Why do female child stars often grow up to be so beautiful, but male child stars do not?

Miles Heizer.

Brandon de Wilde.

Jerry O'Connell.

Hormones. Estrogen and progesterone make you pretty.

Also note, most of those women are tiny, with delicate features.

I was a hit or miss. Fortunately, I didn’t grow up to be unattractive, but it wasn’t until high school that my looks finally just kinda settled in. Hormones changed the game, drastically.

Average in looks, but all natural face with decent bone structure. I like it. Finally.

Jay R. Ferguson.

What's cute in boys when they're small isn't necessarily handsome when they're older. The childishness in the faces of (for example) Lucas Haas and Macaulay Culkin looks odd when they're adults.

Mark Paul Gosselaar.

Huh. I've never thought about that, OP. You're right.

Most male child actors at adults look like either creepos or straight male porn stars.

Paris Jackson was not stunning as a kid but she developed beautiful eyes when she got older.

Men can't wear as much makeup.

It’s not makeup, R11. It’s bone structure and the shape of the face, and eyes.

Either one has it, or doesn’t. Makeup changes zero.

Young Scarlett Johannson looked like a Hanson band member.

Dean Stockwell was very attractive until life in the fast lane caught up with him.

Jodie was average looking.

Liz had some ugly duckling moments.

Bart Simpson

This one shocked me. Baby Dumpling Larry Simms - from cute baby to serial killer

I think Neil Patrick Harris is pretty cute

Boys like Corey Haim were selected for their big personalities. Girls were more selected for their pretty face.

Boys are more immature than girls, so they have to hire older boys to play parts. If apart calls for a 6 year old, they may hire a 10 year old boy. In order to do that, they need short actors who look younger than they are. These kids usually grow up to be short men. The shorter you are, the fewer calories you can eat. So as your friends are eating tacos & burgers and drinking beers, yiu should be taking in 500 calories fewer than they are, or you’ll get tubby. Most short guys get tubby. They’re cute, young faces look weird when they age. Add fatness and you’ve got Hailey Joel Osment. Add veganism & you get McCauley Culkin.

[quote] They’re cute, young faces

Their cute, young faces

Cute boys mostly grows into ugly men. There's only one male child star who grew up to be an okay looking man: Joseph Mazzello. But he was an ugly duckling when he was a kid anyway.

Dean Stockwell, from cute boy to handsome young man.

Nicholas Holt is good looking. Especially after getting rid of those yellow teeth he had as a kid

Men age harder.

Jerry McConnell was a handsome adult. He’s aging into his senior years now & is a bit weird looking.

Dickie Moore, from adorable tyke to surly dreamboat.

River Phoenix, but then again he wasn't a cute kid.

Baby jane Hudson

I wish I was as "goofy-looking" as Tyler Hoechlin

No, I said Tyler Hoechlin grew up to be beautiful, NOT goofy-looking.

The Scottish player.

DL fave Scott Bayo.

Larry Simms was a serial killer? Did you mean cereal killer? lol

Christina

I'd argue that the criteria often used to select male child stars - cute kids - often don't lead to handsome adult men.

As an EXTREME example, think about all the elements that made Gary Coleman so cute as a child. These are not what people generally consider attractive in men.

Also, I'd argue there is an implicit bias in selecting children who are older, but look younger, for these same characteristics. It's easier to work with a 10 year old who passes as 8. As such, smaller stature and child-like features on an older child have less room to grow into mature men.

Whereas, on girls, height and slim features are less detrimental. Features prized for female child stars continue to be prized in older teens and adult women.

Joey Lawrence

Many people don't look good without makeup.

Because what we found cute in children doesn't translate into handsomeness in boys when they grow up. Neotenous features are considered attractive in women as adults, but that's not the case for men.

Before Timothay,there was Timothy

Leonardo DiCaprio hit the wall early (and very hard), but he was insanely beautiful until he was ca. 24 . Does that count? Or should your early 20s be considered a transition phase from childhood to adulthood?

This kid turned out decent looking.

Andrew Lawrence.

Matthew Lawrence.

Elizabeth before surgery was not all that

R46, Elizabeth’s only problem there is her ineptly plucked eyebrows. If you see photos of her as a child her brows were naturally very thick. It looks as if someone tried to thin them without shaping them in an attractive way.

I haven't read through the threads but of course LEO -- he's gorgeous.

Theres also suspended animation aging like Thomas Brodie-Sangster has.

Burke Ramsey was an ugly looking sissy kid but grew up to be quite the handsome man.

And what about Neil Patrick Harris...not bad looking.

Jason Bateman.

