Financial Feminist - 32. The Cost of Childhood Fame with Christy Carlson Romano

Episode Date: July 19, 2022

We’re usually so not the drama –– except this episode totally is. Today, Tori is joined by Christy Carlson Romano, who you may remember as the voice behind feminist icon Kim Possible or big sister to all, Ren Stevens on Even Stevens. Christy breaks down the real cost of rising to fame as a young adult, her infamous story of making and spending a million dollars in a year, her run-in with scammers, and how she’s masterfully using a blend of nostalgia and a knack for content creation to build a career as a creator outside of Hollywood.  Pre-Order “Financial Feminist: Overcome the Patriarchy’s Bullsh*t to Master Your Money and Build a Life You Love”: https://bit.ly/3PpHvlC Follow Christy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thechristycarlsonromano/ Follow Christy on TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@christycarlsonromano "I Hear Voices" Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/i-hear-voices/id1612506139 The Vulnerable Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/vulnerable-with-christy-carlson-romano/id1611988143 Our HYSA recommendation [affiliate]: http://sofi.com/herfirst100k Follow Financial Feminist on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/financialfeministpodcast/  Follow Her First $100K on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/herfirst100k/ Looking for more actionable money advice? Take our FREE money personality quiz! https://treasury.app/herfirst100k/money-journey-quiz  Leave Financial Feminist a voicemail: https://www.speakpipe.com/financialfeminist  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, Financial Feminist listeners. I'm Paulina Isaac, the communications lead here at Her First 100K. Before we get to the episode, we want to take a moment to address the June 24th Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. This decision stripped away the legal right to have a safe and legal abortion. and legal abortion. Restricting access to comprehensive reproductive care, including abortion, threatens the health and independence of all Americans. This decision could also lead to the loss of other rights. To learn more about what you can do to help, go to podvoices.help. That's P-O-D voices dot H-E-L-P. We'll also have resources linked in our show notes. We here at Her First 100K and Financial Feminists encourage you to speak up, take care, and spread the word. Thank you, Financial Feminists.

Crypto is like the financial system, but different. It doesn't care where you come from, what you look like, your credit score, or your outrageous food delivery habits. Hello. Hello hello financial feminists okay i have good news and i got some bad news bad news we're gonna be taking a break next week i know we've been going so hard so quick it is going to be a lovely one week summer break but the good news is not only are we getting a break which is good for our team but we're coming back the following week and we'll be back to your regularly scheduled programming with more incredible guests and solo episodes. So during that week, if there's episodes that you haven't listened to, haven't listened to fully, might be a good time to go back and tune into those.

Okay, anyways, back to this episode. Let me say, oh my goodness, if you love the drama, we got a lot of it in this episode let me say oh my goodness if you love the drama we got a lot of it in this episode it's piping hot we sit down with christy carlson romano yes that christy carlson romano that played feminist icon kim possible ren stevens and starred opposite hillary duff and cadet kelly in which we're all deciding as disney's first queer romance story y'all remember Christy Carlson Romano. She was a huge part of my childhood, and I'm sure a lot of people listening. Christy also did a few stints on Broadway and Disney's Beauty and the Beast, as well as the

musical Parade, and has two podcasts she currently hosts called I Hear Voices with Kim Possible co-star and Boy Meets World star Will Friedle, and The Vulnerable Podcast. She's also engaged a whole new generation of fans on her viral TikTok and YouTube videos, becoming a content creating force to be reckoned with. We talk about her viral story of making and spending a million dollars in a year. This woman made and spent a million dollars in a year, including $60,000 on a psychic. We also talk about the laws in Hollywood that protect minors from money-hungry parents, the complexity of being a child who's financially supporting your family, the biggest financial lessons she's learned, and some of the drama on exactly how Hollywood

operates. We love Christy because she holds nothing back, and you'll love this episode too. So let's go ahead and get into it. Okay. You got your YouTube plat. Is that platinum in the back? Is that what that is? Oh gosh. It's the first level of YouTube. It's 100,000 subscribers. It's, you know, the next one is so significantly, you know, it's higher. It's 500,000 or something. And then it's, you know, million. It's like it's like a video game. YouTube literally it's like you you you wake up and you live in a video game. Yeah. We post a couple of things on YouTube, but it's not like something we're doing consistently. And so I've always wondered, do they like ship them to your house? They're like, I need your address.

Dude, they know so much about you. Like when you're, when you're in their good graces, for real, like when you're in, when you're new and you're fresh and you're verified, like they're going to send you things. And like, they actually sent me, because originally I started doing YouTube cooking content and they sent me like spatulas, like a three set of spoons and whatever with my logo on them, which like nobody asked for. And I was like, wow. They gave you your own merch. They were like, here's some merch for you of your own brand. A hundred percent.

And I was like, these people know things. Initially, I felt like YouTube was really favorable and made a lot of sense for growth. And then over time, it's been really interesting as a creator to sort of understand growth and how much that equals in monetary value. And so my husband, who's my producing partner and I, are very big into our weekly development meetings

when we can eke them out with raising two kids together. And it's kind of really vital to really dig into the analytics of things in order to keep making a certain amount of money because of the way that that works. That's one part of it all. Well, it's always been so interesting so I I did theater forever and then decided I was like I want to take the practical route so I went into marketing and then I did social media marketing before taking it full-time to do my own thing and so it's just been really interesting watching the landscape just dramatically change interesting what are your takeaways oh I mean yeah I mean even like platform specific right you know everybody's trying to compete with everybody else instagram's trying to be tiktok now you know and then you have

like youtube that's that you know incentivizes longer form content versus you know tiktok which is also weirdly trying to compete with youtube so it's just been very interesting oh absolutely it almost emotes because it tells you to do seven second, you know, reels with a three second hook, like at the three second mark. And it's as a creator, it makes your head spin because you're just like, I have an authentic voice. How do I now have to manipulate that authenticity into monetizing that? You know, it's like it's a constant on every level. And you, I'm sure go

through this too. It's like, wait, but I have something to say. That's what has brought me here. I will say that TikTok is like, obviously the newest, shiniest toy for everybody. And like the algorithm is, I think the most favorable in terms of growth. I'd also think that that serves the hype of people using it. Like still think like they're they're allowing that to happen i i haven't done enough research to know why well i mean i kind of do know why yeah they're trying to get people to the platform and continue creating you know but we've seen even in the last three months a huge decline in our in our growth massive like it almost was like a yeah it was like a faucet literally turning off.

It was like completely on and then it's shut off. That is a bummer. Do you know about shadow banning? Like I don't really know much about it. Is it real? Yeah, I've been fully shadow banned. Yeah. I did a video early in my TikTok career about like managing because this was like at the peak of the pandemic where everybody was talking about OnlyFans. And so I did a video before I knew that you couldn't mention OnlyFans by name without getting flagged. So I did a video that's like, hi, if you're making money on OnlyFans, like here's how to manage it. And I got shadow banned and I reached out to TikTok and they're like, no, things are fine. I'm like, no, they're not fine because I went through them, you you know 99 notifications every minute to nothing

for two weeks oh for two weeks yeah that's a bad sign so I've I've I've always had some sort of a conservative growth which is a double-edged sword in so far that like I guess times that maybe shadow banning would be more persistent for some creators, I've been able to kind of eke by until I make the next viral thing or the next viral thing happens. So for example, like I wasn't posting a lot. And then I did something for this Lizzo dance that's currently trending. And Lizzo put me in one of her cut downs.

