What Benefits Do You Get When You Become a Child Actor?

Become a Child Actor like Dakota Fanning - Image via Wikipedia

There Are Many Benefits When You Become a Child Actor

It always seems much easier for everyone to see negative effects rather than paying attention to the benefits you get when you become a child actor. Instead of looking at the benefits achieved when you become a child actor, people tend to concentrate on all the bad press on child actors.

I get it. The news tends to focus on all the bad things associated with child stars as well as adult stars, so it appears that nothing good can be associated with the acting industry at all (except for fame and fortune — and that only comes to a very select few actors).

I know I’ve posted much more information here on my blog on the negatives that a child and the child’s family face if a child decides to become a child actor (see “How Can You Become a Child Actor When You Have So Much Homework?” and “What Does a Child Give Up to Become a Child Actor?“) So, I am dedicating this post to positives rather than negatives associated with becoming a child actor.

In reality, there are many child stars who have achieved great things, even if along the way the child actor might have encountered many difficulties. Certainly, for child actors who become famous, the sudden stardom can have negative effects. That sort of fame is difficult for an adult to handle, so we can only imagine how difficult it is to deal with fame as a child.

Stars like Dakota Fanning certainly help to bring a positive image of child actors to light. Being in the spotlight is very difficult, and so many children do encounter difficulties and get into perhaps just a little trouble along the way to adulthood. Fortunately, some child actors are squeaky-clean enough to stay under the negative-press radar, and you have to realize how truly special those child actors are.

How many people could claim that they would come off in a positive light if every single thing that they’ve done was broadcast to the world? There are  child actors who get negative press for doing things that so many parents deal with on a regular basis for children who are not tv, movie, or recording stars as those children move from childhood to adulthood.

This is not to say that there is not a larger percentage of child actors who get into trouble when compared to the entire population of children. At the same time, I am also not totally convinced that so many more child actors get into trouble when compared with all children as they grow up.

With that being said, there are many benefits gained by a child who decides to pursue an acting career. So, “What benefits do you get when you become a child actor?”

Benefits When You Become a Child Actor

There are many benefits for a child who decides to become a child actor.  Some of the benefits are obvious, and others are things that might not have occurred to you as a parent or a child actor.

Some, but certainly not all of the benefits are:

1. Responsibility – A child gains a sense of responsibility at an early age when pursuing an acting career. A child learns to become a responsible individual as following through with commitments is essential in a show business career. It is not acceptable to be wishy-washy and change your mind if something fun comes along that you’d rather do. If you have a job to do, you must be responsible and complete it. Some of the tasks a child must be responsible for are learning sides for an audition or job, attending an audition, going on-time to a set, staying until released from a job. Sure, the parent of a young child must be the responsible one when a child is pursuing a showbiz career, but as time goes the child will learn to be responsible as well.
2. Independence – A child actor has to be very independent. While parents or guardians are always nearby as a child auditions for jobs and works jobs, the child must learn to be independent in order to perform without help from a parent or guardian.
3. Speaking Ability – Years of practice in auditioning in front of others and acting in front of others helps an individual to become better and better at speaking in front of others. This is an important skill to have in life whether a child stays with show business or chooses another career in life.
4. Good reading skills – As soon as possible, a child actor starts reading sides and even whole scripts for acting classes, auditions, and jobs. This can have an amazing effect on a child’s reading level in school.
5. Thinking on your feet – Improvisation is another skill that is important in an acting career. As your child practices improvisation in classes, he or she will become better and better at responding to a variety of situations on the spur of the moment.
6. Dealing with rejection – This is really a hard one. It is important that a child actor learns how to deal with rejection because there will always be a lot of rejection in this industry. This rejection can have a negative impact on anyone in the acting industry.  Child actors must either get out if the rejection is too hard to deal with or they will get better at dealing with rejection and disappointment. A child actor learns that being rejected is not something to take personally. If you get rejected, it does not mean you are not good, it means that the particular opportunity was not right for you, so you just need to move on to the next opportunity with a positive attitude.  This is an important life lesson and one that child actors hopefully learn early on in an acting career.

This list of benefits truly could go on and on.  This is just a few of the benefits a child actor gains. Do you have some you’ve thought of that are not listed here?  Please add them as comments right now at the end of this post!

To your success,

Debbie Sikkema