It takes a village to raise a child—and to make sure the tale of childhood stardom has a happy resolution when the dust settles. Actress Jodie Sweetin credits “normal” parents—who don’t hunger for fame themselves—for ensuring their child star grows up to have a good head on their shoulders.
As the second-youngest daughter in ABC’s Full House, Sweetin lived many of her formative years in front of the camera lens. From the time she was five untils he was 13, Sweetin was the face of the smart-mouthed Stephanie Tanner. If the life of young stardom wasn’t remarkable enough, Sweetin’s family situation was anything but traditional too. Yet she would see firsthand how impactful it was to have a level-headed adult parental figure guiding the way.
Jodie Sweetin discusses the importance of child actors having normal parents who don’t want fame
The advent of social media is a relatively new thing, but life in the spotlight can put a person’s entire life and character on display—and thus subject them to praise, adoration, vitriol, scrutiny, and the like. Effectively, before social media, fame was a social media of its own power. So, what happens when a child gets thrown into that world? The answer can vary greatly, but the tone can be triumphant or tragic.
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“When you see the kids that grew up in this business that turned out to be fairly normal, well-rounded people,” Sweetin noted, speaking with TODAY. “they all have really normal parents, who didn’t want to be in the business themselves.”
The opposite can also be said, Sweetin warned; when parents try to live vicariously through their kids, the ones to suffer most are those children. “They’re like, ‘I tried to be famous, but it didn’t work out, so now it’s your turn,’” said Sweetin. She has even been told by some people “I had a kid because I wanted them to be famous.”
Sweetin is glad social media did not reign supreme when Full House was filming. “When I was nine, I had teeth coming out of every direction,” she recalled. “I was very self-conscious of it at the time, and if that had been the thing that was getting made fun of online? That would have destroyed me.” Things were already dangerous enough, as she and John Stamos were among the cast members to face death threats and require a security team while filming.
An unorthodox path through life
Sweetin had already been exposed to the idea of life never looking quite as clean-cut as it does in media. Both parents of the California native had actually been in prison in her early life and she was adopted by her uncle, raised as an only child.
Life as a star would prove to be as much a rollercoaster—even moreso, to an extent. Sweetin has been transparent about her addiction struggles, which began when she was 14, a year after Full House ended.
“It was a huge shift in my life,” recounted Sweetin, who grew addicted to several drugs, including crystal meth. “Everything I had known from the time I was 5 years old suddenly ended and it was like saying goodbye to a family I had loved very, very much. At such a young age it really was a huge loss for me, I didn’t know how to grieve. Drugs and alcohol just sort of numbed everything.” Sweetin achieved sobriety as of 2011 and now counsels others going through a similar journey with drugs and alcohol.