See, and then it was like, it was like, Oh, this is amazing. And then I feel like content has been back to that. So, you know,

it is, it is a really interesting thing to live with as a creator, which I fully intended on kind of discussing with you, which I'm loving that we just got off and running on it well and for you specifically I feel like just the internet in general for millennials there is so much just like nostalgia right like that's part of why I think a lot of these things do well and do you feel like that's a good chunk of like following or engagement is people recognizing you from from Disney days? vulnerable, which is a direct descendant from these like particular walk and talk, like spilling the tea on my life, memoir type vlogs that I was doing. And so people started to like make it a part of meme culture. And it was like this funny thing. And I was like,

that's great. That's flattering. If people are talking about it, then that means they're watching it. And then I ended up doing a podcast that was more mental health focused. That serves my female demo, which is like 81% of my like, you know, nostalgic base. And then I started another animation focused one, which is doing well and growing in its own right with Will Friedle, who is from Kim Possible. And so we just like launched that and the other one around the same time. And it was really interesting to see what my demo truly was in terms of the stick-to-itiveness of people coming back. And yeah, it really is fascinating when you draw back the curtain on yourself because we are given tools now more than ever before. And they're just like, here, good luck. You figure out how to use these,

but here's the information. And nostalgia though will say at least with tiktok what i've noticed is i tend to be the face of the fans you know i went to 90s con i hosted it and part of it was just me you know part of it was just me being really excited to be the host. They didn't pay me enough, but I was excited to be there. And I was freaking out in the guest green room because Nick Carter was there talking to Melissa Joan Hart. And I was like, oh my God, there's Christopher Lloyd. And then all these people had to talk to me. And so it was challenging to be professional in those moments and show people that were

watching it like, hey, I also have this like hosting side of myself that I want people to start to embrace, so to speak. But anyway, I digress. Nostalgia is really important part of my brand, obviously, but it's also not the only thing that I can rely on, essentially. Do you feel resentful of that? can rely on essentially do you feel resentful of that not at all okay because i i had a feeling like you know if if you know i know you from from disney that's what i i grew up watching kim possible like i loved kim possible grew up with that and so i have a feeling like i would think that if you know you were a disneyodeon star, whatever, and then now you know that a good portion of people following your content know you from that. Does that lead you to bitterness or resentfulness of like, no, I'm an adult now.

I'm a separate person with my own voice and my own things to do that weren't the animated series I did 20 years ago. For sure. And you know, a lot of my older, elder millennial folks that are like, I don't know, 30 and above, they know me from my on-camera work, like even Stevens. They know me from Cadet Kelly. And so they do know my face and the fact that I can sing and that I was on Broadway. I was in New York. My first time to New York was when you were playing Belle and I saw your face on every billboard. That's the weird and it's the weirdest thing. So it's like so it's this strange conundrum of like what I've called in the past a narcissistic purgatory where it's like you really you really can't escape yourself. So you

either have to lean into it and embrace it or it'll eat you alive. And I think for decades, it did eat me alive. I'm very vocal about my mental struggles with some of that growing pains, drinking, like, you know, stuff like that. And obviously spending my money where I shouldn't have with psychics and other stupid shit. I have questions about that, dude. I'm getting there. You should. Girl, let's get into it. So yeah, I mean, there was growing pains for sure. But I

think what you're catching me now is on a high of stability and focus and accountability to my audience. And if I'm telling stories, I'm not lying. I'm not hyperbolizing. If I'm telling them advice, it's because I would follow it myself. And so I'm in the business of authenticity. I'm fully aware of that. That's kind of where I'm at. part of who you are. Right. And like trying to seemingly escape something is like, no, it's, it's part of you. And it's like a benign tumor that you just have to live with. Sure. Sure. I guess, you know, like, and that, that's, you know, and that's not to like laugh at anyone's health situations. I don't want to get in trouble there, but like, but for real, it's like, there's nothing I can do to separate myself from it. So I have to out create it. Um, if, you know, this would be a lot easier if I was getting offered, you know, the next Sopranos or like, you know, traditional Hollywood opportunities. But when you enter the space as a creator,

you become, you know, subject to SEO and just like your, your, your, the scope of your life changes a lot. So I do struggle with very strict parameters for development. And I'm not alone in that I do have the support of my husband and producing partner, but he's more of a sounding board and he'll take on certain parts of growth. But a lot of this has to do with what I'm ultimately wanting to see for myself. So it's tricky, man. It's super tricky. When we did our research, we found the story about you spending money on a psychic. Can you talk to us about that? Okay. So we're in mid-despair world of Christy, basically. Actually, no, it was when you saw me.

You saw me as Beauty and the Beast. That was my first interaction with this psychic was right around that time. It was after the stage door, a psychic came and was like, I can help you with your love life. That's how you know it's not a real person when they come after you like that. Psychic people spiritually are not supposed to advertise for their services. You're supposed to come to them. So yeah so, uh, yeah, she, she kind of targeted me and obviously I had hundreds of people around me. I was the perfect, you know, Mark, if you want to call it that. And then, you know, we got into it and immediately when I called her, I was like, I've got a boyfriend from college that broke my heart. How do I get back with him?

I mean, come on, like, what is she not going to try to do and get from me? She squeezed me as, what is she not going to try to do and get from me? She squeezed me as, as far as she could. And she was like, you know, I finally, you know, I was 21 at the time when, Oh no, no, no, no. Sorry. I was 20 and I had all my Coogan money. I had all my money starting to come to me and I was writing checks. My mom gave me a checkbook. So I started writing checks to the psychic and, and they got bigger and bigger and more consistent. And it was probably for whatever she needed that day oh I've got electric bill okay I need this much from this girl basically it was a really shitty time where I somebody took advantage of my my magical thinking and that is something that happens to child actors I think is this concept of oh my god if I just keep auditioning I'll book it I'll book it I'll book. And so magical thinking is something that you're literally raised to believe

in. And then when you're working with Disney, forget about it, like magical thinking. So, you know, it happened and I'm really happy to bring awareness to it because there were a few people that reached out to me and even influencers that said that that did happen to them. And so, you know, yeah, these are these are there's some people out there who are predatory in unique ways. I wanted to take us back for folks that might not be as familiar with your work and have that just a discussion about what your experience was like as a child actor. And you had already kind of mentioned making a lot of money in a short amount of time and seemingly having very little guidance as to how to manage that money. So can you walk me through how child actors get paid, how you maybe specifically

got paid, and what ended up happening with all of that money? Okay. So basically it's really, it's really interesting to unpack, but it's, it's hard because there's so many levels here. When you're a child actor, let's say you get on a TV show, you start at a very like base level. And if you get renewed for a season two, a season three, you're able to renegotiate just like an adult would. And generally because you're a child, if you haven't done things in the past, your rate is at high to begin with. So they're catching you at a low already. And all it costs is your childhood. But essentially, you're getting that. And also, I should mention that you are working less hours. So if they're paying, if they are paying you a rate,

that's, you know, they're, you're working less hours too. And it's not like you're, you are working in an adult environment, but you're not working the same as an adult until you're like 16 and emancipated because you choose to, or you're 18, which is what I did. I didn't, I didn't emancipate. So as the seasons progressed, my rate was negotiable. And so I think at my height, I was making like maybe 10 to $13,000 a week, which isn't much when you think about what creators make, but at the time for a Disney channel show that was top of show, you know, other than like our guests, maybe our guest stars that we would come. I think I'm pretty sure that I was favored nations with Shia LaBeouf, who was my co-star on even Stevens. And then I think I did a movie called cadet Kelly with Hilary Duff. And I think I'm pretty sure she got more than me because she wasn't,

