Former Disney star Alyson Stoner on the price of childhood stardom

From their early days on the Disney Channel to dancing with Missy Elliot, child actor, author, and advocate Alyson Stoner reveals the hidden costs of a career in entertainment. On this episode of Living Not So Fabulously, Stoner says publicist retainers, glam teams, and voice lessons often outweigh earnings. They expose the illusion of celebrity wealth, the industry’s reliance on unpaid labor and the exploitation of young performers. Stoner’s personal stories of financial pressure and money myths shine a light on Hollywood.

For full episodes of Living Not So Fabulously, listen on your favorite podcast platform or watch on our website.

Yahoo Finance's Living Not So Fabulously is produced by Dennis Golin.

Video Transcript

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I think what I didn't recognize is that money was changing how people treated me in terms of what they thought they could get out of me. It was suddenly having managers and agents who saw dollar signs or adults who treated a 6 year old like a business asset rather than a child.

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Welcome to not so fabulous, where unfiltered truth meets your bottom line with just enough sparkle to pay those bills. So you know, David, our 20s were messy, but thankfully, our 20s were well before social media, and we certainly didn't do it under the studio lights with millions of people watching.

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Yeah, that would be like.Take a lot of soul searching, maybe even a whole new podcast about it, or maybe publishing a book to overcome it, which brings us to today's guest. Alison Stoner is a multi-talented actor, singer and dancer who grew up in the spotlight as a Disney Channel star and the scene stealing kid in Step Up and Camp Rock. Beyond the screen, Alison voiced Isabella Infineas and Ferb and danced alongside icons like Missy Elliott.

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I don't know really how you top Dancing with Missy Elliott, but Alison is also an outspoken advocate for the rights and mental health of child performers, the host of the Dear Hollywood podcast, and the author of the new book, Semi Well adjusted, despite literally everything.

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Welcome to the show, Allison. It is so good to see you again.

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Such a kind intro and so lovely to see you both.

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Thank you for coming. Yeah, so growing up in Toledo, which is where we're at right now, and then entering the entertainment world at the age of 6, when did you first realize that money could change things, especially the way people treated you or maybe you and your family?

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Hm, interesting. Well, you know, my concept of money felt pretty divided because my parents were divorced and on my dad's side, our home was much smaller and more modest furnishings and then when my mom remarried my stepfather, he clearly had access to more money, um, and he had a higher position in the company and so,I think subliminally, I was recognizing that money is some kind of lever, but what's interesting is we didn't speak about money, so I was, it was more so obscured from view and all I saw was the outcome of what money could do.But something else that comes up working as a child performer, answering this question from a different angle, I think what I didn't recognize is that money was changing how people treated me in terms of what they thought they could get out of me.It was suddenly having managers and agents who saw dollar signs or adults who treated a 6 year old like a business asset rather than a child, um, you know, in the entertainment industry teaches children that their worth is tied to their earning potential.You know, and that can create quite a warped understanding of relationships where love and belonging and financial value become intertwined.

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Iremember, you know, thinking back to when I was a kid, there were certain people or certain families. I always felt like,It was a treat to go over their house because they had things that we didn't have, and I knew that there were other people that came over to our house, and they must have been feeling the same way, right? And we were kind of in in the middle there, and we started to make judgments about oh these this family isis better than us, right? At least that's the kind of feeling I had inside. Well, that family, they must be better than us. You know, we're gonna take a a a a just a break here, folks. If you're just tuning in for the first time, this is living not so fabulously where we mix real money talk with a dash of glitter. We're speaking withMulti-talented Alison Stoner, who just published their first book, semi well adjusted despite literally everything. And if you're watching on YouTube, drop a comment below and share an illusion about money that you held as a kid, or maybe you even still have today.So, you've talked a lot about this, this illusion of being a Disney kid, right? That it meant wealth, it meant security. What was the reality of that? What were the real finances, especially during maybe those peak years compared to what maybe other people think it's like during that time period in your life?

