What To Know
- Melissa Gilbert issued an emotional call to action after the recent deaths of fellow former child actresses Hayden Panettiere, Michelle Trachtenberg, and Daveigh Chase.
- She criticized the loss of privacy caused by smartphones and media exploitation, as well as the roles of parents and industry pressures in contributing to the struggles faced by young actresses.
- Gilbert proposed forming a support group of former child actresses to advocate for change and engage with studios and networks to address exploitation and improve mental health support.
Melissa Gilbert sent an emotional call to action regarding child actresses after Hayden Panettiere‘s death.
On Saturday, August 22, the former Little House on the Prairie child actress posted a lengthy Substack update addressing the deaths of Panettiere at 36 in August 2026, Michelle Trachtenberg at 39 in February 2025, and Daveigh Chase at 35 in June 2026.
“How is it possible that no one in the mainstream media has picked up on this?” Gilbert, 62, began her post. “… Three former female child actors of the same generation are gone. Tragically, heartbreakingly, agonizingly too soon.”
She continued, “They are gone, and the question I have been turning over and over in my head is, ‘WHY?’ Why are these three sweet, wildly talented, vibrant, vital young women gone? And why does this all feel so personal to me? I did not know Hayden personally and only worked briefly with Mishy and Daveigh. It feels personal because I was them. As were Tatum, Kristy, Brooke, Patty, Anyssa, Dakota, Elle, Shirley, Britney, Jodie, Drew, and my sister, Sara, to name a few.”
Gilbert called the women “members of the same tribe,” declaring, “When one of us dies, it runs through all of us like an electrical current. When three of us die so close together, something is very, very wrong.”
Additionally, she called out smartphones for the disturbing trend. “Once a VIP area, lounge, or anything meant privacy. We could travel to restaurants, events, clubs, etc. and go through the paparazzi into a safe zone,” Gilbert pointed out. “The invention of the mobile phone with camera obliterated that.”
She continued, “Now everyone is a paparazzo. There is no privacy. What’s worse, is that what was once kept private is now exploited and sold. Often with the profits going to those whom the victim (yes, victim) was/is closest to and trusts. It’s not just in restaurants, clubs, and on red carpets, it’s in homes, doctor’s offices, schools, everywhere.”
Everett Collection
Gilbert also called out the media for using such photos/invasions of privacy “for clickbait,” parents of young actresses who “set them up for these horrendous ends,” mental health issues as a result of child actors being conditioned to “deliver no matter what,” and more.
Toward the end of her Substack update, Gilbert proposed, “It’s clear that no one else is going to do it for us, so maybe one solution is for us, Anna, myself, Drew, Elle, Dakota, Jodie, Sara, Kristy, Brooke, Bella, Emma, Amber, Abbie, Cynthia, Sarah Jessica, Reese etc. to take this into our own hands. Maybe we start a group of our own to meet and share ideas and ways we might be able [to] lobby to support these young women.”
Additionally, Gilbert suggested, “Maybe we sit down with the heads of the studios and networks and have real conversations about mitigating exploitation…I think if we collectively had the opportunity to sit down with these ‘bosses’ we might be able to work with them to Lobby for and enact real, substantive change.”
To conclude her update, the former child actress wrote, “I have this image in my mind of Hayden’s little girl who will now grow up without her Mama. She is eleven years old. That’s the same age I was when my father died. And now I am weeping as I type this, and I just want to scream from the rooftops, ‘ENOUGH!’”