I'm surprised that Courtland Mead, perhaps the ugliest child actor of all times, didn't grow up into a total fuggo. Here's that mouth-breathing little creep back in the 90s:

And here he is now. He's hardly a dreamboat but definitely not ugly:

How about me?

DL fave Thomas Dekker.

Ricky Schroder.

Spanky McFarland. You don't wanna know.

What ? Are you blind R47 ? Don't you see her NOSE ??? That enormous thing in the middle of her face ??

Jeremy Renner was a male child star? I don't think he was even a FEMALE child star. He did start in films until his 20s.

^^ Renner DIDN'T start in films until his 20s

Jonathan Taylor Thomas ALMOST got there. He's still cute but just had to go the funky hipster route. He was still really cute in this photo as a grown up. Those lips, my God!

Christopher Knight.

Has JTT found the right girl yet?

Maybe it's just the glasses I don't like on him...

R24 Very nice. Dean Stockwell was the Nick Jonas of his day.

Corey Haim looked really good before he died. He had lost a lot of weight but I guess all those years of abuse caught up with him.

Of all the Harry Potter cast, I would never have expected Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) to grow up to be the hottest.

Fred Savage still looks good. He was such a cutey on The Wonder Years.

On the other hand, Blossom.

Ricky Shroeder looks to have hit the wall only recently. He was doing quite well for awhile. Is it alcohol related?

Do you know who this child performer is? She looks far better as an adult star.

I think Alfred Enoch is the best looking Potter alum, aside from Christian Coulson, who was already an adult.

"Young Scarlett Johansson looked like a Hanson band member."

It is a good thing that she invested in plastic surgery at a younger age - especially whittling down her nose and super-expanding her post-puberty flat chest.

You think Haley Joel Osment and Roddy McDowell are goofy looking adults? I think Haley turned into a beefy sweetie and Roddy was handsome/cute in his older years. I don't know how you judge men, but I'm glad you can't see me!

r72

Margaret Rutherford?

R75 Roddy wasn't handsome but still cute in his older age.

Scarlett's amazing post-puberty breast growth:

OP--ever heard of sexism and double standards? It applies to children, too. It's a rare Mary Kate and Ashley who are allowed to be ugly cute on tee vee. For every two of them there's 100 pretty-pretty- princess girls and another 100 tousle-headed, freckle-faced, buck-toothed scamps in overalls cast as the pesky boy characters.

R72 Melissa Gilbert? There's something about those teeth....

I think r40 has it

Height has a lot to do with it - a cute little boy might grow up to be, like, 5'4" as an adult man. Being short is considered more unattractive in males than females.

Doesn't always work that way for the females either

R82 Yeah, the problem with JTT is he's too short.

Because more emphasis in auditions for female child actors is based on their looks, less so for male child actors.

So it's a matter of initial selection.

I think that's changed somewhat. Whilst hardly an eyesore as a child, Kirsten Dunst was already a natural and exceptional actress. Her performance as Claudia the child vampire in "Interview with the Vampire" at 12 was impressive. She didn't get that role on the basis of her looks, except that she had to be small, which she was.

I never realized Elizabeth Taylor had a nose job. I'm gobsmacked. How could I not have known all these years? I'm not sure at this point I can ever look at her the same way again. I'll always be looking at exactly what they did to her nose.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt still looks good.

It is true that boys generally grow up homely if they're TOO adoarble as kids. I looked like a male Shirley Temple- perfect blonde curls, blue eyes, a button nose. But by high school I was a 6 on a very good day.

Devan Sawa

The cast of the Sandlot looks old.

TV nerds then and now

Dean Stockwell grew into being a beautiful young man after being a cute child actor. He's looked wretched recently but I guess that comes from being very old.

Also not that he was a child actor but I was watching Indiscreet recently and the always slim Cary Grant looks pretty jowly in it. More so than in his 60s movies. I wonder if he had some discreet work done after seeing himself in this film. If only plastic surgeons were as good today.

R86 How could you not see that ? It was botched. The left side of the bridge was really overdone to make her look like Vivien Leigh, and it showed terribly in old age

I don't know why but I never did! I feel pretty stupid.

With the beard Haley doesn't look so bad he definitely gives off a bear vibe.

R94 it's OK. We've all been through that one. We still have Vivien and Nat Wood. Those 2 were real.

Didn't the big bully kid from Harry Potter end up in jail for some reason?

Before

Nose

After... Sure, Jan !

So, OP, the answer is: because women undertake more procedures , thread closed.

I know the board will be horrified R55, but I find Haley Joel Osment quite attractive.

R94 now that you know that Liz Taylor was not really ' the most beautiful woman in the world ', take a rest. Next we need to talk about Santa.

