She needs to be 14, he can be 40

Hello hello,

I was watching this documentary the other day called Pretty baby. Where we follow the story of Brooke Shields and her career as a young girl in Hollywood. If the name doesn't ring a bell let me help you with two words: Blue lagoon. Do you remember now the movie about two kids stranded on a desert island? And the girl that was always showing her bossoms? That was Brooke at 14/15 years old. Her male co star tho? 18 years old, still young yes but not an underaged showing his bare body.

Brooke was sexualized as young as 11 years old in the movie Pretty baby, (the same name as the documentary) that later also became her nickname. There, her love interest is a almost 30 year old man. But everyone let it slide because it was supossed to represent a real story. Okay, then she had blue lagoon and everyone also let it slide because of the age of the actor that was her romantic pair made sense.

But, what about endless love? Brooke was 16 playing a teenager falling in love for the first time and also getting in touch with her sexuality, and losing her virginity. The producer claims that it's a story for teenagers made by teenagers and that's why he had 16 year old Brooke losing her virginity on screen.

The question that I have is simple. Why is her co star slash male love interest in the movie 27 years old playing a teenager? The producer claimed realism but only with one of his actors. Brooke tells us that they were expecting her to already know what to do in the more mature scenes (if you know what I mean), and the producer twisted her feet finger so she would emote in her face like he wanted.

Don't be fooled, this still happens. Take the TV show Julie and the Phantoms on Netflix for example. The story is about a teenage girl that can se the ghosts of a dead teenage boy band. Julie is played by a 16 year old, her love interest played by a 21 year old. It's not a enormous age gap, but it begs the question. Why is the girl the only one with the same age as the character?

Young girls in Hollywood are a gold mine, first they start like cute little flowers and while they age the countdown starts. She is becoming a woman did she kiss someone already? Does she realise her body is changing? Did she lose her virginity already?

The same happened with Britney Spears! We started watching her in our televisions when she was 8 years old and as she aged the curiosity of the public increased. You can find online countless interviews where they ask teenage Britney about, boys, dating, kissing and if she will wait till marriage to do the deed.

Another example, Billie Eilish. She started her career at 15/16 years old, and when her 18 birthday was coming up real countdowns started with the goal of sexualizing her as a legal adult. Emma Watson had photgraphers take pictures uo her skirt the day she turned 18, because it was legal now and they have been waiting.

In the documentary, Brooke excuses the producers that casted her at that age for those parts. She claims that it was art. Was it also art when a photographer made her pose nude at 9 years old?

Art isn't a excuse

Im sick of men (and yes I'm generalizing it's a literary resource valid when you want to make a point) using women's and girl's bodies. Do you know what is my red flag in photography? Male photographers that only have nude/semi-nude photos of women on their portfolios. The human body can make beautiful lines I agree, but you can only capture those lines with women? But I digress.

Protect our girls

What do you think about the dangers that underage girls (and boys but I'm mostly focusing on girls) go through in the intertainement industry?

If you want to read more of my work check out: "How to make money the easy way" and "It's not an "era" it's just life"

See ya,

JP