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Join today<\/a><\/p>\n \n Already a member? Jenna Ortega has admitted that her Disney Channel media training gave her a warped sense of her personal boundaries<\/a> \u2013 and she\u2019s had to work hard to improve them.<\/p>\n The 24-year-old former child star<\/a> told the Happy Sad Confused podcast: \u201cWhen I was young, and I was on Disney Channel, they took us to media training, right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAnd they told us, you know, \u2018Every time someone meets you, it\u2019s probably the only time they\u2019re ever going to interact with you, like that\u2019s a very special moment in their lives. So just be aware of that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo pressure!\u201d the Wednesday star joked.<\/p>\n \u201cThat has never left me,\u201d Ortega said. \u201cAnd sometimes I try to give myself grace, and I\u2019m trying to have better boundaries.\u201d<\/p>\n Ortega explained how she now thinks about her interactions with fans, saying that she assesses the situation on a case-by-case basis.<\/p>\n \u201cSo maybe if I feel like it\u2019s not so safe of a situation or maybe I don\u2019t want to stop and agree to take a photo with a random grown man,\u201d Ortega said. \u201cKids and things like that, of course. It is a lot though. And, again, it\u2019s sweet. Some of the interactions are so sweet, and then some of them are a little bit more embarrassing or aggressive or mean. And it\u2019s hard to know what the balance is. But you just\u2026 I do what I can.\u201d<\/p>\n Ortega has been open about her experience of being a child star, and revealed in August that she did not feel comfortable asking for anything \u2013 including food or water \u2013 on set, because she didn\u2019t want to be seen as ungrateful for the role.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t asking for a sip of water,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI would go all day without eating, drinking, whatever, because I wanted so badly to not be in the way of anybody,\u201d she told Esquire<\/a>.<\/p>\n Ortega added: \u201cMaybe that was my mistake, was not actually looking after myself.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked for her opinion on the negative stereotypes about child stars, the actor replied: \u201cIs it wrong to say that a lot of them are true? And do with that what you will.\u201d<\/p>\n In another interview this week, she spoke about her experience with obsessive-compulsive disorder, which she was diagnosed with aged 7 when she had just begun her acting career.<\/p>\n \u201cI had to open the bedsheet a certain way, and open the drawer one way, and brush my hair in a slow-paced way,\u201d she told Vogue<\/a>, explaining that she uses therapy, medication, and acting to cope.<\/p>\n Aged 13, Ortega had a starring role as Harley Diaz on the Disney Channel sitcom Stuck in the Middle. She also voiced the character Princess Isabel on Disney\u2019s animated series Elena of Avalor.<\/p>\n More recently, Ortega is known for playing the titular character in the Netflix series Wednesday, a spin-off of the supernatural 1991 movie The Addams Family. <\/p>\n Her other work has included the Scream franchise and playing Astrid Deetz, the daughter of Winona Ryder\u2019s Lydia Deetz in Beetlejuice. <\/p>\n
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Jenna Ortega began acting on the Disney show \u2018Stuck in the Middle\u2019 aged 13. She says working for Disney warped her idea of boundaries (Getty)<\/p>\n![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/01M50HA4WBAG8FYADSHZBGQNPJ.jpg\")
The \u2018Wednesday\u2019 star has been open about her experience of being a child star, and revealed in August that she did not feel comfortable asking for anything on set, because she didn\u2019t want to be seen as ungrateful for the role (PA)<\/p>\n