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Bella Thorne’s life as a child star came with a harsh reality: Hollywood expected her to be a kid on screen and an adult everywhere else.
Thorne began working in entertainment as a child, appearing as a model before taking on television roles in shows including HBO’s “Big Love.” Her major breakthrough arrived in 2010 when she was cast as CeCe Jones opposite Zendaya’s Rocky Blue in Disney Channel’s “Shake It Up.”
“You’re … spending all of your hours a day on set with adults, you know, that is – it’s like such a different, the brain’s like how do I–” Thorne explained during an appearance on “Call Her Daddy.”
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Bella Thorne reflected on the pressures of growing up in Hollywood during a recent appearance on Alexandra Cooper’s podcast. (Getty Images)
“And I’m expected to be this child, but I’m also working like hours like an adult and being in adult conversations,” she added. “And when I f–k up it’s my bad, not like a child – It’s my bad. Like you’re an adult, it’s your bad.”
But navigating those adult expectations while growing up in the public eye didn’t come easily for Thorne.
“Well, I think people can see how I’ve managed it publicly,” she told host Alexandra Cooper. “They can see it, they’ve got photos of it. Oh, they got all the photos. Oh, wow. I don’t know that I ever handled it or balanced it out correctly.”
“I don’t think that I ever had that mental clarity,” Thorne acknowledged. “I’ve worked a lot on the more recent side. I got to a point where I just needed to kind of change things in my life and get better at – I was working so much and yet was leaving very little time for the things that I really, really cared about.”
Bella Thorne rose to Disney Channel fame alongside Zendaya after starring in “Shake It Up” as CeCe Jones. (Craig Sjodin/Disney Channel via Getty Images)
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Thorne said she spent the past two years working to prioritize her mental health, a shift that became especially important after “Color Your Hurt” left her feeling emotionally drained. The now 28-year-old actress revealed she finally gave herself “some space to breathe” along with grace.
“I don’t think I ever did that when I was younger,” she said.
While Thorne struggled to give herself that same grace as a child star, she recalled feeling a dramatic shift when she turned 18.
Bella Thorne said she felt a sense of freedom when she turned 18 after years of working as a child actor. (Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images)
“…I was like, ‘I’m free,'” the “Midnight Sun” star recalled.
“Like I’m literally free. Like I’m walking into this house and no one’s asking me when I’m like, when I’m gonna be there, when this time or when I’m gonna leave. It … was such a weird – and you don’t know what’s weird until someone else tells you it’s weird.”
Thorne also spoke candidly about being compared to her fellow Disney Channel stars, including Selena Gomez, Miley Cyrus and Demi Lovato.
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Bella Thorne said comparisons to fellow Disney stars including Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato began when she was just 12. Pictured with Zendaya. (Craig Sjodin/Disney Channel via Getty Images)
“I didn’t so much hang out with people from the network,” Thorne recalled. “I hung out with Zendaya, we hung out … ‘Shake It Up’ was in a different time when Miley and Selena and Demi and those shows – They were all, I think 16, 17 when we were starting. So the eras are so different, and yet they intersect.”
She said people questioned whether she would become Disney’s next “bad girl,” something she struggled to comprehend at such a young age.
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Bella Thorne opened up about the mental-health work she has prioritized over the past two years. (Gary Miller/Getty Images for Glass House Brands)
“And I remember when I was 12, people asking me if I was gonna be – comparing us all, all the Disney girls and with Miley and Selena and this new era – and asking which was gonna be the next bad girl,” Thorne claimed. “And, ‘Are you gonna be like Lindsay Lohan?’ And like all these things at 12, 13 – you’re just, your brain is like trying so hard. ‘Like am I gonna be like what? Like what? What is the question?’ Like, oh my God.”
Thorne later moved beyond her Disney image with a steady mix of film and television roles.
Thorne has also made a bigger push behind the camera. In August 2026, she signed on to write, direct and star in “Spring Breakers 2,” following her feature directorial debut, “Color Your Hurt.”
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