Disney Stars Through the Years: Lindsay Lohan and More

They’ll never forget their roots! Lindsay Lohan, Selena Gomez and more famous faces got their start on the Disney Channel back in the day.

The “Boyfriend” songstress appeared on Wizards of Waverly Place from 2007 to 2012, and though the kids’ network helped her launch her career, she hasn’t been afraid to speak out about the darker aspects of life as a child star.

“When I was younger, it was all fun to me,” she told Business of Fashion magazine in September 2017. “But when I got older, I started to become exposed to the truth behind some stuff and that’s when it flipped a little bit. I realized that, ‘Oh this is actually really hard, and kind of slimy in certain areas,’ and I didn’t realize that certain people wanted certain things from me.”

As she grew older, Gomez admitted that she started to feel “violated” by comments about her changing body and noticed that the focus on her became less and less “about [her] art.” Even after leaving the Disney Channel, she began to question whether or not she really wanted to be in the spotlight.

“‘Do I really love this? Is this worth it anymore?’” she said. “I would look at my crowd on tour and think, ‘Yes, this is worth it, right?’ But then I would look at myself in the mirror and I just felt like, ‘I’ve had enough, I don’t know if I can go on anymore.’ And I stopped it for a second. But it didn’t mean that I didn’t love it, I just had to find what I was going to do with it. As long as I’m healthy and happy in my mind, I’m all about it.”

Two years later, the Spring Breakers star attributed her time as a Disney starlet with helping her learn how to be a leader and a source of inspiration for her young fans.

“It just taught me so much about being a role model, you know?” Gomez said on Coach’s “Dream It Real” podcast in April 2019. “That was the first thing that I started so they were very apparent on being perfect, I guess, just making sure that you’re being a good influence on people. I’m grateful that I had that opportunity because I understand what a platform means.”

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Scroll down to see more Disney Channel stars through the years — including Lohan, Demi Lovato and Shia LaBeouf: