Alyson Stoner’s memoir Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything tackled their dark realities as a child actor in the entertainment industry. But nowadays, they’re ready to move on from the experiences that made up their adolescence.
The actor, and mint New York Times-bestselling author, rose to fame during their early career as a child, notably taking part in a handful of beloved Disney projects. Stoner, who uses they/them pronouns, was featured in 2006’s Step Up, lent their voice to Phineas and Ferb since 2007 and took on a leading role in both Camp Rock films.
In Semi-Well-Adjusted, Stoner reveals the underbelly of their time as a young actor, an experience they further reflected on in Demi Lovato’s documentary Child Star. Since the book’s mid-August release, the project has reached NYT-bestselling status. However, its contents have further pushed forward a conversation surrounding the dangers and perils surrounding those of child performers.
Below, in conversation with The Hollywood Reporter, Stoner reflects on Semi-Well-Adjusted’s success, the changes they think the entertainment industry needs to make sets safer for children and why writing the book turned out to be a “beautiful process of emptying my own mind from having to carry the stories myself.”
***
Semi-Well-Adjusted became an instant New York Times bestseller. In the video of you finding out, you said you were nervous, but looking back on that moment, how did it feel for you to learn this news?
Ah, it has a nice ring doesn’t it? “New York Times bestseller.” I felt a deep relief because I started researching seven years ago as I put together a book proposal. I wrote every day for 14 months straight. I wanted to do the book justice, but you can never control the outcome, so to have the effort yielding the intended result was so encouraging. It means even more that the book itself, while it leans on my personal narrative, is designed to be a genre-ending book. I’m hoping it’s the last book of its kind that needs to be written, because it’s addressing this toddler to train wreck pipeline in the industry with more of an ecosystem picture. So, I’m like, if there’s going to be one project that is met with this kind of response, I’m so glad it’s this one.
You open up about your experience growing up in the spotlight in this book, so what has the overall reception to sharing these experiences in Semi-Well-Adjusted felt like?
Something that became immediately apparent and is so satisfying as a writer is that every reader and listener is resonates with different aspects. I think people show up to the material with expectations of it focusing just on entertainment, and are surprised by the number of themes and topics tackled. To see the breadth of responses as someone who loves to complexify things, it’s really heartwarming and satisfying. And the responses are so intimate, so vulnerable. It’s been the most humanizing project after a lifetime of living, hiding behind a persona. It’s allowed for a different kind of transparency and camaraderie when I’m meeting people in person and we’re bonding over real, lived experiences, and not just characters that I portrayed, which is just exponentially more meaningful.
Over the past few years, there has been this recent intrigue in the experiences of child stars, and a lot of this interest is being driven by Hollywood itself. There have been a lot of documentaries recounting these experiences of child actors, and you even took part in one. Where do you think this recent interest in what young actors in the industry endure sparked?
Well, this is where we have to be mindful of whether we are fueling the fodder and perpetuating this exploitation by reducing someone’s experience to temporary entertainment, or if we’re surfacing issues and coupling it with proactive social and cultural movements. I think because we’re in an increasingly digital world, and everyone with a WiFi connection is experiencing these aspects of parasocial relationships and issues with privacy versus visibility, mental health challenges related to tech overuse, I think this matter is hitting closer to home as people grapple with questions of sharing photos and videos of their young children or loved ones, versus protecting their image and identity online. It doesn’t surprise me that the proximity corresponds to a greater interest in talking about it. What we have to make sure we don’t do is perpetuate the pipeline by leaving it at just a product for our entertainment and not some kind of catalyst for intervening. I think people are ready and want transparency and changes, and if they know that this isn’t just benefiting young performers, but it’s actually creating a healthier media culture for everyone at home as well. We all win through this. I think personalizing it for the viewer and not just the performer might lead to more interest in actually addressing the issue.
You co-founded the wellness platform Movement Genius, you speak about the industry on your podcast and you’re also a certified mental health coordinator for film, TV and stage productions. Why is it important for you to continue to push for change in this industry?
Specifically related to children, we have to contextualize this where we understand the industry was designed by and for adults, so it might not be intentionally harmful, it’s just inadvertently not developmentally informed or appropriate. I don’t expect storytellers and entertainers to also be licensed trauma specialists or child development experts, but now that research has come so far in these fields, we can apply that to the workspaces involving children. The sooner that production companies understand this does not interfere with their bottom line, it does not ruin the artistic expression, it’s actually giving a skeleton to the experience, some structure so that the humans can thrive, we’re actually setting it up for greater overall success.
