{"id":518559,"date":"2026-03-04T17:38:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:38:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518559\/"},"modified":"2026-03-04T17:38:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T17:38:15","slug":"demi-lovato-says-it-was-challenging-growing-up-on-disney-channel-alongside-miley-cyrus-selena-gomez","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/518559\/","title":{"rendered":"Demi Lovato Says It Was ‘Challenging’ Growing Up on Disney Channel Alongside Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez"},"content":{"rendered":"

Demi Lovato<\/a> reflected on the hurdles of being a child star during an appearance on Keke Palmer<\/a>\u2018s podcast Baby, This Is Keke Palmer.<\/p>\n

During the interview, Lovato discussed spending her youth in the spotlight, being compared with fellow Disney<\/a> Channel stars Miley Cyrus<\/a> and Selena Gomez<\/a>, and feeling pressure to date older men. Palmer asked Lovato about being on a network that was \u201calways pitting\u201d its young stars against each other in an attempt to crown \u201cthe number one girl.\u201d Palmer added, \u201cThat makes it hard to become friends with people that might relate to your experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat was beautiful is that Selena and I had a friendship prior to Disney Channel because we actually were on Barney together, and so I felt this safety when I came into the Disney Channel having a built-in friendship there already,\u201d Lovato replied. \u201cI\u2019m so grateful for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

She continued, \u201cBut it was challenging when, you know, people are comparing you to one another. You naturally have insecurities at a young age, so you start comparing yourself to other people. But one thing my mom instilled in me was, \u2018There\u2019s room for everyone. It\u2019s not a competition.\u2019 And even though it can be competitive and if you have that mindset it definitely is competitive, my mom was just always like, \u2018There\u2019s room for everyone. You have your own voice, your own lane.\u2019 And that\u2019s what I really stuck by. That\u2019s what kind of got me through that period. So I was always rooting for everybody.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lovato explained that she now has mixed feelings about her time on the Disney Channel, which she joined in 2007 as part of As the Bell Rings. \u201cThere\u2019s so many emotions that come to mind when I think about that period of time in my life,\u201d she said. \u201cThose were the years that started it all for me, and I have very fond memories. Some not so fond memories of the struggling that I had when filming those shows.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cYou know, having struggled with an eating disorder while on camera was really challenging. I struggled with my mental health very much so, but ultimately, like, very fond memories. I made friends that I will have for the rest of my life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the interview, Lovato and Palmer, who starred on Nickelodeon sitcom True Jackson, VP as a teen, reflected on engaging in relationships with much-older men. Palmer noted that it was likely because she was saddled with a lot of responsibility as \u201cthe breadwinner of my family just by proxy.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\u201cI found myself dating,\u201d Palmer recalled. \u201cI\u2019m 15, why was my boyfriend 20? We were trying to find outlets, though, and a way to process this.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhy was\u00a0my\u00a0boyfriend 30?\u201d Lovato responded. \u201cNobody our age could understand. But then you look back in hindsight \u2014 when I turned 30, I was like, \u2018That\u2019s not OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Palmer noted that it seemed \u201cnormal\u201d to her at the time. \u201cThe moment when you realize, and you get to the age of a lot of people that were around you and doing stuff, it\u2019s almost a mental break that can happen,\u201d she said. \u201cBecause you realize, \u2018You were taking advantage of me.\u2019 \u2018Oh, I was being exploited.\u2019 At 15, I\u2019m thinking, \u2018My boyfriend\u2019s older, because I\u2019m doing an older job.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Gomez and Cyrus have similarly discussed their experiences on the Disney Channel with mixed feelings. In 2019, Gomez told ELLE<\/a> she felt paralyzed by her public image after being part of the network for so long.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce I broke those walls down, because I think being a part of Disney\u2014which, by the way, was one of the best experiences of my life\u2014you do portray an image, and you are required in a way to have that image and to be a role model or whatever you call it, but the moment I started breaking those walls down, I felt very exposed, so I was very hesitant to share with people,\u201d she said. \u201cSo I would sit down, I\u2019d give the politically correct answers, I would talk about things that I was working on, things that maybe people wanted to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n

She added, \u201cAnd the moment I started realizing that feeling of letting go of maybe judgement or being that exposed to people, I think I realized it was a gift. I was scared of it. I didn\u2019t want people to know, but the life that I was given, I believe that I had to share it.\u201d<\/p>\n

From Rolling Stone US<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Demi Lovato reflected on the hurdles of being a child star during an appearance on Keke Palmer\u2018s podcast…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":518560,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[64,63,447,33703,437,134,38091,13856,11479],"class_list":{"0":"post-518559","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-demi-lovato","12":"tag-disney","13":"tag-entertainment","14":"tag-keke-palmer","15":"tag-miley-cyrus","16":"tag-selena-gomez"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=518559"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/518559\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/518560"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=518559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=518559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=518559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}