I don't think she had a favored nations with her cast and her rate was higher. You know, um, when you say favored nations, can you tell us what that is? Absolutely. So favored nations is when i don't actually know why it's called that which is my own ignorant thing that i need to rectify but basically it promises that no one else is making more than you and that if your co-star and you are putting in the same hours and you're basically the same appeal because we were it was both of our show then he can't make more than me and so that's a very important thing in terms of negotiation and a lot of times the casts will unite to to kind of have that mentality of

all kind of making the same i think like friends kind of what friends did right everybody on friends was like no one's gonna make more we're all gonna make the exact same yeah and it was at that time too which i find really interesting it was right around that time that friends was like becoming, like they were becoming millionaire millionaires from their episodes, by the way, like they didn't even have merch back then. Um, in the, um, you know, what was that? Like 2000 and 2000 pretty much was when we were really filming. And so, yeah, you know, I was making that money, so it wasn't a lot. And then so much of that goes away and then you start making more money in your residuals. So then you start to make money for not doing anything. And then if you're doing other projects, it's just residual passive income. And so if you're not producing it right. You're getting a cut of every episode that's shown. Right. And that's what the residual is, as you should, for sure. And and and, you know, yeah, I mean, you're getting that. And then in 10 cycles time, if they show.

drops 10%. So after 10 years, you get a significant drop off, which is why my theory of why child actors are so bamboozled by making absolutely no money within a 10 year. Like that's when they hit their limit. Like that's when they hit their rock bottom is like their money starts to dwindle away and they haven't learned how to save it properly. And so, you know what I mean? It's that old thing of it's passive income. It's not income you live on. And yet, if you're not being hired for things, I didn't exactly have the opportunity to get a normal job. I was actually really interested in babysitting at that time. I wanted to, I always sought out to be normal. I always was like, what is it like to just go to regular high school? I've written about this before and I wanted that experience of being around children.

And, and I, I still, to this day, after having two kids, I feel like it could have been really cool to just have those sort of normal sets of responsibilities and to be like paid for that. And it didn't have to be some inflated value number. It could have just been what was worth my time. So I didn't do that, but I did go to college and, you know, had a normal amount of debt that people have. And so something I will mention is the Coogan law is a really vital law for child actors. And, um, beyond the residuals, what was happening was I was living off of residuals. And then eventually I was living off of the Coogan fund because that was tucked away for me to go to college. I left college to do beauty and the Beast, as you saw on Broadway.

And at that point, I had really become like a, I don't know, a juggernaut at like, I'm going to do a book deal. I'm going to do a record deal. ICM is invested in my career now. I'd left my old agency and was like trying to be packaged essentially and so my mom a lot of this is generational too which we should definitely get into i i acquired their ignorance we've talked about it extensively on the show this might blow your mind the majority of money habits are cemented by age seven so oh god the majority wait a minute i have a five-year-old you're doing personal inventory what are we doing i'll tell you what we're working really hard so you know and and she and she sees mom and dad go to work all the time and they're in the house they're together we're not fighting

we love working together so i think that's good yeah but i think i think we ignorantly think oh you, if I'm quote unquote bad with money or if, you know, I have some sort of financial trauma, it's like entirely my fault. And it's one very societal or systemic. And the second thing is that it's so influenced by the way we saw other people in our lives manage money, largely our family. Oh my God. Now you just gave me some anxiety. I was meant to be reassuring. No, I love it. No, I love it. It's really good. I love it. You're so smart. And it's so wonderful to hear that. And, and, and no, but like really though, money and value are so important for women. And they're actually so intrinsically tied to young female child actors. And what ends up happening when you go through that process of losing your passive income without any investments is so humiliating. You start thinking desperately, you start making desperate moves. You know, I really attribute my desperation and essentially what ended up becoming like an addiction to people, places and things, you know, that you hear about in either Al-Anon or AA.

And like, I'm not actively working a program. I just been to a lot of meetings. And so I kind of have taken a lot of those teachings to heart and applied them working a program. I just been to a lot of meetings. And so I kind of have taken a lot of those teachings to heart and applied them without a sponsor, but it matters a lot to me to have some sort of accountability and some perspective. If I'm going to go and tell people like, Hey, you know, I'm here for you. Talk to me, tell me, you know, how can I help? I want to be of service, but it needs to be. Sometimes I actually get scared because I'm like, I need to be learning all the time. Like I need to be the one that has all the

answers. But, you know, I digress again. No, I cut you off. I think we were talking about the Kugin law and I really want you to explain it because I think it's really important. Wonderful. I love how like on it you are. So 30% of all of my paychecks when I was a minor would go into a Coogan fund. I believe it was managed by the union and that money would be held and then it was a fund or an, you know, yeah, it was a fund and it would be accessible when I turned 18. Honestly, I don't remember when I turned 18 how accessible that was. I think my mom must have handled all of the paperwork on that. But I would think if I were to be a stage parent, that that would be an excellent time in a child's life to fully ramp them up into understanding, you know, we have X, we have X

amount. What are we going to do with it? You know, and, and, and that would be an excellent time to do that if you weren't, if you weren't doing it beforehand for some reason or another. So what happened instead? Bad stuff, bad stuff. You know, I, I helped my family out a lot. My mom was paid by me because she had some issues with credit. And so I was helping my family kind of rebuild her credit and thereby help their mortgage payments be lower or something like that. I'm not even really fully clear on it. My dad was, he's passed now. So, you know, he had some issues with money too, and he was always an entrepreneur, but he was more on the riskier side of just really kind of,

I guess he grew up poor. Yeah. So this is, if you want to talk about like generational and how this all comes into what it means to be a stage parent and what motivates them to get their child in the business to monetize their childhoods, essentially. It's an extremely complex issue. And in my case, I did have statistically parents that I feel like are not, they're not wealthy, right? Like wealthy parents aren't like go in the business unless they're already in the business. And then they're like, okay, you know, like Judd Apatow's daughters are like in the business or Ethan Hawke and Uma Thurman's daughters and stranger things. And it's like, it's like nepotism at its finest really, because they, how could they not go in the business, I guess is the point. But I think I have a little bit of a different take on that. So

with these stage parents, a lot of them are struggling and trying to kind of figure out easy layups in life. I think I don't think a lot of them go in it being like, I'm going to steal all my kids money. I just don't think that they have a plan because they're like, well, she could make it and that would be great. And then we'll deal with it when it happens you know and i think nine times out of ten that's the mentality well and we know from a lot of shia shia's work like it sounds very similar like his was obviously and his telling extremely extremely intense um yeah you know shia's father and mother situation was very life or death like if he hadn't if he yeah like if he hadn't booked even stevens i really don't know i'm sure he would have made it somehow but but i think

you know i think about you and like i my heart just like it's you know i got my childhood we got our childhoods off the back of yours you know like no but like that's it's very it's very um it's great for us terrible for you you know like and that's why i am leaning into the nostalgia tori because but my heart just goes out for younger you where like the pressure of that and then also um you know the looking back and realizing like okay i worked really hard largely you know to to take care of my parents that shouldn't be your responsibility when you're 12 13 15 you know that's yeah yeah yeah well and it was it was 16 really when it started to hit um certainly shia was shia was dealing with that from an even way earlier age and for me i think that the justification was like, we invested so much

already into this, to her training. I had a $30,000 private school in the city that I went to a year and we were on financial aid, of course. And my parents were refining their house and robbing Peter to pay Paul was what we always were talking about in the house. And my first memories, some of, not first memories, some of not first memories, but some of my more crystal clear memories are my parents fighting, you know, about money and, um, having to overhear that and run to my brother as a little kid being like, are they okay? Are they okay? And my brother being like, don't worry, go to bed. My brother, interestingly enough, has become a financial badass. He manages personal wealth and portfolios. He diversifies portfolios.

He had me literally memorize that because I don't know what the hell that means. Is he like a wealth advisor? Is that what it is? I actually think he manages more like, he like family funds and stuff and yeah like he's he's he's really great he worked at that's like me coaching my my family as to what I do they're like I don't know she owns her own business I was especially when I was working in social media I'm like I'm a social media marketer and they're like I don't know what that is but okay I'll say it exactly and I love him for it. And like, he's, he's literally worked at, so he started as a financial analyst, like back in the day, you know? Um, and then he, he went to Babson and I, I'm so proud of him. So I never give him props, but maybe he'll watch this. And then like, he, he is the opposite of what my dad sort of was like,

my brother's very conservative in his investments. He's, um, he has the spirit of an entrepreneur. So I think a lot of him wants to do like artistic, cool stuff, but he, he struggles too, like with all that. And he wants to be responsible and he has a family and children. And, you know, when you grow up that way, it creates barriers. It creates some trauma. And, you know, when markets are as unstable as they can be, sometimes I look at him and I'm like, I have a lot more upside than he does, you know, in some ways. But I have a lot of respect for him and, yeah, where we've come from as a family. Yeah, most definitely.

and yeah, where we've come from as a family. Yeah, most definitely. So, I mean, transitioning out of that, right. And even actually before you were doing Disney Channel stuff, you were in Parade, which is, you know, this incredible musical that's very heavy subject matter. And then, you know, you're dealing with a lot of personal things as well. How are you managing your mental health between doing fun comedic things like Disney, but also having that double edged sword of being a Disney kid, but then also diving into a lot of this like darker material? Okay. So basically I had two roads I could have gone down i was talking to somebody in new york and i was like yeah you know i just did this pilot for disney and it had been somebody

who uh i actually ended up becoming a big disney voice actress um and we were you know friends from new york and she knows she knows about this too. I kind of laughed about it with her. And I was like, and she was like, why do you want to do Disney stuff? She's like, if you do that, you'll never be taken seriously. And we were like 15, I think she was like 16, 17. And I was like, oh no. And so by that time I had done a lot of indie films in New York City. I had done a lot of really cool theater that was, you know, like you said, like Parade was kind of pushing the envelope. I'd been in an indie movie called Henry Fool with Hal Hartley, who was this big cinema indie filmmaker guy. Like he's just massive. And then I was in a Woody Allen movie. indie filmmaker guy like he's just massive and then I was in a Woody Allen movie like there was just there was a road set before me that if I had stayed in New York I could have been like

I don't even know like who knows what I could have been but I could have been down the trajectory like of a Parker Posey zany fun like who knows what I would have done and the choices I would have made I could have also just quit at a certain point if the money hadn't come. That's what's interesting about it. Say that for me. You would have quit if the money hadn't come? Is that what you said? Probably. I probably would have quit. Yeah. Because I think my family being the money that they had and didn't have the insecurity of that i think it wouldn't have fueled the desire for me to continue that if i had gotten older and just hadn't you know continued along that path i probably would have gone to college and just

cycled out of it well that's also you, if you didn't quote unquote make it, it's like, you know, not only is that really expensive to continually pursue something with very little, you know, very little money. Yeah. And then, but also like, you know,

I know we're near the same level, but as a theater kid, like you have to become very resilient to the point where you're like hearing no all of the time. And for many folks, totally understandably, that breaks somebody down at a point after eight years, 10 years of doing that. Yeah.

And I actually think as a stage parent, like I don't think I could I don't think I could handle that on behalf of my child. Watching their watching your kid. Yeah. Here. No, it's like really hard. Jesus Christ. No, I don't think I could do that to them. I'm unpacking that here.

Well, yeah, it's watching your kid be very vulnerable and put themselves out there and then, yeah, hearing no. Yeah, it's very hard. And that sucks. Yeah. Right. I think uniquely for women or for girls, really, in the 90s and 2000s there was i don't even know it's so much bullshit the media scrutiny of folks who were rising up at that time yourself hillary duff lindsey lowen like all of mary kate and ashley like all of these women who were like tabloid fodder during that time. They were, yeah. Yeah.

Well, you went, I think you gave an interview where you were like, I will never trade the struggles of some of those people for the fame that they received. Like, can we talk a bit about that? Because I think we're having this like reckoning like with Brittany now of like, oh my gosh, we treated her so terribly. Right. And like, we're looking back at a lot of these girls who were girls or at least young women right like what for you like how does how does somebody reckon with all of that and how did you escape it because I know you have all you know you had all these other traumatic things happen but I feel like uniquely that experience was like something that you managed to avoid. Yeah, it's crazy. So I was on a trajectory, I think,

if I had stayed in California, but I had left to go to college and I left at 18. I had tested for five pilots. I booked two. I chose one, you know, like when you're coming off a show, you're hot. So it's like, I took the one that I thought I responded to and thought was cool. Cause it was like the executive producers are friends. It was something called boarding school. I could be sexy. I could be the lead. And like, I wanted to be like Jennifer Aniston. So I was like, look, I'm going to do this. And then in my mind, I remember thinking, well, if this doesn't work, I can just go to Columbia. And so it's a win win. And I remember that a director on that pilot set had said to me, you know, if you do this, like you're making a really big decision to leave, you know, Hollywood. And a part of me was like, yeah, Hollywood. Can I swear on this podcast? me was like yeah Hollywood can I swear on this podcast of course you can okay okay of course I was like fuck Hollywood you know I was just like fine stick it in the ear you know of Hollywood like I'm going to do my thing I thought I was better like I thought I was better than the system

