Whenever we get an update about a former reality TV child star, my heart breaks a little bit for them. I’m talking children from The Duggars, Jon & Kate Plus Eight, and even Teen Mom, just to name a few. And don’t even get me started on the kids who are exploited by their parents on YouTube. Teen Vogue just did in-depth interviews with several former child stars on what it was like growing up on reality TV. Issues include the lack of protection and compensation for underage reality stars, not knowing whom to trust, and the bond that forms between siblings. We know that the Gosselins haven’t exactly had a happy ending; Colin and Hannah have been living with their dad, Jon Gosselin, for years and are no-contact with their mom, Kate Gosselin. Hannah is one of the former child stars who was interviewed. She talked about what it was like to have a film crew move into your house and film you 24/7.
In Hannah Gosselin’s memories of her childhood, the film crew was always there, ready to document the lives of her family for the reality tv show Jon & Kate Plus 8. The show, the most-watched episode of which netted more than 10 million viewers, revolved around Gosselin, now 21, and her seven siblings, made up of a set of sextuplets and a set of twins. For a time, the film crew even lived above the family’s garage in a detached apartment. It wasn’t until Gosselin and her siblings went to elementary school and paparazzi showed up at the bus stop to capture footage that she realized other kids weren’t constantly followed by film crews.
Gosselin is one of a new generation of children, some of whom are now adults, who were raised in front of the prying eyes of a reality television camera. From Jon & Kate Plus 8 to shows like Real Housewives and 90 Day Fiancé, tens of millions of reality television viewers have watched the entire lives of children unfold from babyhood to elementary school to puberty and beyond. While audiences find entertainment and intrigue in their favorite reality shows, there are few legal protections for the kids at the center of the plots, their privacy sometimes traded for little, or even no financial gain.
The kids of reality television have had their lives changed by filming, and not necessarily by their own choice. They’ve lost privacy; they’ve gained fame; their lives have shifted and morphed through the view of the camera lens. When Gwendlyn Brown, of Sister Wives fame, was 9 years old and home sick from school, she says a fan knocked on her front door and asked if she could hug her. Gosselin sometimes wonders what would have become of her now infamously divorced parents if they hadn’t done reality television. Noelle Robinson, who spent her childhood and adolescence on Real Housewives of Atlanta, finds making friends difficult because she questions if their motives are genuine, or if they’re just trying to get a piece of the spotlight.
And yet – knowing what they know now, would they do it all over again? The answer was a resounding, “yes.”
Hannah was basically born into reality TV. The first time she appeared on television in a documentary about her family, she was only 15-months-old (though the episode featured footage from when Hannah and her siblings were in utero). By the time she was 3, Gosselin was a mainstay on TLC’s blockbuster show Jon & Kate Plus 8. Gosselin grew up always having a film crew around – at one point, they even moved in, living in an apartment above the Gosselin garage. Hannah remembers the crew as always present, a part of the family. “That was our normal,” she says. Her life was shockingly public, but it was what she was used to.
Gosselin and her siblings grew from bumbling toddlers into awkward adolescents in front of the cameras. Going through puberty was especially difficult; even if she was in a bad mood or had a pimple on her teenaged face, the cameras were still there. “You’re always surrounded,” Gosselin remembers. “The film crew was there 24/7.” Making friends was difficult, with Gosselin wondering if people actually wanted to be her friend or just wanted to be on TV. She watched as her parents’ relationship, which ended in a divorce that was splashed across tabloid covers, appeared to be changed by filming.
“[Filming] made my siblings and I closer to each other, even though it made my parents further from each other,” she says. “It’s hard to go back and watch my parents argue.”
And the cameras were almost always there, catching arguments, makeups, and everything in between. After school, the cameras filmed the kids until late at night. In the morning, they were there again, capturing the chaos of getting eight kids to school on time. “School mornings are stressful as it is,” Gosselin says, with the presence of the cameras only exacerbating the race to get lunches packed and breakfasts eaten. Those were the moments she would wish the cameras weren’t there.