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Oh, well, buckle up for this one. For starters, of course, there are hierarchies on set, so not every kid on the same show is paid equally. Um, if you're a lead, but you're not the lead, um, you know, that the show is named after, for example, it's very likely that you are not making an equal rate, um, but the next thing is, a lot of the labor we do as artists and creatives is unpaid. So unpaid work and publicity.are really the backbone of the creative industry, which easily filled more than half of my schedule and it can sound very ironic that instead of making money, oftentimes we as artists are spending money.There are hefty out of pocket costs to keep the machine going, to continue building momentum in hopes that if and when you do secure that larger opportunity, it'll profit a higher salary. But to be specific,A partial list of expenses could include a $3000 to $12,000 monthly retainer for a publicist. Some are more than that, a $6000 to $10,000 monthly retainer for a fashion stylist and glam team, whichSome of us are thinking what I was thinking, listen, I'd rather wear hand me downs every day, but when you're in specific spaces in the industry, it's actually kind of forced onto you and mandatory to have to take on a cost like this. Um, then if you have your regular voice training, that can be $2000 a month.If you have updated headshots or you're getting coached for auditions, you start, you know, tacking on all of these additional expenses, and then on the flip side, keep in mind, a lot of this is just for you to try to get a job, so you're not being paid while you're doing this, but once you do book a job,They often do not amount to a living income, not only because of the infrequency, but also because your team and the reps and all the folks around you.are going to be commissioning every check. So in my case, growing up, somewhere around 35% of every check was going out to a team, which means at most after taxes XYZ, I had maybe 30 cents to a dollar to then pay for all of those other business expenses we just mentioned. And I was often left wondering how does anyone make money? AndYou know what I didn't realize at the time is that this experience of being so willing to work without any compensation really warped my understanding moving forward as an adult when I was in new business spaces, new career fields, and realizing, oh, I'm just volunteering myself to help build this company and I'm not even thinking about the fact that I have to pay rent.And so that kind of extractive nature without fair compensation is something even into my adulthood I'm having to really sit with and adjust how I set rates because trust me,The illusion of wealth in the industry, especially thinking that the artists are the ones who are making money, is often not the case. If anything, what we're paid in is the currency of attention and visibility and trust me, that does not pay your utility bills.

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Right, right. As an outsider, you know, you just think like everybody who's on TV is just rolling in the dough. We have this conversation with Don Lemon. We just like everybody who is an anchor or who's on TV on CNN, MSNBC, whatever, they're just all rolling in the dough and it's so.Enlightening to to realize like, oh, all these people that we put up on pedestals are struggling as much as any of us. I mean, who's making all the money and all these business right?

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That's the

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question. Well, and that's the important question to start asking and for us to explore all of these cultural myths surrounding money that are affecting all of us, no matter what our location is in the ecosystem.And when we reify these myths and we buy into the pedestal of celebrity culture, actually the audience at home is being played to a degree. You're being told that you need to look up to someone in a way that that leads to you spending your dollar on them. Now, this is different from if you encounter an artist who you truly want to just support. Yes, absolutely. Pay.Artists invest in art, yes. And when it gets commercialized, now we're looking at a much different dynamic where all of us are on this chessboard and my hope is that in reading the book and exploring money myths, we start to understand that we don't have to just be pawns, that we can actually find some agency in how we navigate the system.

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Yeah, but hold that thought, Allison, we'll be right back after this quick break.Welcome back to Living Not So Fabulously. We're talking with actor, author, podcaster and creator of all things, Alison Stoner. So I, I want to pick back up with the with this idea that you were just mentioning before the break, this idea of uh of us gaining agency, um, you have been very open about the things that you have had to deal with because of being a child actor, or at least the the way that affected you, things talking about eating disorders and burnout.What role did did did money play or the financial pressures in all of this, did that play because you didn't feel like you had agency over making decisions or taking control of certain situations?

