Thursday, March 17, 2011

"Rise of the Chadults"?

10 years old... Willow Smith - daughter of Will and Jada (Pinkett) Smith - pop star signed to a label with a debut album on the way: Whip my Hair...

12 years old... Elle Fanning - little sister of Dakota Fanning -actress

13 years old... Ava Sambora - daughter of Heather Locklear and Bon Jovi – model who made her debut at the 2010 LA Fashion Week...

13 years old... Kylie Jenner – model and reality TV starlet with a Sears commercial and numerous Vogue Teen interviews to her name...

14 year old actress, Hailee Steinfeld, 15 year old front row seat fashion blogger, Colby Jordan, 15 year old model and reality TV starlet, Kendall Jenner; the list goes on and on.

Is it success or is it ludicrous? Whatever happened to “you crawl before you walk”?

They’re superrich, ultrafamous, megatalented... and er, still children. Welcome to the terrifying new breed of ubercelebrities we’re calling the Chadults... (Heat magazine)

There she was, Christina Aguilera, in the worst shape I’ve ever seen her. Well, that is until you turn to page 5 of issue 354 of Heat magazine. By the look of it something has gone horribly wrong somewhere. She seems to have gone from booming teen pop star (starting at 18yr), to sex symbol, to a boyfriend, to marriage (Nov 05) with a kid (born early 2008) and then off the rocker to Never Never Land after having filed for divorced in Oct 2010. This leaves her 1 and a half year old son (pretty much) without a mother while she is off drowning her sorrows in booze with her new fling, Matthew Rutler. What happened, Christina? Baby blues..?

Similarly, there is Britney Spears. She started her phenomenal career at age 16 and she started off really well. However, it didn’t take too long before the innocent little school girl also became a cheap sex symbol that, if I was a mother, I wouldn’t want my teenage daughter to idolise – s-c-a-r-y stuff. Sadly amongst her list of achievements you also find two failed marriages, two small children that lost their mother due to drugs, alcohol and loose living. At one time I saw a music video of her portraying a suicidal girl because a boyfriend has left her, based on the song lyrics. I remember thinking, “My goodness! She didn’t happen to life; life happened to her.” How sad. Yes, maybe she is recovering right now, but not untouched by the emotional scars and garbage that she’s picked up along the way.

Do you think that the level of falling apart has to do with how much money you have: after all, a lifestyle of parties, clubs, excessive alcohol, ruined outfits, drugs, etc. does not come cheap, you know?

These are just two examples. I’m sure there are ample more.

But nowadays children are not children anymore. They seem to born with a Blackberry glued to the ear, a laptop, a mic and a checking account, two lawyers and an agent and before you know it sex is jiving to beat box rhythms. Sometimes, heaven knows, I don’t think you can call it music, but in the 21st century it is a renowned fact that sex sells.

Is this ”progress” in changed times or is the innocence of the youth ruined prematurely? It is possible that they have more talent than they have time to learn and grow the character to support it? Therefore being incapable of dealing with the level of success that is achieved, with it all the responsibilities, money and adult emotions that accompany it. It doesn’t matter how successful they become, up to a certain age they are still just children, and instead of having solid, grounded adults, we have adults who yearns to act like children when they are in their 20’s and 30’s (and even beyond). This saddens me. What do you think these “adults” will be teaching the next generation babies? You cannot give away what you yourself don’t have or would they say, “pour me another one, mr Barman”.

In the end you have nothing but a bunch of frivolous superrich, ultrafamous, megatalented... er, children. A terrifying new breed indeed!

Now, I understand that we cannot go back to the days that children played with clay oxen, dolls, toy cars and tea sets and cowboys and crooks has long gone been classified with the dinosaur age, but isn’t this a little extreme? In time the older “wiser” generation will have nothing to teach the next generation because they themselves never learned.

A terrifying new breed indeed!

Picture sources: http://quizilla.teennick.com/ - http://thewritingnut.com/ - http://taletela.com/ - http://thehairstyle.org/ - http://wikipedia.org/

2 comments:

  1. Oh my, that's extremely extreme!

    xxx

    ReplyDelete
  2. I can't decide whether I should be impressed or sad, Cindy :(

    ReplyDelete