You can't blame parents for feeling a little wistful these days when we look at Miley Cyrus,Demi Lovato and Selena Gomez--the teen queens of the Disney Channel.
The girls, they are growing up. Each one turns 18 this year, and you know each one is going to, sooner or later, ditch the sort of sweet roles that made her a star. (And, uh, in Miley's case, that would be sooner.)
The world's never been kind to child stars, and this trio is so talented and so familiar that you can't help but feel a little bit parental toward them. Look both ways before you cross the street! Don't wash your white and colored laundry together! And always use a ... stylist with good taste!
In any case, parents, it's time to fasten your seatbelts. There could be some bumpy roads ahead -- particularly for those of us who have tweens who still want to watch and listen to these huge stars and don't exactly understand every aspect of this coming-of-age business.
You can't blame these multitalented stars for eyeing older audiences, of course. We all saw what happened when Fonzie was wearing the leather jacket far longer than he should've been -- even though Henry Winkler has more than redeemed himself with his work on "Arrested Development" and his terrific Hank Zipzer books for kids.
So really, the billion-dollar question is which of these girls will do it best?
Cyrus, the youngest of the bunch, has demonstrated how much she wants to swap out herHannah Montana persona for something sexy and edgy. She's doing that, for sure. Wearing little more than feathers, a Snooki bump and a leather leotard, she showed a big metal cage and a natural history museum that she could neither be tamed nor blamed for her uncontrollable wildness.
Many of her young fans objected to the newly vampy image, but her album, "Can't Be Tamed," was well received critically and made it into the top 10 on the Billboard Hot 100.
Meanwhile, late September brought another milestone for Selena Gomez. The star of "Wizards of Waverly Place," "Another Cinderella Story," "The Princess Protection Program," and this summer's big-screen hit, "Ramona and Beezus," has just released her sophomore album, "A Year Without Rain."
Gomez looks elegant and sounds terrific in the video, even if the song itself feels a tad more like a musical product than a truly original expression.
This is, of course, the risk anyone faces when they go from being an actress to a musician. It's even harder when you go from being a child star to an adult performer.
Fans have certain expectations of their favorite stars. And the stars themselves are used to presenting a certain image. As hard as it is for fans to separate themselves from those familiar roles, it has to be just as tough for a performer to know she's truly found her voice, as opposed to an extension of her brand handed to her by the people who manage her career.
My guess, though, is that Gomez's many fans will respond well to the effort. It's classy and catchy, and she manages to remain the girl everyone wants to be.
She's also handling herself incredibly well in the media -- far better than Miley Cyrus, who can't seem to keep her foot out of her mouth.
In interviews, Gomez comes across and sharp, grounded, and witty. To wit: At the Video Music Awards recently, one of the moronic stars of "Jersey Shore" said Gomez was the star he'd most like to meet -- "if she's 18."
When a reporter asked Gomez what she thought, she tactfully praised the show but said, "Tonight, I'm not 18 ... I do look forward to meeting them, but that's as far as it goes."
It was a perfectly witty response to a tacky observation and question.
Cyrus, by comparison, has had a few bad breaks, some of her own making, but many not. There's the bizarre publicity, such as news that the music on "Hannah Montana" gives a 12-year-old girl in Florida seizures.
And, of course, the leaked cell phone photos and videos (including the cringe-worthy one where she gave an adult a lap dance), not to mention the utterly goofy claim she made that she and her co-star and sometimes boyfriend, Liam Hemsworth, are "deeper than normal people -- what they think and how they feel."
What's most disturbing, though, is the way the paparazzi hound her.
A video making the rounds recently showed a group of them blocking her way when she and Demi Lovato were trying to leave a restaurant. While some gossipmongers claimed Cyrus overreacted to the harassment, any sane person would've gone nuts dealing with that. It's hard to think of any star who does their best work with that kind of attention.
That said, she was great as the voice of Penny in "Bolt." And though "The Last Song" wasn't a critical hit, it did well commercially and she's got three more films in the works. A lot of people want Miley Cyrus to succeed, and if she can get some control over her private life -- and stop trying to define herself when she talks to the press--she has a great shot.
The mystery of the trio, so far, might be the most talented of them all, though: Demi Lovato. She's a compelling presence onscreen, demonstrating a greater acting range than Cyrus and Gomez.
She hasn't quite stepped out of the Disney next yet. These days, she plays the lead in the comedy "Sonny With a Chance," about a girl who wins a role on her favorite TV show.
And her TV movie, "Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam" debuted Labor Day weekend with 8 million viewers, making it the highest-rated cable movie of the year so far. The soundtrack for that is climbing the charts.
Lovato also has two hugely successful solo albums under her belt, "Don't Forget," and "Here We Go Again," which debuted last July at No. 1 on Billboard's Top 200. And she has a third album on the way, which includes a song she wrote.
We might've gotten a sneak peek at her acting future from her portrayal of a potentially schizophrenic girl on "Grey's Anatomy." She was quite good. Her young fans would have nightmares over the show, but it was the kind of performance that marks the start of a legitimate grown-up career.
She'll also have the advantage of watching both Cyrus and Gomez step into new identities. She might learn a thing or two about what works and what doesn't.
In any case, it'll be interesting to watch. And then next year, we can do it all again becauseMiranda Cosgrove, the actress who plays iCarly on Nickelodeon, gets to blow out her own 18 candles.
Martha Brockenbrough is author of "Things That Make Us [Sic]," a guide to funny bad grammar, published by St. Martin's press. She also blogs about family life for Cozi.comand writes an educational humor column for Encarta.
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