Debra’s moods and behaviour were erratic and everyone was frightened of upsetting her. They didn’t have much money: her father worked for a kitchen design company, and her mother sometimes worked shifts at Target, although her main job, McCurdy writes, was “ensuring I make it in Hollywood”. McCurdy grew up in Garden Grove, a small city in California, with her parents, grandparents and three older brothers in a Mormon family. “ I absolutely think there are a lot of harsh realities to child and teen stardom.” “I try to talk about everything from a personal point of view something more systemic,” says McCurdy. Last month Alexa Nikolas, another former child actor, took part in a protest outside Nickelodeon’s studio in California, claiming that child performers “were not safe” on shows made by the channel. There’s a general feeling that it isn’t a healthy place for young people working out who they are. If her mother’s behaviour reads as abhorrent, then the world of children’s TV doesn’t come across much better, with child stars having to cope with maniacal showrunners and gruelling auditions. Jennette McCurdy with her iCarly co-star Miranda Cosgrove in 2007. Debra would even wash McCurdy in the shower until she was 16, and touch her vagina and breasts (Debra had been diagnosed with breast cancer when McCurdy was two, and said she was checking for lumps), and shave her legs. Every aspect of McCurdy’s life was micromanaged, from who she was allowed to see to what she ate the restricted diet led to eating disorders. Since McCurdy was six years old, Debra had shaped and controlled her, turning McCurdy into a successful actor she was on the hit show iCarly, on the US children’s channel Nickelodeon, and its spin-off Sam & Cat. McCurdy is a child star who walked away from her career in her early 20s, something she could only do because of her mother’s death. “But not recognising: ‘Mom, I don’t know if people are loving you, exactly.’” “She’d be like: ‘My name’s on a No 1 New York Times bestseller!’” says McCurdy, laughing. Never mind that the title of her daughter’s memoir is the brilliantly punchy I’m Glad My Mom Died, or that it details Debra’s controlling and abusive ways. I n a strange sort of way Jennette McCurdy’s mother, Debra, is getting what she’d always dreamed of: fame.
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