'Camp Rock' actor Alyson Stoner on the true cost of child stardom

Starting at the age of 7, Alyson Stoner’s spunky dance moves, precocious acting chops and signature pigtails ensured a successful Hollywood run in movies like “Camp Rock” and “Cheaper By the Dozen.”These days, however, Stoner is pulling back the curtain to reveal the hazards of child stardom.“What I wish we would have known is that your overall longevity and holistic development are so much more critical than trying to capitalize off of an interest before you can even write in cursive,” Stoner tells TODAY.com.

Starting at the age of 7, Alyson Stoner’s spunky dance moves, precocious acting chops and signature pigtails ensured a successful Hollywood run in movies like “Camp Rock” and “Cheaper By the Dozen.”

These days, however, Stoner is pulling back the curtain to reveal the hazards of child stardom.

“What I wish we would have known is that your overall longevity and holistic development are so much more critical than trying to capitalize off of an interest before you can even write in cursive,” Stoner tells TODAY.com. “It’s actually absurd.”

Stoner, who is nonbinary and uses they/them pronouns, is still working through the fallout of what they call “the toddler-to-trainwreck industrial complex.” Their new memoir, “Semi-Well-Adjusted Despite Literally Everything,” shares a heartbreaking account of family disfunction, disordered eating and mental health crises.

“I was riding the highs and just trying to meet the moment of a busy schedule every day,” Stoner says of their childhood. “It’s hard to take inventory when you’re going 150 miles an hour.”