The Dark Side of the Limelight

Many of us are quick to judge the likes of Justin Bieber, Kendal Jenner and Jaden Smith, but we often forget the challenges that young celebrities like them have when they have been raised in the limelight.

Many young celebrities like Bieber are often labelled as self-centred or obnoxious, social media particularly provides the public a chance to hurl abusive comments at celebrities they don’t like. It is easy to forget that whilst they may seemingly lead more glamorous lives and have the trappings of wealth it is morally questionable that people find it acceptable to abuse stars simply because they are exposed to them.

When someone grows up with the media paying attention to everything they do that immediately impacts them. It warps their childhood and that comes with its own set of difficulties that are often overlooked.  Any comment or mistake they make is constantly scrutinised by the media and showcased to the world. Their sense of privacy is massively infringed upon at times and they are essentially treated as human commodities.

Many female artists are lambasted about how they look, ‘they are too fat’, ‘they are too skinny’, young stars like Selena Gomez receive comments like that in the thousands.  It is rare someone looks at their point of view and considers the impact that waves of hateful remarks would have on them. Celebrities are so far removed from our reality they are no longer treated as ‘people’.

The pressures of appearing to be a certain way is a constant strain on them and it is unsurprising that stars like Demi Lovato suffer mentally and develop eating disorders as a result of their image being criticised.

Macaulay Culkin is someone who constantly had to live with the tag of ‘that kid from Home Alone’. No matter what he did after that point, that reputation and fame carried on and that can have massive psychological implications. A person is no longer treated as who they are as an individual but as the character or persona they portray.

To conclude it is important to remember that although it can be seen to be harmless fun to insult or cruelly joke about a young celebrity the words you post can be seen. Why is it acceptable to antagonise someone just because they have fame? Famous people are still people at the end of the day.