Film: Twentieth Century Women (2016). Young Actress: Elle Fanning, age 17.

This film centers around divorced single mother Dorothea (Annette Bening), who's running a boarding house and raising her fifteen-year-old son Jamie (Lucas Jade Zumann, 2.5 years Elle's junior) alone in 1979 Santa Barbara. Concerned about Jamie growing up without a father, ( Read more... )

Film: An American Haunting (2005). Young Actress: Rachel Hurd-Wood, age 14.

Set in 1817 Tennessee, An American Haunting follows the Bell family, who earn the enmity of an alleged local witch (Gaye Brown) after their father John (Donald Sutherland, The Hunger Games) wins against her in a court case. Soon after the case, poltergeist activity begins ( Read more... )

Film: Fear (1996). Young Actresses: Alyssa Milano, 23, and Reese Witherspoon, 19.

It's hard to pinpoint even one minute of this movie that isn't completely over-the-top and ridiculous. The plot is an absurd, badly-written love story turned horror story between 16-year-old Nicole (Reese) and David (a young Mark Wahlberg, The Lovely Bones, about ( Read more... )

A few former young actresses attended the 58th Annual Grammy Awards, held last Monday, February 15, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles.


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A former child star, Jena Malone declared “emancipation” from her parents at age 14, so she’s no softie. But until Sucker Punch, the 25-year-old actress never made a movie that required so much physical toughness and overt sexuality. Jena and her Sucker Punch castmates (including two other former child actresses, Emily Browning and Vanessa Hudgens) ( Read more... )

Since the official release of Willow Smith's widely-anticipated single "Whip My Hair" on October 26, there have been plenty of accusations of nepotism - Willow is the daughter of Hollywood supercouple Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith - as well as charges that the video is over-the-top, even inappriopriate, for a 9-going-on-ten-10-old girl. (Willow ( Read more... )

Think about the child actresses who became grounded, successful adult stars. Bright, talented Natalie Portman has to be near the top of that list, right? But as an interview Natalie did last year proved, even the most well turned-out child actresses aren't without their share of problems. It's how they handle those problems that separates the ( Read more... )

A list of a few films in which a young actress handles firearms. To clarify, I've included only films where the girls handle the guns for a significant period of time. For example, Addy Miller in The Secret Life of Bees (where she played the young Dakota Fanning) isn't included because she touched the gun for only a few seconds ( Read more... )

The new film The Runaways (set to open wide April 9) is really all about "sex, drugs and rock and roll," as Joan Jett said at the film's press conference. Let's hit sex first: We all know by now that young stars Kristen Stewart, 19, and Dakota Fanning, 16, share a big wet kiss onscreen, but that isn't the only racy thing this film has to offer. ( Read more... )

Film: Firestarter (1984). Young Actress: Drew Barrymore, 8.

You've probably heard of Firestarter: it was one of little Drew Barrymore's first lead roles, after she shot to stardom for her supporting role in E.T. Here she plays Charlie, a little girl with extremely powerful pyrokinesis, hunted by a group of government agents who want to study her ( Read more... )