Miranda Cosgrove has spoken about the ‘pressure’ of being a child star on iCarly and said she would actively look for ‘mean’ comments on the internet.
The American actress, 29, admitted that she didn’t have normal teenage years because she started acting on the show when she was just 14 years old.
Speaking on the Reign with Josh Smith podcast, Miranda said she felt ‘a lot of pressure’ to figure things out when she was younger, saying this was made harder by her TV presence.
Career: Miranda Cosgrove has spoken about the ‘pressure’ of being a child star on iCarly and said she would actively look for ‘mean’ comments on the internet
‘For sure there was pressure. Even when you’re not on TV or acting or anything, just growing up, there’s a lot of pressure to try to figure so many things out,’ she said.
‘So I think the main thing that makes it more difficult being on TV is just that so many people are watching you.’
Miranda, who starred as Carly Shay on iCarly from 2007 until 2012, admitted she would actively seek out ‘mean’ online comments when she was younger, saying she found the trolling ‘hard’.
She explained: ‘When I was younger, I would go through and kind of ignore all the nice comments and look for the one mean one. I would be going through for a while and be like, ‘oh, found it!’
Childhood: The American actress, 29, admitted that she didn’t have normal teenage years because she started acting on the show when she was just 14 years old
‘Which is the worst thing you can do when you’re on the internet because if you look long enough, you’re gonna find something negative and you’re gonna be upset about it…I think that’s another thing that’s hard for everybody.
‘It doesn’t matter if you’re on a show or not, everybody gets comments on their Instagram page and it’s hard not to take some of those things to heart.
‘So, I would say that’s definitely one of the worst sides of the internet, because it’s nice getting nice comments, but then just being on the internet for anyone to comment on is kind of a weird place to be in.’
But she said she tried not to read any of the negative comments now like she used to, saying they are not worth ‘focusing on’ or ‘messing up a day’ feeling bad over.
Hard times: Miranda (pictured in March 2021) said she felt ‘a lot of pressure’ to figure things out when she was younger, saying this was made harder by her TV presence
But Miranda said thinking about the difficulties of being on TV from a young age wasn’t something she thought about at the time, but is something she has reflected on more recently.
‘I feel like when I was younger, I didn’t think about it as much as I do now. Looking back, I think, ‘that seems like it would’ve been really hard,’ but when I was doing it, I wasn’t really thinking about it as much,’ she said.
‘I was more just kind of living my life. But even to this day I still think about the young girls that watch the show and even as an adult, the girls who watched the show are now adults and I always wanna try to make the best choices for myself.’
Reflecting now on the challenges of being a child actor, Miranda said her whole life changed when she went to college because she was able to have the teenage experiences she missed.
Show: Miranda starred on iCarly with Jennette McCurdy and Nathan Kress and has returned to the role for a Paramount+ reboot
She admitted that she didn’t have a normal childhood because she was on TV and didn’t have a ‘real’ high school experience during this time.
She said: ‘I remember when I was really young, I would go in to write songs and the different people I was co-writing with would be like, ‘what’s the craziest thing that happened with a guy you were dating recently?’
‘And I’d be thinking, ‘I don’t know,’ like I didn’t really have any crazy stories because I wasn’t really having a real high school or middle school experience.
‘So, my experiences were different. So I felt like I didn’t have that. And then when I went to college, I remember thinking ‘I should’ve done an album now!’ because now I have all these stories and things that are happening to me and stuff to pull from that I might have not really had before.’
Miranda said that she made a lot of friends and had very valuable life experiences while at college, but said she is happy that she came back to acting afterwards.
She said: ‘My life really took a huge turn when I did that [went to college]. Like my whole life changed. But it was awesome. I made a lot of friends and I got to just take classes that I was interested in.
‘I tried photography and I ended up majoring in psychology and it was just a really solid, good experience.
‘And I’m happy that I came back to acting because I feel like it led me back. Like I realised acting is really my passion and it’s what I love to do most. But if I hadn’t done that, I wouldn’t know.’
Looking back: But Miranda said the difficulties of being on TV from a young age wasn’t something she thought about at the time, but is something she has reflected on
Miranda has recently reprised her iCarly role as the series has been revived in a reboot on Paramount+ – ten years after the original series finale.
Speaking about returning to the role of Carly, Miranda admitted that she never expected to revisit the iconic character and felt pressure not to ‘mess up’ the reboot after the original Nickelodeon series.
‘Honestly, at first it was very scary because we didn’t want to mess up anyone’s childhood, but it’s been so much fun getting to come back,’ she said.
‘I think it’s almost been 10 years since it originally aired and just getting to hang out with Nathan and Jerry again every day and getting to play the character again. I never thought I’d get to, you know, revisit Carly as an adult.
‘It was a little scary at first, but now I feel like it’s just fun because we’ve all kind of fallen back into it. Because I grew up playing the characters, so I’ve always felt really connected to the character.
‘And out of any character I’ve played, Carly is the most like me in real life. She always had dating troubles on the original show.
‘She’s kind of quirky and always wants to see the best in people, but sometimes it doesn’t go well. I just feel really connected to her. So, it’s been really fun getting to see what it’s like to play the character again.’
Miranda, who serves as an executive producer on the show, said having a larger producing role in the show has been a ‘turning point’ for her and allowed her to be more outgoing.
‘I think that was a turning point, taking on the executive producer role because all of a sudden you’re looked to for so many different things and you have to really step up to the bat and be able to take that on,’ she said.
She’s back: Speaking about returning to the role of Carly, Miranda (pictured with co-stars Nathan Kress and Jerry Trainor) admitted she never expected to revisit the iconic character
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk