There is something wrong with today’s former teen pop stars. It seems that nearly every child or teen star is now doing something to get themselves noticed publicly, and not in a good way. Looking at the careers of celebrities such as Miley Cyrus or Justin Bieber, we assume that they are just acting out for attention, but really there is an underlying issue at hand.

One thing that all of these celebrities have in common is a surplus of money. It could be possible that they just became too rich, too fast. When you put large amounts of money in the hands of a young adult, of course they are going to do stupid things with it. If someone were to give me millions of dollars, I would probably blow it on expensive cars and high-end clothes, too.

There is only so much that you can give to a person who already has everything, or at least could afford everything. When they get bored they are going to start pushing limits. What is the best way to push limits? Doing illegal activities. When you have everything that money can buy you start to want things you cannot or should not have. This is what helps send teen stars running to drugs and alcohol.

There is nothing wrong with being a good example, but today’s social norms lead otherwise. The “cool” kids in college are the ones that are drinking, smoking and throwing wild parties. Seeing that through a celebrity’s eyes you would need to be doing these things, too, in order to stay in the spotlight. It is hard to say who is really influencing whom.

Celebrities are people we look up to. If they are doing something that looks cool, we would want to do that too. It works the same way with them. If celebs are trying to attract a certain fan base, they are going to start doing the same things that those people do. Maybe we could be a part of the reason that so many young celebs are falling off the wagon.

Many celebrities are thrown into stardom at such a young age that they miss out on childhood. When they are acting out and making decisions that we do not agree with, maybe because we have matured through that phase, we should remember that teen celebs are moving backwards. They started out living adult lives at 12 years old, so when 18 rolls around they are ready to start doing the teenage activities they missed out on.

We do have to take into consideration that not all teen stars swing naked on a wrecking ball, or race a Lamborghini down the street while under the influence. If celebs want to take the risk of acting out, they should think about what that is going to do to their public image. We do not see child stars like Hilary Duff shaving her head in the middle of the night like Britney Spears. Maybe the spotlight begins to shine a little too bright for some stars. It is hard to see what direction to go when you are blinded by fame and fortune.

Overall, celebrities are in charge of their own lives. They choose to act the way they do. It seems, however, that there are other influences in celebrities’ lives that can put pressure on them to act in certain ways. In a society where sex, drugs and alcohol are becoming more and more popular it is no surprise these young adults are acting the way they are. When judging these young celebrities, we as college students should first look at ourselves and do a little comparison. We are doing similar activities, but on a smaller scale. We just don’t have to feel the heat of the limelight on our backs every step of the way.

This is not an attempt to stick up for the crazy behaviors of the young celebrities. By all means they are responsible for their own actions just like each one of us would be, but maybe they are also just trying to fit in.