When we’re shifting away from just supporting young people to supporting casts and crews, I think crew members are often overlooked and not presented with critical information about the jobs they’re hired for. For example, a crew member might be lighting the shot and not know what the scene is about, and they may be coming in with a particular lived experience and then subjecting themselves, accidentally or unexpectedly, to watching something that reminds them of a very painful memory. But there are simple adjustments, like putting a content memo on a call sheet to say, “Hey, this subject matter is going to be covered today, and there will be a coordinator on standby that you can reach out [to].” Then you can do other things, like making certain scenes a closed set [so certain shots] receive intimacy and hopefully prevent unnecessary harm along the way. The reality is, just like if you’re on a construction site and you need particular protocols for those hazards, entertainment has a smattering of psychological, emotional and physical risks and vulnerabilities. It feels obvious in the same way that intimacy coordinators should have existed forever ago, but now that we’re making progress, let’s just keep going.
Ariana Grande has said that all child stars should have therapy. You’ve spoken about your education and what that looked like for you as a child star. Are there any other off-set practices you think should be implemented?
Yes. I designed the Artist Wellbeing Essentials toolkit for young performers and their families, and it allows people to learn how to create their own 360 game plan, not just for moments on set, but also how to balance their education, socialization, making sure their finances and legal matters are set up appropriately. I do see a world where any adults working with minors go through some kind of particular training so that we know, oh, you’re certified, and you understand that working with a young person is not just about avoiding cursing. It is a fundamentally different experience, and topics like consent and boundaries and bodily autonomy can be covered. And then, of course, there’s always the legislative efforts. Those take longer, and they’re hard won, but they’re worth it.
One widespread headline that emerged from your book was your experience training to audition for The Hunger Games. When that excerpt was released through Vanity Fair, were you expecting that piece to evoke such a reaction from the public and the media?
Yes. The response was exactly what we prepared for. It stirred interest in exactly the way that’s needed to cut through the noise of a saturated market. And I trusted that people following through on their interest to buy the book would get the full story. In that regard, we’ve approached this entire campaign with such precision and care, and I have 25 years of navigating press outlets and conversations with media, and that absolutely has been an advantage in guiding people toward the core narrative that’s most important, the one that transcends the juicy headline, and fosters a much more thoughtful space for readers and listeners to reflect.
What was your reaction to how that piece of your book was received? Do you think that it signifies that we are pushing towards change, or does it signify that the media is still just focused on picking up very small pieces of a wider story?
I am hopeful based on several of the outlets who offered really compelling coverage, and who deeply understood the purpose of the book. Of course, there will always be salacious, clickbait driven headlines. We understand, and journalists and media teams took a chance on substance and it worked. If they can see that readers are more engaged when it isn’t just fodder, maybe it’ll encourage them to do that more often.
You also opened up about your experience working on Camp Rock. Now, having opened up, do you think that has shifted how you feel about the experience? Did writing this book give you any sense of closure?
The result of sharing intimate details from these key moments has been this beautiful process of emptying my own mind from having to carry the stories myself. So if anything, I feel liberated, and I think the book has provided a fresh slate for me to speak about my professional path and endeavors now as an adult, as an expert in other fields, and to be able to focus on the present and future. I think that’s been a beautiful byproduct of putting everything in permanent ink and saying, if you’d like to know, you can read all about that here, but if we’d like to talk about what we’re up to now, I’m here in the present with you to engage in that way.
Seeing the reception to Semi-Well-Adjusted, you’ve mentioned that you love writing, but would you want to write another book? What would that potentially look like for you?
I will continue writing across forums. I am already writing episodes for a certain project and working on some music-related writing. And I absolutely think there could be a second manuscript. I have some ideas on the topics (Laughs), but I think what made Semi-Well-Adjusted a lightning in the bottle moment was reading the zeitgeist and coupling that with my message and expertise. And I need to keep reading the room, just to see which message would be most valuable and where I could offer the most impact. But thankfully, I think I can set my past aside, which is so refreshing, and I can introduce myself as a New York Times best selling author, founder and CEO of Movement Genius and certified mental health practitioner. Love how that sounds.
***
Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything released on Aug. 12.