In the face of the ever-present cameras, Gosselin and her siblings found loopholes to the constant filming, like when they realized that footage couldn’t be used if they said a name brand because of trademark and product placement issues. If the siblings ever wanted to say something that they didn’t want to end up on TV, one of them would say a brand name over and over while the other did or said whatever they wanted. Eventually, the crew caught on and told them to stop.
But Gosselin doesn’t know anything different and she wouldn’t change it. If she misses her siblings, she pulls up clips of the shows to watch. When she tells a friend about a memory from childhood, she Googles it and lets them watch the footage instead of relying on her description. The show brought opportunity she wouldn’t have had otherwise, even if it did add stress in parts of her life. It also gave her a paycheck, and made the industry more regulated for kids like her.
The child labor laws in Pennsylvania were changed in part as a result of the Gosselin kids’ involvement in filming Jon & Kate Plus 8, resulting in legal and financial protections for child actors and reality stars that left Hannah Gosselin with enough money to pay for about half of her college education. In return, she and her family members have become tabloid fixtures, with the most innocuous of sibling hang-outs making headlines.
I’ve never realized that the youngest Gosselins were only three years old when it all really started. I cannot imagine being a pre-schooler and having to grow up with the awareness that people are watching you. Children are still figuring out how to work through their big emotions at those crucial ages. Imagine what having a film crew around 24/7 must have felt like. It’s remarkable that Hannah is able to speak about her unconventional childhood with such grace.
I also feel awful for how it tore her family apart. I’m so sorry that she has to watch old TV clips whenever she misses the six siblings that she has no contact with. I also really hate it for Hannah that she wonders if her parents would still be married if it wasn’t for the show. They were pretty obviously incompatible, but who knows what would have happened without the TLC factor. I hope the Gosselin children iare able to overcome the trauma from their childhoods.
I can’t imagine what it would be like to grow up with no privacy – it makes me itch all over just to think about it.
It’s just awful when kids are treated like commodities.
I wish parents stopped to consider agency when posting pics etc online.
Kids can’t consent.
That guy, Aaron Ruptar (whatever his last name is), everyone loves him.
He has a kid he posted about every so often, then more frequently, & then he posted her sitting on her new potty (clothed but still) & it was like come on.
She’s a person. How do you know how she will feel years later? No respect for privacy, dignity.
Kids aren’t playthings. We don’t own our children, we are just stewards until they care for themselves.
Hard agree Just Me – our culture seems to despise the idea of consent for women and children. Unfortunately – I don’t believe Hannah has even begun to unpack how this has affected her and her sibs – but only time will tell. As adorable as these kids are on tv and social media, I’ve stopped following anyone who actively shows and/or uses their kids as content.
I paid for half of her college education??? The family made so much money during their prime. They had spinoff shows too. She should be walking away with much more than only half of her college education for all that has been sold. I blame her parents.
When Kate moved to North Carolina when the youngest kids were in high school, she “borrowed” $50k from each of Hannah and Collin’s trust accounts ($100k total) for her own living/moving expenses. This is when Jon had full time custody of them. He tried going to court, but by the time it when before a judge, Hannah and Collin were 18 and the judge said they had to be the ones to sue. I’m not sure if their trust funds have been repaid or not.
These poor children, she should have home movies to look back on, not a professionally produced tv show designed to make a lot of adults a lot of money.
I can’t wait for us to (hopefully) get past this obsessive cult of celebrity. Let’s go back to valuing privacy.
The parents of these children should be ashamed. Selling out their childhood for what?! “Paid for half the college tuition” that is NOTHING for a show that ran for years and had millions of viewers an episode! I would be suing asking Kate “b**** where’s my money?”!
Wow. If she misses her siblings she watches old clips from the TV show. I mean, wow.
😳