Ummm... she has attention problems because she didn't like high school? I'm not an American, but I always got the impression that a lot of people didn't like high school. Here's another interpretation: she's unusually precocious and intelligent, which is why she finished high school early, found it boring and is already doing online college classes. Her maturity is also why she likes older guys. She doesn't have a lot of friends because she's outspoken, like a lot of 16-year-olds are, and she works in a weird industry which she probably wouldn't have chosen, but doesn't seem to mind.
I think this quasi-maternal concern for someone none of us has ever met is patronising and a little proprietorial, to be completely honest. And does being in a band, "cool" though it may be, make her any less vulnerable? I agree a lot of child models/actors have problems, but I also think that a lot of completely normal teenage issues and phases - drinking too much, wearing revealing clothing, partying too hard, casual drug use, 'unsuitable' partners, body image issues, and just finding it hard to fit in socially - are exaggerated and reported as 'meltdowns' when they are experienced by famous young women. I and my friends, between us, pretty much took care of everything on that list in our adolescence, and some of us haven't grown out of it yet. Give the girl a break.
Hey, I hint at being forced into spotlight (not actually forced,) I have attention problems, a false sense of maturity and a lack of friends (well, I have a few people I'm really close to, but so does Taylor, but I guess that's a moot point) and I'M also into older guys!
Add in my often perplexing wardrobe and makeup, and I'm basically Taylor Momsen! And I'm twenty-seven!
Seriously, I don't really have an opinion of the kid one way or another, but none of this really sets off any red flags for me. Mostly she wears outlandish makeup and spits out little ill-articulated blurbs at magazine interviews and makes zillions of dollars. This is what every other teen starlet in Hollywood has ever done. Why the hand-wringing over Taylor? None of us have ever met her and none of us know what she's like. She hardly sounds like she's on the precipice of disaster.
ummmm yeah. these things are basically me (besides, you know, being famous. and all the makeup, although my clothing tends to suggest some mental instability). I left high school when I was 15 because I was bored out of my skull, had a hard time making friends until I got to college, I'm into older guys and now....I have a BA at 19 and I've learned how to challenge myself instead of settling for boring things. These don't seem like causes for concern, just signs that she's out of step with what her peers are up to. Which makes perfect sense, considering what she does for a living.
@daradoodle: Totally. Besides the fame thing my opinions mirrored hers her age and I turned out just fine. And she's right . I'm a writer- I DONT use advanced math. The only thing I would say , is she should give boys her age a chance. Otherwise she just sounds sort of broody and complicated and smart teeny.
Woah, I'm not sure analyzing interviews for possible "problems" is all that healthy for her either. I certainly found high school boring and what's wrong with her feeling independent? She's sixteen! Of course she feels independent! She's gonna do her own thing! She's a freaking opinionated teenager.
This just bothers me that we are making judgments about her life/social skills/possible learning disabilities for no apparent reason. This is just very US Weekly to me.
This interview just proves that pretty much every sixteen year old in modern history tries to appear/sound worldly and mature and adult-y. Even though she has a life that's very different than your average teen bear, she's still got the classic teen-girl outlook and affectations. One difference may be that she expresses and interest in education, and that's a very nice difference IMO. When I was sixteen I could not even be bothered to show up at school. Good for her, I say.
She kinds of sounds like me when I was 16 - punk rock attitude and all. Although, at that age, I was, unfortunately, forced to be more mature and self-aware due to circumstances even if I did not quite understand maturity.
It seems like that's what is going on with Momsen. She basically has a full-time job and makes her own living and has already graduated from high school. When you're surrounded by older people on a daily basis you start to lose touch with the rest of the 16 year olds.
As far as I can tell (and, of course, I may be incredibly wrong), there's nothing wrong with Momsen so far. She's neither pretending to be a goody-two shoes nor trying to keep some Disney-esque image. She looks and acts just like my closest friends did when we would be hopping on the bus in Hollywood, in the middle of the night, after seeing The Adolescents. *shrug*
As for the math comment...yeah, I said that too...then for some inexplicable reason I decided to major in it. :P
@KenZavala: I actually really like how her answers obviously haven't been given the Disney/publicist treatment.
The only reason I was still taking math when I was her age was so that I could place out of it in college (where I was planning on a theatre major).
She sounds...16. I think she'll be okay. In Anthony Rapp's autobiography, he talks about listening to a radio interview he gave when he was a teen promoting Adventures in Babysitting and CRINGING at how annoying he was. And he turned out very successful and stable.
I write YA fiction, and I remember once getting feedback that my narrator was "a little know-it-all at times." One of my classmates responded, "um, the narrator is a 16-year-old. That's totally how they are."
Wait a second... how can you accurately judge whether someone warrants concern from a few snippets of an interview? When they're 16? When the interview was likely highly edited? If any of us went back and interviewed our 16 year old selves for a large publication, we'd all be 'worried'. I think this is a bit unfair.
@spikenard: I am so glad that facebook didn't exist when I was 16, and our house was about 5 years behind the internet curve, so I didn't know what a blog was. Oh the things I would have said.
IDK, these interviews with famous teens are a double-edge sword. On the one hand, it's cool to try and look out for signs of a wayward life later ala Spears or Lohan in the name of prevention, but on the other hand, is it? Is that what we, the public, are doing? Gee, how caring we all are.