and I thought Claire Danes Natalie Portman I was like these women were doing that and granted they had had really big feature film success and I was coming from you know like this situation of being like a lead on a a co-lead on a Disney Channel show that Disney was not high school musical Disney. It was something under that scope. So I chose probably poorly, but I chose, I feel like in that moment I advocated for my mental health accidentally. Then you didn't choose poorly. I suppose. But what came with that, some of that you can't fix. You know what I mean? Like going to college, being an actor, and then going and living in the dorms because you want to seek out a normal college experience, which includes heartbreak, clickiness, gossip, confusion, isolation, depression, eating disorder, drinking. All that shit comes to you so quickly because you didn't go to high school and you know, you didn't figure it out. It's a delayed maturity. So that happened. But yeah, so I, I dodged it because I left what that costed me. We will never know. And I find

it funny because a lot of times I'll pontificate like in my, in my YouTubes. Oh, you know, like I say, Oh, you know, this is how we, we, we find these really like funny clickbaity titles and people just go off on them. Cause I'm like, Oh, I, Katy Perry has my career or Anne Hathaway. And I could have done, you know, I could have been like Anne Hathaway. I don't mean any of that shit. Like I'm just having people click on it and then talking about it. Um, cause that's the way the algorithm works. And I deliver on that it's clickbait. it because that's the way the algorithm works and I deliver on that. It's clickbait. If you don't deliver on it, that's clickbait. But what I was finding was I can reach more people and the algorithm can sort of work in my favor if I'm just like putting the best version of this like SEO

title out. Totally. And we've we've experienced that, too. I can only imagine. Yeah. Titling these episodes for listeners out there, you think titling an episode of a podcast is easy. Anyone on my team can tell you it is like the most strenuous process to try to title an episode. Well, I can you explain why, though, like that? Oh, SEO. First thing. So that's search engine optimization. So when you go on Google and you Google a Tori Dunlap, Chrissy Carlson Romano, what shows up is the SEO of how have you optimized a certain website in order to show up. The same works with podcasts. So if you search, let's say, money podcasts for women in Spotify,

I'm hoping that Financial Feminist comes up. Or if you're searching a specific episode about, I don't know, retirement accounts or about, you know, maybe child actors, right? Maybe I'm hoping this episode comes up, right? And it's also, you're not just being measured in the algorithm by, you know, oh, do people find it? But also, how long do people stay and engage with what you have, right? So, that's part of it too, is you're hoping not only can people find you really easily, but that they're interested enough to not only click play, but to maybe even download the episode, which is actually different than clicking play. A lot of people don't realize that if you click on a podcast episode versus like download it or listen

up to a certain point. So I'm just trying to find you and then I'm trying to get you to care and I'm trying to get you to care for as long as I can get you to care. Yeah. Very hard. It's very hard. But same thing with YouTube, right? Yeah. Same thing.

It's all the same. It all ends up in the same mentality of this AI. Right. And of course, you're trying to provide value for people, right? You're not just to your point about like it's only clickbait if it isn't. That's a great quote. It's only clickbait if it doesn't deliver, right? Exactly. So, you know, if I am going to say, oh, I'm going to title an episode a certain way, well, you better walk away with the answer to that question I'm asking you or, you know, whatever that looks like.

And it can be exhausting, but I'm willing to go there for the sake and the health and the well-being of my channel, my content, my brand. I would say... And paying your rent, paying your mortgage, paying your, you know, yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, what I always find ironic about people who like are haters, which I'm kind of getting used to them now, I never thought I would because I'm literally the person who cares so much about everything. I am too. A lot of people think that I'm just like, fuck it, whatever. Like I secretly I'm I'm, you know, one of those chocolates that you crack the shell and then in

the middle, I'm a little molten chocolate lava cake. Like I just I want you to like me and I want you to be really happy that you're here and excited about what we do. And when you're not, it really makes me sad. Oh, man. But see, I'm looking like you're I'm looking at the financial feminist, like beautiful the cover photo. And it's like I read that brand and see how people can think that it's like what you need to put forward, which it is like a lot of it. A lot of it. I don't really care about. Right. You say tit forward. Is that what you just said? What did I say? Oh, my God. I mean, it's like it is. The girls are out there. They're between the F's. They're between the two

F's. No, but like it is like that. That it very much is a lot of who I am in the brand. But I'm also just like, I'm like, no, I'm Leslie. No. Yeah. I just want you to love me. You know what? I honestly feel like exposure therapy has been the most important thing for me in this situation. It's been, okay, you can say maybe 10 shitty things to me in the comment section and I block you and it ends there. That's what it is. It's like, oh, okay. Ooh, you did something, you big man, big person. Okay, enough. Fucked. Bye. And then the other thing I used to say when I was getting some interesting interviews happening from these walk and talk YouTube thingies I was doing, which I'm going to go start doing again, by the way, which we can get into, but it's not going

to be the same. It's going to be more broad and more mental health focus. It's not going to be about tea and gossip and all that crap, which I didn't really want it to be about. It just kind of started to come out and I like word vomited every time that i was talking yeah i had to get through some shit oh yeah i was i don't regret it i don't regret it but i started having some people be like in the interview section like oh well what do you think about people who are saying things against you or this or that and i was like you know i was like exposure therapy these people are not my demo is what I used to say. Oh, I think that all the time, too.

Yeah. Right. It's like you're I'm obviously not here to serve this person. And so if you're not my demo, click away. I say click away. It's OK. Right. Do you feel like because this is a unique experience, right?

experience right like the time you were you know on disney acting doing all of those things was before the constant feedback that we all get what what do you feel like is different now that you are uh you're just a public person but in a different way where you're you're you're available to feedback all the time do you feel like your experience might have been better or worse if you would have the same like social media or grown up during the time of social media? Okay. So let's see if a Disney channel actor comes on the scene right now, they are immediately guaranteed millions of followers. What they do with that influence is up to them. Um, I feel like a lot of them aren't really geared up to monetize as good as I am because I've been in the business for so long and I have certain things set up around me to really

optimize my situation. I don't have the numbers. Which props to you because, no, but the amount of people that I know, especially like I specifically with TikTok people, random people who have blown up on TikTok, they slide in my DMs and they're like, how do I I can make money? And I'm like, yes, like, but you need to know what you're doing. And plenty of people don't. And I think it's because I have the traditional Hollywood background that I'm like, I mean, it's actually been a really positive experience. I don't have the numbers that... And actually, if I want to go back, Ashley Tisdale was one of the first Disney stars

to have a massive Twitter following. Do you remember that? I don't remember her on Twitter. So she got to like... I remember her wearing skirts over jeans and I wore that a lot in middle school because I thought that was cool. I had a full skirts over jean phase

completely prompted by ashley i get it it was i i gotta say i think if you google you'll see some of that of me too not nearly as like skirts over jeans oh yeah oh i'm literally doing it right now oh my god okay look up the miss 60 party on wire image and you'll and i remember this one time i actually thought it was a cute look they're boot cut they're boot cut jeans with some sort of a dress but it was very much my version of that whereas i feel like hers was more of like a skort over what was what was the miss 60 miss 60 kristy carlson Romano. I'm looking. Look at you. Such a young bean.

I know, right? I just see all photos of you from like. Miss 60. M-I-S-S. So M-I-S-S and then space and then 60. And then you can say Miss 60 party. Oh, my God. What year was that?

