Melissa Gilbert is joining a chorus of voices calling for better protections for child actors in the wake of Hayden Panettiere's death.
In an essay titled "Enough Is Enough" published Aug. 22 on Substack, Gilbert spoke out about the death not just of Panettiere at 36, but of fellow former child stars Michelle Trachtenberg and Daveigh Chase
. Trachtenberg died in 2025 at 39 from complications of diabetes mellitus, while Chase died in June at 35 from AIDS.A cause of death for Panettiere, known for her roles on "Heroes" and "Nashville," has not been determined. The "Scream VI" actress was found unresponsive at an apartment complex in South Carolina on Aug. 16.
Gilbert, who starred as Laura Ingalls on "Little House on the Prairie" as a child, wrote
that the deaths of Panettiere, Trachtenberg and Chase feel "personal because I was them," adding, "We are all members of the same tribe; Female Former Child Performers, and 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."
Gilbert reflected on how "the entertainment industry uses, abuses, exploits and then throws away" its youngest, arguing this problem is even worse since the invention of the smartphone, as "now everyone is a paparazzo" and "what was once kept private is now exploited and sold."
"It really seems like no one cares enough to enact real change," she wrote. "At least, not until the next death and everyone talks about how sad they are and how we must do something and then they forget and get on with their lives until it happens again and again and again."
In the piece, Gilbert also discussed how child actors are discouraged from saying "no" in a way that can be dangerous for their health, something she knows to be true from personal experience.
"I can't tell you how many times I worked while horribly sick, injured or worse," she wrote, recalling how she "nearly worked to death a few times" and was once on the "verge of sepsis" after performing with a fever.
"These young professionals are children, and we should make sure they are allowed to be children. They should be allowed to say 'no.' Not push through physical or emotional pain. Not be made to support their entire families. And most certainly not to be followed everywhere they go by cameras, phones and prying, exploitive eyes."
Gilbert's essay followed similar comments from Anna Paquin. The "X-Men" star, a former child actress who won the Academy Award for best supporting actress for "The Piano" at 11, wrote in an Aug. 21 Instagram post that it's "not a coincidence that so many former, specifically pre-sexualized female, child 'stars' have profoundly sad lives and untimely ends."
"We were not as protected by the 'systems' that look great on paper, as we are supposed to be," she said.
Addressing Paquin's post in her essay, Gilbert suggested that she and her fellow former child actors should start a group so they could "meet and share ideas and ways we might be able lobby to support these young women," and ultimately have "real conversations" with studio and network heads "about mitigating exploitation" of kids.
"We need to work with the studios and networks to establish accessible free mental health support for all child actors as they transition into young adulthood," Gilbert wrote. "That can only be accomplished with industry-wide cooperation."
Rose McGowan, Panettiere's fellow "Scream" franchise star, similarly spoke out for change in the wake of the actor's death. In an Instagram post, McGowan called for an end to child acting as a whole, writing, "Don't put kids in show business. None of this is normal."
Three months prior to her death, Panettiere published the eye-opening memoir "This Is Me: A Reckoning," in which she wrote that she was treated "like a call girl" as a teen in Hollywood. In one chapter of the book, Panettiere also detailed how she would trigger herself to cry on camera as a child actor by imagining "horrific" things, which she said caused "damage" to her "body and spirit."
"The tears were genuine because the emotions were genuine," Panettiere wrote. "None of this was good for my developing brain. Over the past few years, I've spent a lot of time reading about how the brain processes stressful events. I've learned that my childhood catastrophizing activated my amygdala, hippocampus, hypothalamus, and prefrontal cortex, areas of the brain that are responsible for processing fear and anxiety."
She added, "When I thought of something devastating, these parts of my brain sent messages throughout my body, and my heart rate rose and my stress hormones − including cortisol and adrenaline − flooded my body. I would go into an artificial fight-or-flight response every time I willed myself to cry − even though absolutely nothing had happened. Very quickly that level of disaster preparation will wear a person down."
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Melissa Gilbert calls for 'real change' after Hayden Panettiere death
