It is indeed a high price to pay for full
grown adults, talk more a teenager/
young adult. Justin has virtually grown
up before our very eyes; from the time of
the release of his ‘Baby’ single, the ‘My
World 2.0′ album and his other releases
Once again, Justin Bieber is in the news
for all the wrong reasons. In January
2014 alone, he has allegedly thrown eggs
at his neighbour’s house, been arrested
for drunk driving and substance use in
Miami and released on bail for $2,500
and been charged with assaulting a limo
driver during an altercation outside a
club in Toronto on the 29th of December
2013. More recently, photos of him
allegedly biting on a stripper’s nipple
with a pal of his have been circulated all
over the internet,as well as a petition of
over 100,000 signatures requesting his
deportation back to his native Canada
from the US.
This comes on the heels of a tumultuous
2013 that saw a nasty break-up with his
heartthrob, Selena Gomez, a purported
retirement and very many heartbreaking
stories about one of the most popular
celebrities on planet earth; in spite of his
being just 19 (he has more twitter
followers than some countries have
humans in
them).
19!!!!!
It makes one wonder at the cost of fame
and being in the public eye, almost all of
the time. It is indeed a high price to pay
for full grown adults, talk more a
teenager/young adult. Justin has
virtually grown up before our very eyes;
from the time of the release of his ‘Baby’
single, the ‘My World 2.0′ album and his
other releases. He lost his husky voice
before us, changed the popular ‘Justin
locks’ before us, dated Selena Gomez
before us and virtually everything else.
Same thing went for the Miley Cyrus’,
Demi Lovato’s, Lindsay Lohan’s,
Macaulay Caulkin’s, Britney Spears’,
Drew Barrymore’s (thankfully, she
overcame hers) and even Michael
Jackson’s of this world.
Only very few child stars are relatively
unscathed by the price they have to pay
for fame. Living in the public eye must
be nerve wracking. I am an ordinary
citizen and I get irritated sometimes with
certain intrusions on my privacy; I
therefore can not begin to fathom how
I’d react to my every move being
documented or photographed. In the
case of the child star in the US, its made
worse by the fact that, they are first
treated as ‘Celebrities’ before they are
treated as children. Their guardians tend
to get carried away with the monies their
wards are raking in and treat them like
cash cows/investments. Most parents/
guardians even encourage their underage
‘celeb’ wards/children to party, take
drugs and have sex; inasmuch as the
dollars roll in, they are fine.
I mentioned the US in particular for the
reasons that their entertainment scene is
the most easily accessed the world over;
thus their misdemeanours are a lot more
publicized. I also came across an
interview that was given by Daniel
Radcliffe (who reprised the role of Harry
Potter in the movie series from J. K.
Rowlings books) when he came to New
York to perform the play ‘Equus’ on
Broadway in 2008/2009. When he was
asked the difference between his celebrity
status in the US and back home in the
United Kingdom, he replied, “here in the
US, I am treated as a star first, then a
child; in the UK, I am first a child, before
a star”.
After a while, these young persons start
finding a way to cope with all of the
external and internal pressures by acting
out one way or another. If my
Psychology books are to be believed,
these their untoward actions (like
Justin’s) begin as ‘Defence mechanisms’;
before graduating to become patterns
and habits. A lot of these ugly headlines
and shenanigans can be avoided if like
Daniel said, child celebrities are taken in
hand and treated like children; before the
celebrity status is thrust upon their ‘too
young shoulders’.
Of course, these are just my 2 cents; I’d
love to hear yours below….. Ciao!!!
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