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

14. Jennifer Love Hewitt

Jennifer Love Hewitt’s rise to fame as a teenager brought not just adoration, but relentless objectification. Speaking on Mayim Bialik’s Breakdown podcast in January 2025, Hewitt reflected on how she only fully realized in her thirties just how much the media s*xualized her as a teen. Her breakthrough roles in Party of Five and I Know What You Did Last Summer came when she was just 16 to 18 years old, placing her directly in the public eye at a formative age. “In my thirties, I went back and looked at that time again and I was like, ‘Oh my God,’” Hewitt recalled. “There were grown men talking to me at 16 about my breasts just openly on a talk show, and people were laughing about it. I didn’t even take that part in, but in hindsight it was really strange… to become a s*x symbol before I even knew what that was.” During this period, Hewitt said she “didn’t even know what s*xy meant,” yet the media relentlessly positioned her as an eroticized figure. She appeared on Maxim magazine covers and was subjected to public commentary she didn’t fully understand at the time. “People would openly walk up and be like, ‘I took your magazine with me on a trip last week.’ I didn’t know what that meant… it’s kind of gross.” Even jokes referencing her breakout hit, I Know What You Did Last Summer , like, “Oh, I know what your breasts did last summer,” were met with awkward laughter from Hewitt, who didn’t grasp the implications at the time. She has since reflected on this as a reflection of the culture of the era, which “was fully accepted” and “allowed to believe that that was appropriate…” The scrutiny didn’t end with her teen years. During the summer of 2025, at the premiere of the latest installment of I Know What You Did Last Summer , Hewitt faced a barrage of comments comparing her current body to how she looked in her late teens and early 20s. Remarks ranged from, “What happened to her?! She used to be my crush growing up. Now she would crush me!” to “She’s eating too many burgers.” Supporters, however, defended her, noting that she “looks happy and healthy,” and adding, “that’s what a real woman looks like.”