Demi Lovato brought their life experience full circle by co-directing the new Hulu documentary “ Child Star .” The former Disney Channel kid turned teen pop sensation looks beyond their own career journey to analyze the rise of the entire child performer industry — from the Shirley Temple era to the TikTok and YouTube generation. Lovato recruited fellow child stars Drew Barrymore, Kenan Thompson, Christina Ricci, Raven-Symoné, Alyson Stoner and JoJo Siwa to share their stories on camera; Raven-Symoné, Siwa and Stoner also joined Lovato on Sept.
12 at a special screening of the documentary, held at Neuehouse Hollywood. “Getting to talk to them so candidly about our experiences was so meaningful to me,” Lovato told Variety . Because of that shared experience, Lovato’s conversations were markedly different than sitting down with someone who hasn’t been there.
“There was a connectedness that was really important to all of us,” Lovato said. “That’s a part of the reason why I decided to co-direct this film, because it’s such a huge part of my story, and I knew that being able to connect with the participants would be so important. And I wanted to do it myself.
” Of course, Lovato (who uses they/them and she/her pronouns) knows a thing or two about documentaries. They’ve been the subject of three —2012’s “Stay Strong,” 2017’s “Simply Complicated” and 2021’s “Dancing With the Devil” — which chronicled the highs and lows of their li.