Someone. Maybe it's you on SEO. At least for me. There. There. Nothing to be found. Maybe. Maybe you got you got it i'm gonna just send it i'm gonna send you the picture of the you are of the inquiring minds that are listening to the podcast want to know about this this look and honestly also cut this if we want okay i'm like and honestly though like that's not the only time that i that i did that look it was a look.

I agree. I completely agree. I love it. It was a moment in time. But Ashley was the first. She had come on my radar. Okay. And I had been out in California struggling for a little bit.

I think I was actually starting to, like, that was in my more darker times, my more desperate times. Where I was like, yeah, this Twitter thing's happening. But, like, this isn't really for me. And like these kids, these new kids coming up, like they want to do this Twitter thing. Like, I don't really care about this, whatever. Like, I'm going to try to just go back to New York. And I went back to college and I said, I'm going to quit acting. I'm just going to be okay. I want to direct actually. I was like, I'm going to be a director. I'm going to study directing. I want to get through as fast as possible. So there were buzzes of that. I was 26 at the time that that happened. So she was becoming this iconic moment in my mind because she had reached like a certain amounts of a million followers on Twitter

or something like, and it was what everyone was talking about. Oh my God, she has so many, she's such a big Twitter following and she's launching her own production company. Now, this was before Reese Witherspoon had a production company. This was before a lot of people did. And I was shocked that like, oh my God, she's a producer. That's a big deal. We weren't empowered in that way coming out of my generation of Disney stars. Like, I don't even know if you would, you would own up to being a producer. So for example, Hilary Duff's had, you know, her movie, the Lizzie McGuire movie, it was, it had outside financing. And I think it was somehow related to her or something. That was the, that was the rumor mill. I'm not a hundred percent certain on that. Disney sort of was always the kind of

people that were a little bit shy to be like, well, we'll give even Stevens a movie, but it'll just be a Disney original movie. It won't be like its own feature or anything like that. Yeah. So when it came time for Lizzie McGuire to actually have a feature, that was massive for Hillary, right? Like she had from that, she had um her album drops her record deals that had to be one of the first disney channel movies to actually like open in theaters it was maybe the first it was yeah

yeah it was and it would solidified her career if you think about it and and she wasn't all of it speaking of nostalgia that whole thing's back too like it is i mean it blew up in in disney's face but i think that she's done a wonderful job of pivoting you know she's been lined up for years with her people i mean she's just freaking genius like she's she is that that road that that was the less traveled road of not going to college and sticking it out and aggregating capital to push yourself forward. And she's what social media does for someone like now pushes them into the forefront. She did that for herself without social media, which is why she is iconic and why she does deserve to have a long standing career. You know, it's like she did younger for a while. She was a little

a little dark and then younger launched her in. And, you know, now she's on How I Met Your Father. So it's like she's who needs Lizzie McGuire when you can figure out how to get out of the Disney, you know, rant. Yeah, totally. So you've pivoted, right, and are doing so many different things like you're you've got the youtube channel the podcast and it seems like you are speaking of like production right or about like kind of controlling your own destiny it seems like you're really working to build something that you're in control of rather than an acting career where more power is in your hands than in the hands of like a casting director do you feel like

folks should continue to kind of build on their own land is that something that you've seen you know a transition from and and what do you what do you love about it what do you what is different for you about it yeah i think somebody who grew up with hearing constant rejection and had to be you know barking like a dog and jumping through hoops and not living my life normally like i think if there's any resentment it's there and so far that i lived my life exclusively in california and had to stay there and had to date people that live there. And I had to like exist in those four walls or whatever. And like, I was so sick of it that when my husband was like,

we're going to go to Austin, I was like, sign me the F up. Like even before that, when we had kids and I stopped drinking when I was pregnant with my first, we went down to Orange County and it was like my whole life could change because I didn't have to be stuck in LA with the occasional New York trip. It was like bi-coastal or nothing at all. I'm constantly looking for somebody else's approval. Your success is based on have you won somebody over or not? Sucks. And then what you had been saying, which I don't think I really succinctly answered, but listeners bear with me because this is part of my brand is that I am charming, listeners bear with me because this is part of my brand is that I am charming, but completely erratic is that you had mentioned that, you know, back in the day in the, in the nineties and

two thousands that the women that were growing up had a lot of media coverage and a lot of like, like scrutiny on them and whatnot. Part of that did serve them because if they were doing the maxims, the FHM, they were getting casted in the rom-coms they were getting casted in you know all of those like the faculty or like whatever like whatever it was they could like segue their themselves out of of what people knew them as and then it became its own thing though of like okay when's she gonna turn 18 which is just predatory and fucking awful and disgusting i remember oh it was awful it's awful i remember emma watson giving an interview you're not allowed i'm trying to remember you're not allowed to take like a

scandalous tabloid photo of somebody who's under 18 and then she said literally at my 18th birthday there were paparazzi waiting to shoot under my skirt the moment i walked out like it's awful it's disgusting that's so disgusting and there and then and therein lies that one question that you asked me where it's like i wouldn't trade that for anything in the world because people didn't come at me like that i went to these places like i went to hide and i went to marquee and i went to all the clubs and generally paparazzi just weren't interested they weren't taking the bait they weren't interested because I wasn't sloppy coming out of the club, I guess, or, uh, you know, there was either two roads you could go down. It wasn't usually, it wasn't a good

road to be seen out and about, but before social media, you could not get it. And if you weren't being booked, right, like right away on the FHM covers and whatever, the only way that you could be seen out and about is through paparazzi so you would hope to be seen at these clubs and and and if you didn't date somebody famous then it was like you're not topical so when we talk about independence and growth and self-worth and self-love social media actually does give you that option to build, like you said, on your own land. There is no such thing as a free lunch. There's going to be sacrifice from anyone, right? So now I can't put my phone down because I'm constantly looking at trends and I'm constantly

having to, you know, I don't have somebody forecasting trends for me. I don't have a social media manager. I don't have a creative director for Christy Carlson Romano Inc. Like that, that, that's me and you know, my husband, but I would rather it be that way to some extent and have conservative growth. I'd rather have that. Yep. And I, I feel the same way. Like I worked under people I didn't like and didn't respect. And I was like, all right, the moment I don't have to do this anymore, we're not going to do it. Yeah. And so, you know what it means to then have that be related to your self-worth.

