The sexualization of child stars has long been a troubling issue in Hollywood, affecting many young performers—including Natalie Portman.
Starting her career at the tender age of 12 in the movie Léon: The Professional, the now 43-year-old star has been open about her experiences of being sexualized as a child star.
Unfortunately, the industry reflects broader patterns that perpetuate such exploitation, leaving lasting impacts on these young actors.
From Portman to Brooke Shields and more, here are the other child stars who have experienced the horror of being sexualized by Hollywood .
Natalie Portman
Portman described her early career as a “long Lolita phase,” referencing the infamous 1950s novel by Russian-American novelist Vladimir Nabokov about an older man’s obsession with a young woman.
Doing Léon at 12, she played the role of Mathilda, a young orphaned girl who befriended a middle-aged man Léon, became his protégé, and ultimately developed a crush on him.
From that point, the public had a different view of Portman, being sexualized at a young age.
“I think there’s a public understanding of me that’s different from who I am. I’ve talked about it a little before — about how, as a kid, I was really sexualized, which I think happens to a lot of young girls who are onscreen,” she told Jenna Ortega in a talk published by Interview magazine. “I felt very scared by it. Obviously sexuality is a huge part of being a kid, but I wanted it to be inside of me, not directed towards me.”
To protect herself, Portman became more conscious of the roles she would accept and portrayed herself as a serious and studious woman.
Brooke Shields
Decades before Portman’s harrowing experience, Brooke Shields faced similar challenges—if not worse.
She was famously sexualized from a young age, notably for her role in the 1978 film Pretty Baby. Shields was only 11 years old when she played Violet, a daughter of a prostitute living in a brothel.
Despite being underage, she made several nude scenes, sparking significant controversy, with critics calling it child exploitation.
She also posed for Playboy magazine at 10 years old—an act surprisingly consented to by her mother, Teri Shields.
But though Teri tried to sue photographer Garry Gross on the grounds that his continuing to sell the photos that had been damaging her daughter’s reputation, the court sided with Gross.
Shields' early roles often placed her in adult situations, raising concerns about the industry's treatment of young actresses.
Drew Barrymore
One of Hollywood’s most recognized child stars is Drew Barrymore. Having her breakout role in the 1982 Steven Spielberg movie E.T. the Extra Terrestrial at age seven, she was thrust into the spotlight at a very young age and quickly became a tabloid fixture.
Drew shared that while she experienced sexual harassment as a child star, she could not talk about it as the situations appeared confusing for her at the time.
“I didn’t feel like I could speak to it because I experienced so many things that were so inappropriate at such a young age that I was so confused about what I was accountable for, what did I put myself into, where was I, was I a part of things. We were children," she said.
This might have contributed to Barrymore’s wild issues growing up, frequenting clubs like Studio 54 at a young age, and being exposed to alcohol and drugs.
Christina Ricci
Christina Ricci was only 10 when she had her breakout role in The Addams Family and 13 when she did Casper.
But despite being young, she was already pushed into doing a role that emphasized sexuality before she was even old enough to fully understand it. Ricci ended up playing dark or mature roles that made her look in unsettling ways.
“I remember there being a review of The Opposite of Sex where they described me as having a ‘slutty physique.’ I was seventeen when I made that movie,” she told The New Yorker. “And I just felt, like, This is an adult, a respected film critic, and this is what they're allowed to say about me?”
So, when she matured, she deliberately took on more provocative roles to reclaim control of her image on her own terms.
Ariel Winter
Ariel Winter was only 11 years old when she first joined the cast of Modern Family as Alex Dunphy. As a young star who grew up in front of the camera, with the show running for 11 seasons until 2020, she often dealt with scrutiny about her appearance—even as a teenager.
When she walked an SAG red carpet event in 2014 at 15, E! News wrote a story about “Ariel Winter’s Cleavage Is Out of Control on the SAG Awards Red Carpet.”
“Walking down the red carpet and seeing the photos afterward and having every headline be about my cleavage and not about my talent,” she said. “Not about what I was really there for or anything that I wanted to be put out there.”
She also talked about how her body was criticized and objectified as her body developed despite being still a minor.
“It was automatically ‘You’re a fat slut.’ ‘You’re a whore,’” she continued. She also found it rough to be called a “fat slut” at 13.
Millie Bobby Brown
Millie Bobby Brown was 12 years old when she did the first season of Stranger Things. At the ripe age of 13, she was already pictured in a magazine that read “Why TV Is Sexier Than Ever.”
Sadly, the sexualisation only worsened from there. In fact, there was even a TikTok trend that counted down to her 18th birthday.
And when she finally reached the legal age, the media and public treatment had changed.
“[I’ve] definitely been dealing with [being sexualized] more — definitely seeing a difference between the way people act and the way that the press and social media have reacted to me coming of age,” she said on The Guilty Feminist podcast.
Now that she is 21, the obsession with her appearance has reached disturbing levels.
These revelations prove that the sexualisation of young actors in Hollywood has been going on for decades—and continues to occur both on and off set, as well as across networks. That said, there has been a growing call for stricter regulations to protect young performers, recognizing that such exploitation can have lasting psychological and professional impacts.