Women have more neotenous features, so their faces don't change as much from childhood to adulthood; ergo, if you're cute as a girl, chances are you'll be cute as a woman too, whereas a cute boy might easily transform into an ugly man as he loses his neotenous quality.

A younger deglammed Liz was still beautiful.

Well I do need my smelling salts.

DL fave Sal Mineo.

Yes but apparently not beautiful enough for Hollywood. Sad. They desperately wanted another Vivien Leigh. I don't remember who said, that when they had a new star, The make up department would style and make up them in the style of bona fide star, and see what looked best, then launched ' the New this or that',

I agree with the neoteny theory.

Selena Gomez still has a toddler face and is considered quite pretty.

Colton Haynes still has a toddler face and is considered quite pretty.

Colton's face is not child-like - the effects of puberty and testosterone have masculinized his face.

Most of the actors in this thread grew up to be at least decent looking adults. The cast of the Sandlot are now old enough to have their kids star in a reboot. That makes me feel old.

He looks so kissable at r110

Not a child star, but this little cutie was still a cutie when he grew up (for a while).

It's a rule. The cuter the boy; the uglier the man.

Albert from Little House turned out okay.

R114-cute as a "boy." Ugly as an elderly lesbian.

Aggggggg, R116-not Drip Lip!

R117, apparently you missed his first 45 years

R117, apparently you missed his first 45 years

The beard covered up the lack of a chin...

That's not Paul @ R120.

Colton Haynes was not a child star. His first imdb credit was when he was 19.

Paul McCartney was also not a child star.

Sal Mineo was handsome but he never could pull off the 70s pseudohippie look he wore. Facial hair and unkempt hair did him no favors.

I always thought Lukas Haas was attractive in an unconventional way when he was younger but I was surprised how good he looked in Widows.

This is one of the dumbest threads ever on the Datalounge. Seriously, almost all of you are idiots.

Roddy was handsome/cute as a man. Hung, too.

Yes it is, darling R122. It comes from the inside of the 1970 McCartney album, which came out the same week as The Beatles Let it Be. This is it:

He is okay

Haley is so fat, that is why he looks so bad.

lay off the booze and burgers

R72 Golly, I NEVER would have guessed who that turned out to be.

Joseph Gordon Levitt looking good as an adult.

R132-but he was never cute or adorable. It's the real cuties that don't translate into good-looking men. Macauley Culkin is Exhibit A. The cuter and softer the features, the worse they look on an adult male face.

R126, look who's talking. If you don't like a thread, don't post in it

[Quote] It's the real cuties that don't translate into good-looking men. Macauley Culkin is Exhibit A. The cuter and softer the features, the worse they look on an adult male face.

Lies.

Paul Butcher, "star" of Nickelodeon's Zoey 101.

R126 And yet here you are!

R136-the "before" wasn't exactly good looking. Shudder

Gaby Hoffman would not have a career if she wasn’t Viva’s daughter. And for all the edginess of The Factory, Gaby Hoffman attended exclusive schools in NY.

Sometimes a not-so-pretty girl grows up to be a very pretty young woman.

That's Emily Ratatowski (sp?)

Oops, wrong pic.

No idea who that is at R142, but I find the child version prettier than the adult version who's still attractive but in a very generic kind of way. Maybe it's the make-up. Thick make-up sometimes makes a very pretty woman less attractive/interesting looking. Hailee Steinfeld is a perfect example of this. Drop dead gorgeous with little to no make-up, but with 3 layers of slap on her face she looks like just another insta wannabe.

No, R53. The ugliest child actor I'd ever seen was this kid from Seinfeld (Kramer's in his karate class):

Adulthood was not much better...

Ugly is as ugly does.

I had no idea who that was @R135 and even before I clicked and could only see the bottom half of the face, that smile and pose SCREAMED gayling.

Wow at no one has mentioned macaulay culkin 😳😳😳

r72 Julie Andrews. Her looks definitely improved with age.

Cause women are way more beautiful by nature than men

Julie Andrews was never really a conventional beauty.

I thought Roddy McDowell kept his looks well throughout his life. He was very appealing as a young man. He had a nice body too, if pictures from his 20s are anything to go by.

Mason Reese still has a toddler face and is considered quite pretty.

ahem

Ricky Schroder grew up fine, R57. Inside and out.

Peter Billingsly turned out ok.

As did Barbara Billingsley. She speaks Jive, you know.

Robert Downey Jr.

Cole e Dylan Sprouse.

River Phoenix

Polo y Lambda.

Little Jeremy Renner

Yes, so often

Damn. The Fanning girls didn't get their good looks from Mom's side.

Is Jeremy Renner still alive ?