Being a child star in today’s age seems glamorous, but it isn’t without its pitfalls.
Imagine a never-ending rotation of practices, coaching, acting, music, or dance lessons, school, time with family, time to pursue other interests…
… on top of the regular busyness of being a child or teenager in today’s world.
And there’s also the issue of getting a quality education in the midst of everything else!
Being a child celebrity can requires rigorous focus, planning, saying “no” to good things in favor of doing great things, and much more. It can be mind-numbing: there are countless opportunities galore, and it’s hard to know what to commit to. Because it’s so complex and hard to manage, many child stars have a hard time keeping everything neatly together, and it’s easy to lose track of educational priorities especially. After all, why go to school when you’ve already found your life’s career…
… right?
Mackenzie Couch is an incredible teenage talent from California by way of Michigan who has put her education first in the midst of a highly successful TV career. She’s a quickly rising talent on many of TV’s most popular shows viewed by millions on channels like ABC, with hundreds of thousands of followers on social media to boot.
Mackenzie is the definition of young Hollywood in that she prioritizes her education and attends school full-time in the midst of her pursuits. Many child stars loosely use tutors to gain some semblance of an education, but Mackenzie pursues her education as seriously as she would if she weren’t a celebrity.
Her mother, Christie, explains,
“We moved to LA when Mackenzie was just 10 years old. She signed with an agency right away. Since then she has danced in music videos for Nia Sioux and has appeared in 2 episodes of Fresh Off The Boat, has also appeared on Modern Family, Our People, and the HBO series, Insecure. She was SAG-eligible at the young age of 12 years old. Mackenzie attends the very prestigious Orange County School Of The Arts full-time in the commercial dance conservatory. Mackenzie and her sisters just appeared on the cover of The Teen Magazine and have another cover coming out in December.”
Regarding her experience with giant TV shows like Modern Family and Fresh Off The Boat, Mackenzie explains,
“Filming both of those shows was an amazing experience. Modern Family was such a funny scene that it took awhile to get and Fresh Off The Boat was so good that I was just invited back for another episode.”
For many child celebrities, it can become truly tempting to forgo education in favor of building a career. However, Mackenzie and her parents have made education a priority: it will always come first, because it’s the foundation for anything else, celebrity career or not. There are many stories of child celebrities who ignore education in favor of a career, experience a few breaks in the entertainment industry, but ultimately don’t succeed.
Given Mackenzie’s path, she’s about as well-rounded a celebrity as they come.
Follow Mackenzie on Instagram.