Oh, completely. I feel I love the woman I am and the woman I'm becoming. Like I love I love who I am. And a good chunk of it is because I built a lot of this myself and I'm really proud of how how much I've built and yeah I I can imagine that you feel similarly especially leaving an industry that was so yeah it was hinging so much on somebody else's opinion of you I I find it ironic though that like I had to like have my heart broken a bajillion times and find a way to have a marriage that was healthy to only have him be sort of my, my manager again. You know

what I'm saying? So like, there's always a part of me that's like, can I do this on my own? Or do I need my husband? And the truth is, is that I don't think we need as women to be so harsh on ourselves and judge ourselves so harshly. If it's working and it's not making you feel shitty about yourself, then you have to embrace the good of what's working, right? Like work begets work. Money can be get money sometimes like, you know. And so I feel like I'm learning a lot from my husband. What I've chosen to do is there was a point at which I looked at him, and we have these two young babies at the time, and it's right around the pandemic. And I look at him, I'm like, we could make a lot more money if you just lean into this,

because he has his own career. He's a writer. He has his own big projects and development. But I look at him and I'm like, if you go in on this with me, all in, you have the backbone and you have the ability to say no on my behalf. And if you're able to do that, I think this could be good for all of us. So that was my consent and saying, please come in and do this. And since he started making deals, his maturity, his philosophy about our family, you know, we've just bought our first house. He came to be in a different way that I had only hoped for him, you know? And yeah, so it really is a beautiful thing to work with your partner, um, and to see them thrive amongst the stuff that you're able to create together. So we really do love each other and it's sometimes it does not work and it should, and you should

just not do it, but you know, and we take it a day at a time too. Like, I feel like if we hit, um, if we had a part in our lives where we were like shit like we really can't stand being in the same room i think we would be very honest with each other about that but we really do take it a day at a time yeah well and it's we had my friend amy who um her moniker is queen herbie and she and her now husband were carmen for a very long time and did music under that name and now she is kind of the face of it and he's her producer and she talked a lot about on our episode about you know how do you navigate life both you know life and business with the same person like

how is your life partner also your business. So what have you learned in navigating business and navigating, you know, building a lot of these things with your life partner, who is also your business partner? You have to listen more than you speak, but you also have to do that for your own benefit. So something about being a child actor really made me very transactional. And it's something that I've had to come to understand about myself. I don't know if I'll ever not be able to think of life in a transactional way. It kind of deadens in you the ability to kind of not want to anticipate stuff. So for me, I'm like, okay, well, what am I getting out of this? Well, what am I getting out of that? I think one of the things in just unpacking it here

that this has given me is the gift of a family transaction. It's that we all benefit from a good viral video or a really great ambassadorship that'll last us for three to six months. You know, we all are enjoying this. And so I do find it ironic that like when people want to hate on me for doing, you know, a sponsored ad or something, I'm like, if you watch anything else, that is sponsored like on a big way. Everything.

Yeah. And if it's free, you're paying in some other way. You're paying in your data. You're paying. You're paying some way. Everything. Yeah. And if it's free, you're paying in some other way. You're paying in your data. You're paying. You're paying some way. The mom and pop stores that people used to go into their neighborhoods have become digitalized. You know, it's it's it's like we are influencers, our mom and pops shops. And so I would I only gas people up when i see them doing a good deal like get that get that coin do your thing i don't have to use your promo code but i don't have to say something shitty no and support companies you believe in don't don't fucking promote tummy tea but like you know it's like i i mean i get the same thing where it's like oh it's sponsored posted and i'm like

how would you like me to pay my rent like how would you like me to pay my pay my my employees? Because believe it or not, there's actually 13 people behind. And that's like employing 13 people because of that sponsored ad. Like my children are able to, you know, we're able to build. And I'm giving you all of this free content. I'm able to produce a podcast because there's ads on this podcast because companies are willing to pay for. Yeah. No, I mean, you don't have to preach to me. I'm able to produce a podcast because there's ads on this podcast because companies are willing to pay for it. Yeah. No, I mean, you don't have to preach to me. I'm like, I'm all in. But yeah. And I think I love the idea that, yeah, it's like, OK, if a video does well or a podcast

episode does well or we partner with a brand we like, it's not just my win. It's the entire family's win. We are the Rooney family. win. It's the entire family's win. A hundred percent. We are the Rooney family. But on the other side of that is if, if it goes bad, right, we pivot quickly. We've learned how to fail upwards and we've pivoted quickly. And sometimes like right now, we're going to go back to do these walk and talks. And I had told Brennan, I was like, you know, you know, he got Intel from somebody who was at YouTube and was a big YouTuber. And he was like, you know, this is the best thing on Christie's channel. It's sustainable. You know, it does lots of different things for her brand, like do this.

And he's like, okay, let me, let me talk to Christie about it. And so we sit down, we have development meetings and we talk about the brand, the brand, the brand, and it's more or less serving the demo than it is staying on brand too because i think that the demo wants you to grow because the demo wants to grow with you otherwise they're stagnant and then they'll go find someone else well and then it also becomes a little suspicious right where they're like if this person isn't growing or changing then it feels more like a performance right you like mentioned authenticity at the top right like yeah you know all of it whether we like it or not on social media is a slight performance even if you you know are authentic right you're showing up and you're

you're there are cameras in your face like you are performing in some area right or at to some level oh yeah but i feel like you know if you are doing the same thing you've done for a year five years i don't know 10 years it's yeah yeah people people yeah yeah people can smell that yeah 100 100 yeah yeah i find that that i haven't i don't know that many people that have done that or maybe they're shadow banned or like you know i'm saying like maybe i don't see their content because right or they were really hot for a year and then we've never heard from them. Exactly. Like, where are they? Which which which is very similar to some of the, you know, the child actor thing where. We are probably going to see a lot of these tick tockers or I don't know if you actually will, but it will be very interesting to see how the fall of these tiktokers who are young

and like have fallen into this will will be like you know they are today's child actors and i was just about to say that i was just about to say that yeah yeah in their own way with i think even you know some pros where you hopefully get to control it more. I think of, yeah, like Charlie D'Amelio, right? Like, yeah. Yeah. But Charlie D'Amelio takes care of her whole damn family. Like,

so does I literally, that was the next thing out of my mouth. Yeah. What's her name? Um, Addison Ray, like they, her whole family lives with her from Louisiana.

They went out there and like, she puts them up and like, that's great for her mental health, of course, but you know, her mom's got, you know, every single buddy and her family has got their own like like insta and yeah if you watched a second of

yeah the like d'amelio hulu uh documentary or the series they did like you start realizing like oh if the 17 year old wants to take a break or wants to go to prom and doesn't want to work for a week a bunch of other people don't get paid so it's like that's horrible she becomes the like ceo of a company i've not actually i've not actually watched that show but i've seen the uh commercials and it seems like she's breaking down a lot like she is not uh the the sunny face that that think. Like there's a lot of struggle there, in my opinion. I think that there's a lot going on. Right. So, you know, a lot of the pros are, you know, a lot of money potentially, you know, elevating your family out of, you know,

financial trauma. But also, yeah. What sort of feedback are you constantly getting on social media? How many people are telling you to go die every single hour of every single day yeah plus the weight of that right again that's what i was saying earlier if i like i think about you and your experience and like there had to have been so many pros but there had to that had to have been really tough that had to been really tough to navigate i think at the end and it was tough and i didn't navigate well and now i'm on the other side of that. But no one blames you. That's the thing. It's like, nobody blamed you.

Of course. Of course nobody blamed you. Of course you didn't. Actually, that's not true. Some people do blame me. Some people are real nudges, as I will call them. In some of the comments, which I read, or I did read the comments because I was very, I felt very exposed and very vulnerable when I was doing those

walk and talks. And, you know, some people are like, boohoo, like, so what, you missed your opportunity or like you ruined, you squandered your whatever. And it was, it was hard. It was hard to stomach some of that stuff. But like I said, it's exposed. Those are, those are Monday morning quarterbacks. Those are people who, you know, like you can sit on the sidelines and never do this. And I mean, Brene Brown's beautiful quote, right? Like you don't get to talk unless you're in the arena, blood, sweat and tears, right? Like if you're out there being vulnerable, if you're out there doing a thing, even doing it imperfectly, even falling flat on your face, you're out there and the person who's watching you doesn't get to say shit.

