Top Female Entertainers Are Getting Younger
It's not easy being a girl. Grades. Boys. Peer pressure. Parents. International concert tours. Personal clothing lines. Big-budget pirate movies.
Meet the new Powerpuff Girls, a league of superheroines that includes Hilary Duff, the Olsen twins, Keira Knightley, Raven and an ever-growing number of recruits who are learning to deal with worldwide fame at about the same time they're learning how to drive.
The entertainment business always has been fascinated by the young, but never before have young women had this much clout.
In 1992, the average age of leading ladies in the 10 highest- grossing movies was 33. Last year, the average age was only 25, with such stars as 20-year-old Kirsten Dunst (Spider-Man), 21-year-old Natalie Portman (Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones) and 13-year-old Emma Watson (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets).
In the music industry, girls no longer just want to have fun. They want to have megahits.
Beyonce Knowles, who turned 21 in September, is this year's Queen of Pop. Britney Spears celebrated her 22nd birthday recently with an album that debuted at No. 1.
Contrast that with 1983, when only one solo artist 21 or younger, Irene Cara, made the year's Top 100 singles chart. In 1993, there were two. Last year there were 10, including Avril Lavigne (18), Michelle Branch (19), LeAnn Rimes (20) and Kelly Clarkson (20).
And look out for an even younger generation, headed by Ms. Duff, 16, who has a hit film (The Lizzie McGuire Movie) and two million- selling albums this year.
"I just think the times are changing," said 17-year-old Amanda Bynes, who has her own TV sitcom, What I Like About You, and saw her 2003 movie, What a Girl Wants, take in an impressive $36 million at the box office.
There are 32 million teenagers in the United States - more than during the peak of the baby boom - and many of them are getting a pretty impressive allowance.
According to Sid Holt, the editor in chief of Adweek magazine, teens spent $170 billion last year, 40 percent on clothes. In addition, children influenced about $245 billion in household spending.
Magazine racks are filled with such titles as Cosmo Girl, Teen Vogue, YM and Teen People, and 16-year-old girls can get a cover shot before they pose for senior-class pictures.
Why aren't American boys getting the same star treatment? For one thing, they tend to spend a bit less than girls - $83 a week, on average, compared with $92 for girls, according to Rob Callender, the senior trends manager for Teenage Research Unlimited in Northbrook, Ill.
But it's not just money talking. Boys are more elusive from a marketing standpoint, Mr. Holt said, so advertisers try to reach them through niche strategies, such as skateboarding magazines and events such as the X-Games. Cool, but not exactly the kinds of things that make Hollywood salivate.
Today's female role models - at least as far as the entertainment industry is concerned - are different from the cooing girl groups of the 1960s or the bubble gum-smacking mall queens of the 1980s.
"Kids want to grow up faster. A 12-year-old today is like a 22-year-old was in the '50s," said Dan Schneider, the producer who cast Miss Bynes in Nickleodeon's All That when she was 11.
Steve Moore, the director of public relations for Claritas Inc., a San Diego company that provides marketing research to Fortune 500 companies, said he thinks the young stars have too much influence. He recalled going to a bar to watch Monday Night Football recently and being shocked by the clothes on the teenage waitresses.
"They all have a tattoo somewhere, with hip-hugging pants down to their hips, showing off their midriffs. It's unbelievable," he said. "The media has a lot to do with how they behave."
Even some in the spotlight are worried about getting burned. Emily VanCamp, a 17-year-old actress who plays the primary love interest on WB's Everwood, said the industry likes young performers because they're easier to mold and manipulate.
"Someone I work with said, `Emily, you're the sex symbol of this show. You have to understand that.' I said, `No, I'm 17. I'm not a sex symbol, and I don't want to portray that,' " she said. "If you're in the public eye, you're a role model no matter what. You have certain responsibilities."
Artists who waited until they were in their 20s to enter the business said they're glad they didn't have those kinds of pressures when they were teenagers.
Jessica Capshaw, the daughter of actress Kate Capshaw and stepdaughter of director Steven Spielberg, opted to wait on her career and attend college. She says she wouldn't give up that experience for a million dollars.
"Some people have a great time going out to every single club in Los Angeles, and that's their bliss," said Miss Capshaw, a cast member of ABC's The Practice. "Mine was being at the Rockefeller Library at Brown University."
It's hard to believe that Miss Knightley is only 18, especially after the year she's had. She appeared in three major movies - Bend It Like Beckham, Pirates of the Caribbean and Love Actually - and also found time for a public-TV production of Doctor Zhivago. She played Lara, the role Julie Christie had in David Lean's 1965 epic film version.
Ideally, Miss Knightley said, she would have gone to college before becoming a movie star. But that's a risk she couldn't afford to take.
"Acting is not a profession in which you can say (that) because I'm being offered the jobs today, I'm not necessarily going to be offered them tomorrow," she said. "There's a point where you have to go for your dreams and just see how far they take you."
