I was pleased to learn this little international sensation is from a town fairly close to where my family and Phil's family are from. You know how Canadians are, "Hey my gramma lives 3 blocks down from Justin Bieber's grand-parents! No kidding eh?" Very cool to see that even though his mom was a teen mom she had a lot of support from her parents but also took on parenting very seriously. I also found it pretty intersting that he was a "sensation" long before being signed to a label or making a record; all due to You Tube - amazing how social media has changed the world.
A couple of things worry me though. There was one 10 second clip in the entire movie that showed him sitting at a table with a bio and chem text book. This kid's 16 years old and he's making a huge movie being shown to kids all over the world - I would have liked to see a bit more focus on his education. I'm not even sure my girls caught the clip and am pretty sure they're seeing his life as sans-school and pretty awesome right about now.
Something else that bugged me the whole way through is that every single person surrounding this kid is an adult! There was one scene where he returns home to Stratford and sees a couple of his friends but it sounded like that's not a very common occurance. On this last North American Tour he did 86 some-odd shows and other than Will Smith's kid in New York there was not another kid anywhere. That worries me. How can a kid be a kid when he is surrounded by adults all the time? There are scenes in the movie where he ends up walking into a group of girls, he gets totally mobbed and falls down. I can't imagine how scared he was but it's either that or be totally segregated from society. Is it really a good plan to put a child into this kind of situation - no matter how entertaining he is? Then I see this:
Excuse me?! For a second there I'm channeling Tina Fey in the SNL skit ("He's like a dreamy Christmas Elf.") and it's kind of funny but once again I have some sobering thoughts...HE'S A KID!! I'm ok with "Teen" and "Tiger Beat" (yes those mags are still around!!) splashing him all over the front and quizzes inside to determine if the Tween/Teen reading is "..his perfect girlfriend." but this magazine is made for and marketed to women my age!
Now I know all my friends are shaking their heads at me considering my love for Taylor Lautner but when this cover shot of the Biebs was taken he had just turned 16. The pictures are clearly composed to be somewhat seductive and again, this is a magazine directed at women intelligent enough to want to read an article on Warren Buffet and the Wikileaks scandal.
I am reminded of something my husband said to me a while ago about Taylor Lautner, "If I was swooning over a girl that age I'd be considered a perv, and possibly sent to jail." at the time I blew him off and laughed about gender equality not being all it's cracked up to be. Today I really got to thinking about it. No one in their right mind would have a 16 year old girl on the cover of Maxim, and if someone were that silly there would be huge public outrage. Why is it different when it's a 16 year-old boy on the cover of a women's magazine? And why is his marketing machine ok with this?
I worry about these kid stars. I realize no one let's their kid go into an entertainment career with hopes of becoming thisLindsay Lohan, or even worse: Corey Haim. But what are they doing to stop it? Show me a child-star that hasn't ended up in disaster. Heck, even Miley and Billy-Ray aren't talking to one another anymore! I hope someone's got this kids back, cuz it sorta feels like watching a train-wreck a la Britney Spears. Good luck little man!
On a side note, I'm sure mom's of Tween and Teen boys everywhere were happy for this little development: Good-bye bangs!