Wow. Like they don't get to say shit. boy i like that that's tough yeah that's her whole thing it's it's a it's a beautiful yeah she calls it yeah like braving the arena or walking in and being like people who are spectating with popcorn in their hands they don't get to say anything they don't get to talk shit but social media gives you the inference that you can say whatever you want right so right the anonymity and no one polices that but you and that's that's that that is there and lies the trouble with that um i am i honestly do feel like social media has been a very big gift to me and i and and i've not you know what i'm saying like i feel like there's two ways of looking at it like people are always like oh don't you hate disney i'm like i don't hate disney like it's not a disney problem this is an industry-wide problem um of of trying to help

child actors understand their worth and and you know i will say i i have started to advocate more loudly for child actors um with groups of people that i've aligned myself with like an allison stoner a monie cole, a Corbin Blue, like there's people out there that really care and have experienced things that are positive, mostly positive. And there is a program called the Looking Ahead Program that is extremely vital because it's starting to go national. And it is what the union has done from the Actors Fund, essentially. They have a clubhouse in LA where they have social workers on hand. They have financial fluency classes. They have, you know,

all sorts of different events that they do, or the kids at different ages go with each other and do play dates. Essentially. They talk about college. They talk about all this great stuff, but the children who are at risk the most are not going to walk through the doors and electively be in those rooms. So, you know, when, what I've been trying to do is start to understand the reach that a program like this can have either on set or, or sort of grow a summit where we can educate, uh, the employers and, and, and the production companies and people can electively come through and understand who is at risk. And if you're hiring a stage parent who's seemingly very aggressive with their child behind the scenes, then that should be either reported to union or it should be, there should be some sort of,

it takes a village. You know what I'm saying? And if there's some accountability, then it helps everybody and you got to weed out the weirdos. And luckily, I do feel like this is headed in a really good direction because we are talking about mental health. We're talking about body inclusion. We're talking about things that in the 2000s, folks like myself weren't able to really talk about. We had to suffer in silence. We had to struggle and figure it out and kind of white knuckle it.

And now I'm able to make content about my struggles and it is the most authentic thing and the best way for me to, to continually stay in the forefront of people's minds in a really positive way. So I'm doing great. Like nobody needs to worry about me. I'm, I hope that my story can, can help inspire some, some growth in people, but in no way am I trying to cram down any advice down people's you know yeah totally i have one last question for you 16 year old you appears in this hypothetical scenario what do you tell her so there's this meme or or it's it's a it's a tiktok it's a TikTok. It's not a meme, I guess, technically, but there's a TikTok that says that you are now the person that the younger you needed to have in their lives.

And I fully, fully believe that. It wouldn't be enough for me just to see myself and give myself a token of like, you know, like a tidbit of information to just change everything. What I needed most was mentorship and it's what I want to do now more than ever, but I am doing content and I'm figuring out my next steps of being a host. Maybe, you know, I just did GMA and I was like straight up. I was like, guys, like you want my real like you need a sassy, unproblematic host because I'm your girl. Like I am not above straight up looking people in the eyes and being like I'm worthy. Like, give me a shot now. I pitch myself constantly. That's how you have to do it. Yeah,

that's I think it's the theater in us where it's just like, OK, great. Yeah, if I want it, I'm going to kindly ask you for it. And then I might squeaky wheel until I get a grease. Yeah. Yeah. No. And, and I'm, and I'm, I'm, I'm learning that now to not wait my turn. I don't want to wait my turn, um, anymore. I, I, I'm, I'm actively going for it. And, um, I think that gives me confidence along the way. And otherwise, I do think that finding mentors who you respect and who are truly not predatory too, because sometimes they can be toxic. Finding appropriate mentors is the best thing you can do. Christy, thank you so much for your time. Where can people find you?

Oh, everywhere. I'm on TikTok. I i'm on youtube those are my two big growth ones so those are where you're going to find a lot of fun content but of course i'm on podcasts have been so fun too oh my gosh that's right ah please go see my podcasts yeah please so like my podcast vulnerable is a really really wonderful show and i'm going to go back in studio actually in a couple weeks i'm going back and i'm going to try to get as you know seo friendly names as possible to go in studio and wow everybody so please please go ahead and download don't just click right tori they have to download yes we gotta you gotta download the episode and then if you guys happen to be you know part of that male demo who's a little extra nerdy or a

person who loves cosplay and animation i have a podcast as well called I hear voices that is with Will Friedle. And that is also both of these are, you know, where every, everywhere you can find podcasts and Spotify and Apple and all that. But, you know, YouTube, we do have some fun full either zoom versions or, you know, and they have their own, they have their own YouTubes. So if you go to say my Tik TOK or my, um, Instagram, I have a link tree. Yeah. Go to my link tree and love me because I love you. And I love hearing from people and Tori, thank you so much for, you know,

having me come on. This has been such an honor. I'm so supportive. And like you said, you said that you are proud of you for building this. But honestly, I am very proud of you for everything that you're doing to from one feminist to another. It's been really an honor to be interviewed by you. And please keep doing it and don't ever stop. I so appreciate that. And I, yeah, I was such a fan of your work as a kid and I'm such a fan of your work now and just so appreciate the grace and the, yeah, the self-awareness as you've transitioned. I think it's just so incredible. And yeah, you're building it for yourself, which makes me so happy. So. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for your support. And you know, just stay in touch for whatever any of us needs. That's that's also the other thing is building a network of people you respect. Yes, of course. It was such an amazing

conversation. Thank you again to Christy for joining us. Please check out our podcast, I hear voices and the vulnerable podcast wherever you get your shows. Christy talks more about the financial lessons she's learned and shares relatable stories on her YouTube channel and on her TikTok. And we'll share all of those links in our show notes. Remember, we are taking a break from new episodes next week. But again, we have over 30 episodes out. So it's a perfect time to catch up if you're behind. Or if you want to deep dive again, maybe you need to hear a little more about emotional spending again. Maybe you need to figure out where you are on the financial game plan. Maybe you need to do some financial self-care. So if you have listened to all the episodes, even going back and re-listening

again might spark something new for you. You might be in a different place in your financial life. You might just need to hear this information again. So with that in mind, make sure to rate, review, subscribe to Financial Feminist on your preferred podcasting platform. We so appreciate your support and we will see you in two weeks. Catch you soon. Tori Dunlap. Produced by Kristen Fields. Marketing and administration by Karina Patel, Olivia Koning, Sharice Wade, Alina Helzer, Paulina Isaac, Sophia Cohen, Valerie Oresko, Jack Koning, and Ana Alexandra. Research by Arielle Johnson. Audio engineering by Austin Fields. Promotional graphics by Mary Stratton. Photography by Sarah Wolf. And theme music by Jonah Cohen Sound. A huge thanks to the entire Her First 100K team and community for supporting the show. For more information about Financial

Feminist, Her First 100K, our guests and episode show notes, visit financialfeministpodcast.com.