25 Former Female Child Stars Who Exposed The Dark Reality Of Hollywood

11. Emma Watson

Growing up in the public eye came with a disturbing loss of safety for Emma Watson, especially the moment she turned 18. The Harry Potter actress has spoken candidly about how her transition into adulthood was immediately met with exploitation rather than protection. During a conversation with Forest Whitaker at her HeForShe Arts Week event in New York in 2016, Watson revealed that paparazzi deliberately targeted her on her 18th birthday, laying on the pavement outside her birthday party to take up-skirt photographs. Those images were published by English tabloids the very next morning. “If they had published the photographs 24 hours earlier they would have been illegal,” she explained. “But because I had just turned 18 they were legal.” Watson also noted how starkly different her experience was compared to that of her male co-stars. “Obviously Dan [Radcliffe] and Rupert [Grint] don’t wear skirts,” she said, pointing out how the tabloid press treated her transition into womanhood far more aggressively than theirs. That same year, in a 2016 Esquire interview, Watson further opened up about the broader pattern of harassment she endured as a young actress, revealing that she had been groped , followed, and left feeling unsafe. “I’ve had my arse slapped as I’ve left a room. I’ve felt scared walking home. It shouldn’t be an acceptable fact of life that women should be afraid.” Beyond her real-life experiences, a now-infamous 2004 Saturday Night Live skit titled “Hermione Growth Spurt” drew intense backlash for its unsettling s*xualization of the character Hermione Granger. At the time the skit aired, Watson was around 13 or 14, while the role was portrayed by Lindsay Lohan, who was approximately 17 or 18. Critics have since pointed to the sketch as an example of how the industry blurred ethical lines when depicting young female characters. One netizen reacted to the portrayal, writing, “Way weirder than Lindsay Lohan being 17 in this sketch is: Emma Watson was 14 when this aired!” Another user added, “This is so creepy. Lindsay was 17. Emma Watson was even younger. Makes me so uncomfortable.” “Nothing like s*xualizing child actors in skits about kids’ movies in which the character in question is also a child actor, truly an achievement,” a third netizen added sarcastically.