What is it about?
Although it was not until the end of the 1980s that the in-between child would be overtly labelled the ‘tween’, the figure of the tween and the tween star carry earlier iterations of the in-between. In the 1970s, Jodie Foster and Booke Shields both replenished and unsettled the ‘in-between’ star, these cultural contradictions were not exclusive to the preteen/subteen/tween, but rather resonated with the sexual tensions inherent in child star history more broadly.
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Photo by Lauren Richmond on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The article demonstrates that the tween and the tween star were not simply new cultural categories, but rather built upon and reflected many of the layers built around decades of child stars that came before them.
Perspectives
Thank you to my co-authors, Jessica Balanzateui and Diana Sandars.
Dr Djoymi Baker
RMIT University
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The child celebrity as palimpsest: reconceptualising the interface between childhood and celebrity studies, Celebrity Studies, August 2022, Taylor & Francis,
DOI: 10.1080/19392397.2022.2109302.
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