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I appreciate you asking that because oftentimes we'll focus on mental health outcomes or other domains of life, but really a major driver of why I was working constantly was because I had to earn 2 to 3 times my living expenses just to make enough after commissions and taxes and business expenses to pay rent. So had I had a different financial structure.or a different understanding of financial literacy, or I had been introduced to things like business planning, I would recognize, OK, if you've got all of this going out, eventually at some point, you've got to have a strategy for something coming back in. And what does that look like? And which parts of this do you own, which parts are shared with otherpeople and how do you make all these numbers work. And so I was actually very, very, very frugal, probably contrary to what people would assume from a lot of child performers. I absolutely was not pursuing luxury. I did not want a lavish lifestyle. I wouldn't even let myself buy an extra pair of socks. I was pinching pennies andThat also speaks to the reality that we are often mostly actually unemployed as artists, so unless you're constantly hustling and finding ways to resource yourself and book work, then you're actually not going to have a steady income. We don't have the um what to me feels like the beautiful gift ofA real salary. We are gig workers and so we have to think about money differently and be, you know, oftentimes very frugal about decision making. Um, now that doesn't mean everyone is and so for a lot of young performers who are propped up and maybe given access to a great degree of wealth early but aren't guided and how to steward that money, you see a lot of really unfortunate experiences fromTheir own, of course, spending and perhaps misspending, but also others taking advantage of them and exploiting their financial status. So, money, the thing that we often, you know, don't talk about, really it's still always the elephant in the room and I'm glad, I'm glad your show exists so we can just put it out there and speak plainly.

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Yeah, well, thank you for demystifying some of that, right? I would never have thought that you needed to earn 32 to 3 times what your living expenses are so that you can actually cover your living expenses. Uh, that would, I mean, you know, we talk about this idea that 30% of your money should be going to housing.That's just housing for the rest of us, right? You're talking about all of your living expenses, you only get basically a third of that, or maybe close to half of that, it, it just reallyIt shines a very not so pretty light on Hollywood.

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thatthat brings me to a question. I'm curious, like you already said that on the set, there's like this hierarchy, like, um if you're not the the the lead title on the in the show that you're you're you're not getting paid as much. Is it is there.Sort of this sense in Hollywood that when I reach this level, like when I get my own show, then I'll be comfortable, or and then when you get there, is it like, OK, well, now I gotta be like, I don't know, uh, maybe I'll be like Brittany or Justin, and then I'll be comfortable or maybe I gotta wait till I Meryl Streep, like is there this constant sense of like I've got to continue to climb until I reach who who's comfortable in Hollywood? At what point do you are you like, I I've I've I I I've made it. I could actually pay my bills and not stress at night.

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Well, I can share some statistics. So actually, only 2% of actors are able to earn a living solely from acting. That means 98% of us have other jobs just to make ends meet.

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This is news to America. I am stunned. OK. And

14:50 spk_0

it is definitely not news to all of us who are packing 7 to 8 people in a two bedroom apartment.In, in the middle of Hollywood, um, and, uh, sorry, and please repeat your question.

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at what point do you feel like you've, you, you've arrived? Like when do you stop stressing about money, um, because, you know, you're making enough from, from, from your career, huh?

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Well, I think, and I think some of the other.Absurdity about all of this is that as you make it, your expenses just continue to become exponentially greater and greater, and that's not uncommon across other industries or, you know, pursuing certain positions um in in other fields, and I think we have to ask ourselves what is enough and if we're just actually invitingA great deal more of work and stress, and there's kind of a law of diminishing returns at a certain point. Um, what is really driving us? What are we truly after here? And so for me, as I shifted away from entertainment, started pursuing becoming a mental health practitioner, while I still have a foot in the door in entertainment, I'm still on some animated shows. I'll absolutely show up as a mental health coordinator forProductions and sets. I also recognized I actually get to trim so many expenses off of my budget by shifting to a different field. Now granted, I'm going to have to do different certifications and training programs over here, but I won't have to give commissions to up to 15 different reps on every single check. And so,Had I entered the industry as an adult, I do wonder if I would have stayed as long, um, but unfortunately I was 6 years old, and when you're entering the industry, a lot of times business managers and and financial folks will explain to you just how complicated the structures are for entertainment in terms of expense tracking andAre you going to be an S corp and what are child labor laws and the Coogan account and da da da da and you're encouraged to not ask questions and just let the experts be the experts, you focus as a child on performing, even though at 13, I tried to go through aFinancial literacy course just because I wanted to understand money. It didn't apply to my unique circumstance and the industry. And so even at 18, when I was given access to the funds that I had earned, I didn't have a grasp for what to do with them.And so thankfully, I have some folks in my family who were, you know, trying to be supportive from the front, but I also did not get out unscathed and, you know, if you read the book, you'll absolutely see quite a big plot point around money in my life.