For the record, I'm an"arteeste", I knew it when I was a kid, and I blew off math classes all the time. Because, to be perfectly honest, I don't need it, I knew I wouldn't, and I'm successful.
Sometimes, when you're a kid, you just know who you are, and the strongest among us follow where we know we're meant to go. ;)
as much as the knowledge of trigonometry may not be needed in her life, she is wrong in thinking that she is an artist. dear, you're not an artist. you are a product! you only work when you make money for other people, and when you stop making money for other people (and this always happens...even drew barrymore had a slow period), then the knowledge of something more than art might be a good thing to have.
@rednrowdy: Yeah, but trigonometry Come on! I work in books and I don't remember a single thing I learned in trig. I don't even remember if I TOOK trig.
@MizJenkins: Probably since she was about 8, the last time she was in an actual classroom. It was the only subject name she remembered. She's an ARTISTE after all.
@MizJenkins: I read this earlier and that was my thought too. Language Arts=elementary school. Linguistics, English, Literature=college. Perhaps she applied for the wrong online "college" and is instead working toward her fifth grade diploma.
@Dr. BAngieB: Okay, that's cause for concern. The rest of it, not so much. (Though the 'I'm not offensive, I'm just opinionated' comment is a bit dumb)
I am also alarmed by the eyeliner. Stop it with the racoon eyes, Little J. I was hoping it would be lighter on a magazine cover where someone else styled her. Maybe they thought no one would recognize her without it?
Wow, I thought I was looking at a very young Blondie. Dang. But she seems reasonably together at the moment and it sounds like she may stay that way. Here is hoping so.
07/29/09
I think this quasi-maternal concern for someone none of us has ever met is patronising and a little proprietorial, to be completely honest. And does being in a band, "cool" though it may be, make her any less vulnerable? I agree a lot of child models/actors have problems, but I also think that a lot of completely normal teenage issues and phases - drinking too much, wearing revealing clothing, partying too hard, casual drug use, 'unsuitable' partners, body image issues, and just finding it hard to fit in socially - are exaggerated and reported as 'meltdowns' when they are experienced by famous young women. I and my friends, between us, pretty much took care of everything on that list in our adolescence, and some of us haven't grown out of it yet. Give the girl a break.
07/28/09
Add in my often perplexing wardrobe and makeup, and I'm basically Taylor Momsen! And I'm twenty-seven!
Seriously, I don't really have an opinion of the kid one way or another, but none of this really sets off any red flags for me. Mostly she wears outlandish makeup and spits out little ill-articulated blurbs at magazine interviews and makes zillions of dollars. This is what every other teen starlet in Hollywood has ever done. Why the hand-wringing over Taylor? None of us have ever met her and none of us know what she's like. She hardly sounds like she's on the precipice of disaster.
07/28/09
07/28/09
ummmm yeah. these things are basically me (besides, you know, being famous. and all the makeup, although my clothing tends to suggest some mental instability). I left high school when I was 15 because I was bored out of my skull, had a hard time making friends until I got to college, I'm into older guys and now....I have a BA at 19 and I've learned how to challenge myself instead of settling for boring things. These don't seem like causes for concern, just signs that she's out of step with what her peers are up to. Which makes perfect sense, considering what she does for a living.
07/28/09
07/28/09
This just bothers me that we are making judgments about her life/social skills/possible learning disabilities for no apparent reason. This is just very US Weekly to me.
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
It seems like that's what is going on with Momsen. She basically has a full-time job and makes her own living and has already graduated from high school. When you're surrounded by older people on a daily basis you start to lose touch with the rest of the 16 year olds.
As far as I can tell (and, of course, I may be incredibly wrong), there's nothing wrong with Momsen so far. She's neither pretending to be a goody-two shoes nor trying to keep some Disney-esque image. She looks and acts just like my closest friends did when we would be hopping on the bus in Hollywood, in the middle of the night, after seeing The Adolescents. *shrug*
As for the math comment...yeah, I said that too...then for some inexplicable reason I decided to major in it. :P
07/28/09
The only reason I was still taking math when I was her age was so that I could place out of it in college (where I was planning on a theatre major).
She sounds...16. I think she'll be okay. In Anthony Rapp's autobiography, he talks about listening to a radio interview he gave when he was a teen promoting Adventures in Babysitting and CRINGING at how annoying he was. And he turned out very successful and stable.
I write YA fiction, and I remember once getting feedback that my narrator was "a little know-it-all at times." One of my classmates responded, "um, the narrator is a 16-year-old. That's totally how they are."
07/28/09
07/28/09
07/28/09
For the record, I'm an"arteeste", I knew it when I was a kid, and I blew off math classes all the time. Because, to be perfectly honest, I don't need it, I knew I wouldn't, and I'm successful.
Sometimes, when you're a kid, you just know who you are, and the strongest among us follow where we know we're meant to go. ;)
This interview is no skin off my chaps at all.
07/28/09
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07/28/09
Dammit. I can't edi.
07/28/09
07/28/09
I am also alarmed by the eyeliner. Stop it with the racoon eyes, Little J. I was hoping it would be lighter on a magazine cover where someone else styled her. Maybe they thought no one would recognize her without it?
07/28/09