How “The D’Amelio Show” Serves As A Warning For Wannabe Social Media Stars
On today's episode of BuzzFeed Daily, we broke down the top pop culture headlines AND discussed the TikToker-to-celebrity pipeline. You can listen below or scroll down to read more about the interview!
So let's dive right into it! Recently we talked to Paige Skinner about The D'Amelio Show, Addison Rae, and how they serve as a warning for child stars. Here's some of what we learned:
BuzzFeed Daily: To someone who hasn't sat down and watched the show yet...it might seem like the show is a Gen Z version of Keeping Up With the Kardashians — the story of sisters chasing fame. But what are we actually getting with the D'Amelio show?
Paige Skinner: That might be a good comparison, but it's not quite the same. I think with Keeping Up With the Kardashians, there's something kind of aspirational about it, at least to me and my friends. They're super famous, they're rich, they're beautiful, they get to go to all these parties and date all these men. And it they just kind of seem like they're living a really great life.
But with The D'Amelio Show — man, it's such a downer. It's about these two young girls who were kind of thrown into fame and now they're trying to deal with it. It almost feels like a warning for childhood fame, yet they're still going about it. And even at the beginning of every episode, there's a PSA like "If you have mental health issues, please check out this website." It's super intense and does not really have the same vibe as Keeping Up with the Kardashians.
BuzzFeed Daily: That kind of does make sense to me because they are considerably younger than when most of the Kardashians were on it. And so it's kind of just like, "Hey, this isn't the normal teen experience. So if you're under pressure like this, here's the PSA is I mean, I like it, but that is a lot for a reality TV show. You reviewed it, but what's the fan reaction been like so far?
PS: Yeah, I think the fan reaction is just, "Oh, we didn't know that Charli and Dixie kind of let the comments get to them this much. We thought that they kind of had everything going for them and they were handling it fine. But it seems like there's something much bigger going on behind the scenes."
And I think maybe fans will start to look at them differently. I don't I don't think the comments will change or anything big will change. But I think it's just kind of a different look into maybe how these TikTok stars react to being constantly online.
BuzzFeed Daily: Mental health is really at the forefront of the show. So, we're dealing with something more serious here. In other reality shows, I feel like if they're not lighthearted, they're entertaining. But is that what this is?
PS: Oh, my gosh, this did not feel entertaining at all. I binged the whole thing and afterward I was just like, "Man, I don't feel good about any of this." And it definitely does feel more serious. I mean, Charli saying that at her worst she had 15 panic attacks a day — that sounds pretty serious to me. Granted, I'm not a doctor — I'm just a consumer and a journalist. But as someone who's dealt with mental health and who's had a lot of panic attacks in a day, I know how serious that can be.
It felt like more like a warning, like "This is what's happening to our childhood stars. This is what's happening to our social media stars." I mean, Charli gives a lot of warnings throughout and says, "I didn't choose this." Granted, she's really grateful, but she didn't choose this. And she even said something one time: "If you start out being yourself, you eventually will stop being yourself." And it's just this really kind of cryptic warning. Yeah, definitely feels more serious than anything we've seen.
BuzzFeed Daily: What's the line here between trolling these young women and holding them accountable, because it is okay to hold these young stars to some kind of standard, like when Addison Rae went on Fallon and performed TikTok dances without crediting the creators. Then there was the time when she was caught sort of fawning over President Trump. There's this line of calling them out for their actions, but also wanting to make sure that you don't go too far because they are young and we are seeing the effects on their mental health. So what are your thoughts?
PS: Yeah, I think these young white women like Charli and Addison definitely got famous off of Black creators dances. And I think they need to be held accountable for that. And I think they've been called out for it and they've somewhat addressed it and tried to move forward as best they can and try to better credit dancers on TikTok. I think holding these creators accountable is totally fine. The line between holding them accountable and trolling is: "Trolling is "You're ugly and fat. Go kill yourself." And then holding them accountable is saying, "Hey, Addison, what you did wasn't cool. You got famous because you danced to all of these dances that Black creators created and you're not giving them any credit. You know, you need to be better and do better." So there's a line. But I think trolling is very obviously wrong, but that doesn't mean that they're exempt from any critique.
To kick things off, just days after her father filed to end his conservatorship over her, Britney Spears announced her engagement to her longtime partner, Sam Asghari.
Moving on, Priyanka Chopra, Julianne Hough, and Usher are set to host a truly unhinged, Black Mirror-y reality show called The Activist.
#TheActivist is a competition series that features six inspiring activists teamed with three high-profile public figures working together to bring meaningful change to one of three vitally important world causes: health, education, and environment https://t.co/4ucT9HGnvs
