. Is it any wonder so many of us struggle with addiction? The industry gives us the wound and then acts surprised when we reach for something to treat it.”
