There are several underrated people in history–or in this case, modern pop culture–whom I believe should be given more prospects. Those underrated people are whom I admire ever since childhood.
There are so many of them to list, so I would start off with two of my childhood idols.
These two obscured people are Brenda Song and Victoria Justice.
Ever since I watched The Suite Life on Disney and Zoey 101 on Nickelodeon, I grew up admiring both Brenda Song and Victoria Justice. They remained my childhood idols to this day.
As the years go by, I noticed that both Song and Justice weren’t given that much prospects ever since they left their respective prominent shows. It truly disappointed me that both Song and Justice were that obscured ever since their departures from Disney and Nickelodeon.
Growing up, I personally perceived both Song and Justice as my childhood role models. I have always looked up to them ever since I was a pre-teen. They may have both underwent the struggles of childhood fame, albeit they have NOT done something controversial that ruined their reputations. They never smoked, drank, get arrested, did drugs, and got pregnant at sixteen, unlike Jamie Lynn Spears and all the other child stars.
To be fair, those former child stars who have committed crimes and poisoning themselves with drugs, alcohol, and multiple unprotected sex were not the role models people should look up to. It is the main reason why most teens out there nowadays are smoking and drinking underaged, or worse, getting arrested and dying young before they reached to the age of thirty. That is something that needs to be altered and addressed for a better society of morals and modesty.
I understand that this is omnipresent in the world of childhood fame albeit not all childhood stars are the same.
Unlike those more prominent former child stars, both Brenda Song and Victoria Justice are different from them. They both underwent their struggles of childhood fame by seeking help from friends, families, loved ones, and even from professionals, as well as focusing more on their mental healths by doing self-care and simply staying away from the public from unwanted human pests. And yet, both Song and Justice remained obscured, though in a good way. Being obscured is more beneficial for them; they could get all the privacy they need from the pesky media and focus more on their mental wellbeing without being interfered by unwanted attention.
As of now, Brenda Song is currently working on becoming a wife to her husband, Macaulay Culkin, as well as being a mother to their two sons whilst working assiduously on her acting career. For Victoria Justice, she is currently working assiduously on both her acting and music careers without being interfered by pestering media people giving her hate about her fallenness after Victorious.
Even though both Song and Justice are still obscured from fame, I will personally support them as a fan as they pave the way to their respective careers without being interfered by their haters. These two will forever remain my childhood role models and I am sure that they will become more prominent than everyone else thought.
I personally believe that the most obscured have potentials to their multifaceted careers, in which they should be given more prospects. That is what I truly believe in. Hence, Brenda Song and Victoria Justice should have been given more chances to fame in their respective careers.
It’s not just them. I also believe in the same to other more obscured former child stars I admire, such as Vanessa Hudgens, Raven-Symone, Jennette McCurdy, Jesse McCartney, Aly and AJ Michalka, and so forth.
These former child stars may be obscured, though I will always believe in their potentials to be given more prospects to their respective multifaceted careers.
Despite these stars being underrated, they will always be prominent in my perspective.
-(C) by Nicole “Nix” Cheng, 2026