Anna Paquin, Christy Carlson Romano and Melissa Gilbert are calling on Hollywood to protect child actors following the deaths of Hayden Panettiere, Michelle Trachtenberg and Daveigh Chase. Panettiere’s death at age 36 last Sunday prompted the three actresses, who were child stars themselves, to take their concerns public. Trachtenberg died at 39 in February 2025, while Chase died in July at age 35. “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,” Paquin…
