Mm-hmm.

And so enter me.

I had already been sort of acting in New York City because, you know, that's what you did if you were from the East Coast and you were within a train's distance to the city.

That's how you got your start.

So I had been doing, um, a lot of theater work, and theater work doesn't pay anything.

But it was, it was sort of stepping stones, right, to when I eventually ended up in, at Los Angeles and booked for Disney.

So when I was working, what I found really interesting in discovering when I was writing my book, and I had to interview my mom a bunch, was that everything that I made in order to justify me being able to take time away from my siblings, I actually paid for my own way.

Right.

Did it shift at all when you're... priorities for lack of better words changed and you were putting more effort into other things than you were into acting i had to go

no contact with my mom before all this stuff happened but i will say the psychic thing happened while my mom was tangentially i was starring on broadway I was doing Bell and I was super stressed out and a woman came and targeted me with a business card that was like, you have a curse on you and I'm a psychic.

So come to me and I'll help you lift it.

And so that began this like long months, long relationship with thousands of dollars.

And then finally she was like, you know, you can't get this curse lifted unless you buy this like $20,000 amethyst.

And that was like, I'd already given her tens of maybe like 10, $15,000.

So in a month.

Yeah.

Yeah

... "You gotta be kidding me." Like, what do you do with that when you receive a miracle? Like, how, how, how are you left to know that you could have died and, like, all these things happen for a reason? And it really sent me down this, like, very long road of, like, spiritual awakening, reawakening I should say, because I, I, I, I had been doing a lot of work on myself since...

I've been sober since my first baby, so it was like, "Yeah, I've done all this work," but then it was like, "Oh, wait.

This is actually...

There's so much more to be done."

Mm-hmm

... on Even Stevens.

And then, like, I don't know, it was just probably a group of those people that he w- he, he was, like, still friends with a lot of the same people for a really, really long time.

What is like going back and doing it a second time? Why did you want to get your degree so much? What did it mean? I

know I was raised in a middle class Italian family where education was everything.

And I was the first I was the first one in my family to go to what was technically an Ivy League university.

And so for me, they all were like, you have to do this.

There was a lot of pressure for me to get into an Ivy League school coming from Disney, which is ironic because most child actors don't even attempt to go to college when they're working.

And so for me, education was always a really big mantra.

It was like, you're going to college, you're going to college.

What do you think the industry is still getting wrong about child actors?

What do you, what do you think you would tell Sophie?

Uh, think of your future.

Uh, I think that spending is a really immediate impulse that we all absolutely, uh, fall victim to, and it's so easy to have this lifestyle creep where we do see our friends having these beautiful things, and we say, "Well, if I'm evaluating my role in this tribe," because we're a very tribal, you know, people.

We haven't evolved that much.

Then we try to fit within our tribe.

But the truth is, is it's actually a really great opportunity to evaluate a couple things.

One would be your friendships, I would say, and if you did scale back, what does that bring up in you where you don't feel like you're enough in order-

Because everybody's trying to-

What do you think you would tell Sophie?

Think of your future.

I think that spending is a really immediate impulse that we all absolutely fall victim to.

And it's so easy to have this lifestyle creep where we do see our friends having these beautiful things.

And we say, well, if I'm evaluating my role in this tribe, because we're very tribal and you know people we haven't evolved that much then we try to fit within our tribe but the truth is is it's actually a really great opportunity to evaluate a couple things one would be your friendships i would say and if you did scale back what does that bring up in you where you don't feel like you're enough in order to be in their presence and to to to have their friendship And I would say that's maybe a deeper conversation to have with yourself.

Separately, I think when you're thinking of your future, financial literacy in women, unfortunately, we become a little bit of a train wreck at times in our lives, whether it's not even being considered for the promotion.

So that's fantastic.

clubbing.

Yes.

And I think that I am pro stage parent.

I think that they're, there's a pathology there, and they're, they're given sort of a, a mixed bag of goods for the way that they have to, to parent.

Um, and I do think that they sort of get corrupted over time.

What does that mean exactly?

I mean, for a, a kid who really was, was taught how to act to be other people, I don't think I ever really was asked about what I wanted and who I was, and I think that's really important for me to teach my daughters that now.

Mm

...

the young people.

It doesn't even have to do with Disney or executives or anything.

I mean, that's just the culture of the industry that will continue forevermore.

Um, but I do just think that there needs to be more organic approaches to, to helping kids.

Like, for example, if they are going to do a scene that's really extreme or, um, they, they need to somehow deactivate their nervous system in that way.

Mm-hmm.

Is that what you mean by that?

that?I think it's a, it's a larger concept that's a through line through the book that gets me in trouble quite a lot of times.

Because I think, like, the idea of, uh, acceptance and community and family, like all of these themes are things that I think I'm, I'm always at odds with, and I think a lot of people are at odds as they're growing up, like, "Where's my place? Where do I fit in?" Yeah.

Um, I think that achievement, um, i- is, is, is a really quick way to feeling accepted.

Yeah.

But it doesn't necessarily matter- Right ... as much as we think it does.

When do you remember first making that connection? Oh my gosh.

Follow History's Greatest Mysteries, available now wherever you listen to podcasts.

... that was the, the goal of the pod, to, to talk with other child stars and stuff

It, it, it was one of the goals of the pod.

Like, I had Corey Feldman on and it created, like, a problem, and I was like, "I don't know what to do about this." And, like, I was like, "Do I, do I, do I just take it down?" So I took it down.

And I was like, uh, there's a, just a ...

I'm try- I was trying to ...

She asked me, I was just with Kaitlyn Bristowe, and she was asking me, she was like, "So how do you, like, what's the line between content and, and like showcasing, like, what the struggle of a child actor is," or something like that.

Like, what, like what's the line between exploitation or something like ...

Yeah.