Tea. That’ the first word that comes to mind when I think about this book and its contents. I made it my goal this year to get into more nonfiction title, just a personal goal of mine. I decided to start with this book because I thought it would be a fun read. I thought it would be like listening to a podcast. You know, those podcasts that have been coming more abundant nowadays where childhood tv starts will reminisce on there, youth growing up in the entertainment industry, and how that affected them as children, like a high school reunion that never ends. This book felt exactly like that.

I’ve always had an interest in the entertainment industry ever since I was a kid because it just seemed like a fun working environment, where people were allowed to express their creative abilities… or at least that’s what the media made me believe when I was growing up from the ages of 6-to-13. And I guess that sort of brainwashing did work for me until…I know…gained consciousness. I grew up as an only child with cable so most of my childhood when it wasn’t spent at daycare socializing with the children, or if I got bored with my toys and video games, was spent watching TV and movies. From Nickelodeon to Cartoon Network to Disney Channel, channel is 45, 64 and 66 were kept on a constant rotation in my household. And the childhood stars on their shows where my idols growing up but their circumstances or anything but idealistic.

This era of Disney Channel what’s my childhood and of course I would hear about the scandalous lives of these child actors in passing, not fully understand understanding what the big deal is. There was a time when my mom told me “you’re too young for Disney Channel.“ I was confused you let me watch Mickey Mouse all day, but once Hannah Montana comes on the screen that’s where we draw the line? For me the first inkling of finding a relatable black girl on television was Raven Baxter or Penny Proud. I was a kid obsessed with music of course I’m gonna watch Disney Channel where they have the best musical movies, and a girl that gets to be a pop-star by night? Sign me up.

As I entered my tween era, that’s when I started understanding what the gossip actually was. Why Demi Lovato chose to leave Disney Channel? Why adults had some weird vendetta against Miley Cyrus? the drama that was happening between Demi Lovato, Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez, and the Jonas Brothers minus Kevin. But I assumed all of it was just celebrity, gossip rumors, and drama. this book did solidify how much of it was actually true which a lot of it was. How Hilary Duff was truly Disney channels it girl and for me that’s not the case at all. No hate to Hilary Duff but I feel like when we talk No hate to Hilary Duff but I feel like when we talk about the conversation around who the idiot girl of Disney Channel was no one ever brings up Hillary, despite the amount of influence she had on young white girls. I guess for some millennials Hilary Duff was their girl but for younger millennials to Gen Z their girl was Miley Cyrus or Selena Gomez or Raven Simone. Not to get sidetracked, but if I was on the set of Lizzie McGuire probably would not be friends with younger Hilary Duff, and that’s my hot take.

I wasn’t blind to the conversations of working in the entertainment industry, but this book really gives a behind the scenes history lesson about what was actually going on with recounts of events from people who worked on set giving their two cents of events, along with anecdotes of the child stars as they share this information on their platforms. Especially for someone like me who wasn’t into celebrities like that as a kid. Now, childhood actors are coming out about the horrible experiences. They had as children now that they had the chance to talk about it documentaries like “Quiet On Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV“ confirming about the horrible years of Nickelodeon that we already knew of. I think this book does a good job of trying to paint Disney as not so much the bad guys as Nickelodeon when it comes to the working conditions in child labor laws. People like Alison Stoner, using the power that they have to help children in the industry. It’s not far off we will get a documentary about the children who are growing up in the era of influencers and how they have to deal with their parents. We are already seeing the ramifications of how they were being raised. The rose colored glasses has been taking off.

I still have love for the creative aspect of the entertainment industry, and how these shows came to be, the politics behind all of it, how the actress who plays Trina on Victorious was originally supposed to be Hannah Montana. Now I’m wondering if the people who worked on Hannah Montana also worked on Victorious because on Hannah Montana they were going to make Jackson, Miley’s older brother character, walk around with a puppet and then they scratch that idea because it was ridiculous and now we have the character Robbie on Victorious walking around with a puppet for some reason…

Anyway, something I wanted to delve into on this Bindery is Book to Screen adaptations. We will pick a book to read that has been adapted to TV or film and then react and discuss to the contents of that adaptation. What piece of literature we would want to see adaptive it hasn’t been adapted already. What has changed in the media from the original source material? And maybe possibly some discussions of somebody’s writing…I’m not sure who but somebody’s been script writing for funnies…I don’t know it could be anybody… so you can stay tuned for that in the Romance and Reverie tier…I don‘t know (tucks hair behind ear)

But anyway, did you read this book? Did you like this book? Did you hate it? Did you already know everything there needs to know about the tween drama of the childhood stars? Was this your era of television or were you into something completely different? Are you intrigued by the entertainment industry? Are you in a book the screen adaptation? And what non-fiction book should I read next?