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Yeah, it's, it's interesting when you, when you were talking about that scenario of um it being overly complicated.And explaining the complicatedness of it, if that's a word complicatedness of it kind of does make somebody cower and back away. That really opens the opportunity for abuse andAll of the things, it does make me think about financial advisors sometimes, and everybody thinks that investing is so difficult and hard and that has opened up the door for financial advisors to do things like churn their clients' accounts, so they make more money off of commissions than really the client needs, and that's why there's laws and protections. Actually, speaking of that, there was recently something in California, I think last year, right, about protection.For child actors, right? And you've been an

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advocate for digital entertainers, I believe. Um, yes, there are a few states who are stepping up to create policy protections around young performers and traditional and digital media. However, at large, child labor in terms of entertainment is actually exempt from federal protections. So at the moment we're requiring states to stepAnd and only, I think there are still 17 states who haven't even passed a single law to protect child actor finances, let alone kid influencers. And by the way, when I say kid influencer, I know it can seem like a silly term if you're not acquainted with the industry, but this is actually an $8 billion industry and there are a lot of young folks who don't even realize what's going on, but they're beingYou know, uh, filmed for content that then gets monetized by families or brands or other folks, and rarely does the child have the best case scenario where they're fully protected. Um, so we're absolutely working with lots ofrepresentatives right now um to see what kind of federal protections we can put in place and this fall, I believe we'll be introducing a bill. So you know, keep your eyes peeled, excuse me, keep your eyes peeled and know that um you know, these are real vulnerable children.And the lines today are becoming blurrier and blurrier. These are not necessarily kids who are trying to be professional performers, sometimes it's just kids trying to have everyday moments, but now they're captured and shared online without their fully informed consent. So definitely, definitely, if you see bills um and you have the opportunity to be in support of more protections, please make sure, you know, do your due diligence and then let's take care of the young ones.

20:34 spk_2

So if you have a wealth of knowledge in this space, right, of your experiences, what is one piece of money advice you would give to someone, whether they are a child, actor, or or not entering the entertainment world. What 11 thing or would you caution them to do or one thing you would tell them to do?

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Hm.I would invite people to look at the pie chart of their lives, and you could use the eight dimensions of wellness as a framework if you'd like, and to recognize that financial well-being is one of the critical aspects of who we are as humans living in this system.And so if you find, um, I'll actually pull from an exercise one of our therapists at my company Movement Genius uses, Leh Mankow has us color in each section within the eight dimensions of wellness, and we see how much attention each area is getting.How satisfied we are with each area of our lives, and you might start to notice, wow, I'm really giving a lot of attention to performance training, but it looks like I actually haven't been taking care of my social life or I haven't been taking care of my financial well-being.And so I would just invite people to think holistically, create a 360 game plan to the best of your ability, so you know how to make sure you're tending to every area of your life and every part of who you are, including, I know, I know the practical and sometimes stressful aspects of having to make money and manage money in this world.

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Yeah. Well, thank you for, for all of that. We really appreciate you joining us today, Allison. Thanks for sharing your money stories. We appreciate you being authentic about that.

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Thanks for tuning in. If you'd like what you see, please scan the QR code to follow Yahoo Finance podcast for more videos and extra insight, because when you do, you're one step closer to living fabulously and financially free with none of the childhood star drama. Until next time, stay fabulous.

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This content was not intended to be financial advice and should not be used as a substitute for professional financial services. Related Videos

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