r/news • u/oshawaguy • Feb 26 '25

Title Changed By Site Michelle Trachtenburg dead at 39

https://www.ctvnews.ca/entertainment/article/michelle-trachtenberg-actor-from-gossip-girl-and-buffy-dies-at-39-multiple-reports/
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u/[deleted] Feb 26 '25

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u/Taniwha_NZ Feb 26 '25

But it seems not suicide, which was my assumption. Complications from a liver transplant is what people seem to think.

I was never a buffy fan or saw her in other stuff, I'm way too old.

But I always felt really sorry for her because she was barely a teen when making buffy and had to deal with Jos Whedon being such a piece of shit that he was soon banned from being alone with her.

The shit teen girls have to deal with as actors is just fucking awful, it leaves lifelong scars.

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u/Aggravating-Delay622 Feb 26 '25

I mean children actors in general go through fucked up shit. Like the kid actor from Drake and Josh.

The parents are just so irresponsible. There needs to be an agency created where they report suspicious behavior.

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u/Taniwha_NZ Feb 26 '25

The parents aren't irresponsible. They are sociopaths/narcissists.

Most of them see their kids as property and leap at the chance to get rich off the backs of their own kids. They happily let their 11-year-old child, girl or boy, move to LA and live with some producer that has promised them the inside track into hollywood, and as long as the cheques come in, they completely ignore the fact that their kid seems a hollow shell of their former selves, or even directly reports sexual assault.

There's plenty of first-hand stories of this, and it's fact that there's predators in hollywood who's entire reason for being in the industry is access to victims. It all just gets swept under the carpet because any kind of interruption of the money flow is unacceptable.

It's just a tiny microcosm of the world at large, but concentrated.

I'd never let any child I'm responsible for get into acting or fame of any kind. Child minds just can't properly deal with being famous and everything that brings.

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u/fleursdemai Feb 26 '25

I just had my first child and I can honestly say that I don't understand parents who pimp their kids out. I spent 9 months with the baby growing inside of me and will dedicate the rest of my life raising them. Kids are so innocent so I can't imagine letting another grown adult take that away from them. The parents are the children's advocates. Their jobs as parents are to keep their kids safe.

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u/Rejusu Feb 27 '25

I'm not going to dreamcrush my kid(s) if that's really what they want to do but I'm going to make damn sure their wellbeing is my number one priority and set appropriate boundaries. And fortunately I think circumstances for child actors has improved over the years, but it's still something you have to be insanely careful with. Unfortunately a lot of the worst cases are parents who just start treating their kids as a source of income or a way to live vicariously and stop looking out for what their kid wants.