Hilary Duff, as a teenager versus now                                                                     

                Buzzfeed

The Entertainment Industry is a Childhood Yard Sale 

BY JUSTIN WANG

SEPTEMBER 14, 2026, 8:00 A.M.

There is a kind of celebrity the Internet has been very good at producing in recent years: a person who is famous not only for what they do, but for being young while doing it. Recent examples include names like Zendaya, McKenna Grace, and Walker Scobell. Charli D’Amelio was only 15 when her TikTok career morphed her into one of the most defining pieces of the COVID-19 era. Olivia Rodrigo had only been 17 when she released drivers license, shaping her into one of the most influential artists  in the modern era.

But this phenomenon is not limited to actors, musicians or influencers; across entertainment and social media in general, adolescents are increasingly becoming public figures while they are still developing. Their talent or personality may be what initially attracts an audience, but their youth becomes part of the appeal as well. The attraction towards  young entertainers is that they are seemingly still in the process of deciding who they want to be.

There is something inherently compelling about watching a young person succeed. In fact, high schoolers are encouraged to network with professionals because of this very concept; their accomplishments can feel extraordinary because of their age. But that poses a less comfortable question: when audiences celebrate young celebrities, are they appreciating their talent, or are they also inadvertently consuming their youth?

“I think youth/childhood can be marketed and sold, but people want to see these entertainers grow—mainly because they are charming and people like to see them doing what they love,” Senior Brianna Zheng said.

Brianna argues that young people are not successful simply because they are young; after all, many accomplished figures in the industry would have not been in their position had they not have put in time and effort to be there. Yet, sometimes, when youth itself contributes to someone’s appeal, the boundary between appreciating a young person’s talent and commodifying their childhood becomes increasingly difficult to define.

However, maybe this issue extends beyond the celebrity sphere; perhaps the commodification of youth begins with the things they consume.

Junior Allison Huang argues that childhood itself is surrounded by products and expectations that teach children what growing up is supposed to look like.

“Childhood youth is sold through turning kids into premature consumers and brands defining what a childhood should look like,” Huang says. “Not [just] any dolls but Barbie dolls, not [just] any toys but Nerf Guns, otherwise you didn’t have the childhood that everyone else did.”

From the products associated with childhood to the industries built around maintaining youth in adulthood, age itself becomes a prize with commercial value. Young celebrities exist within that same cycle; their youth can make them aspirational and marketable, while eventual aging becomes another part of the public narrative. Plenty of child entertainers—Macaulay Culkin (Home Alone), Jennette McCurdy (iCarly), Shirley Temple (Baby Burlesks)—have seen their relationships with the industry change as they grew older. What begins as fascination with a young person’s talent can become an expectation that they remain the version of themselves audiences first came to admire.

Young people deserve to be celebrated for their talents, yet their innocence often becomes part of the product. Those who contribute to the entertainment industry—the consumers, producers, the celebrities themselves—sometimes may sell the person behind the performances, forcing an unhealthy work/life balance on young entertainers.

The consequences of that commodification, however, are not always visible from the audience’s perspective.

In an episode of Feeding Starving Celebrities with Quenlin Blackwell, Charli D’Amelio reflects on the pressure of growing up under public scrutiny, saying, “I was like, ‘I’m such a disappointment…the kids are going to want to do [the things I did] and it’s all my fault.” Her words reveal the burden of being marketed to millions and becoming a product all while still figuring out who she was.

The entertainment industry is like a childhood yard sale: the price tag may change, but the audience is always shopping.