Most of us can remember watching Disney channel in elementary and middle school. We all anticipated the new episodes and stayed up a little later than later than usual to see ‘Disney Channel original movie’ airings. The favorites were Suite life of Zack and Cody; Wizards’ of Waverly Place; and of course Hannah Montana. As the year’s progressed we all got older and outgrew Disney Channel, as did the stars of our favorite shows, changing nearly every parent’s minds about the influence these actors had on their children.

It is not uncommon for older actors to portray younger characters. Actress Miley Cyrus played the role of Miley Stewart on the popular Disney show, Hannah Montana, a show about an unpopular girl who balances the average struggles of growing up while secretly doubling as a rock star named Hannah Montana. Cyrus initially auditioned for the role at age eleven while actually beginning to film the show at age thirteen, just two months away from her fourteenth birthday, while still playing the part of an eleven year old girl. Just a few short years after the show became popular, the trouble with the media began. Whether it was for “pole-dancing” at the TCA while performing, risqué pictures in Vanity Fair magazine, or surfaced pictures of Miley sharing a lollipop with a friend in a suggestive way, Cyrus was deemed as a bad influence on the children who watched her show.

Despite her problems with the media this actress finished her Disney career days strong, and ended the show in 2011.

Two other Disney channel stars, Vanessa Hudgens and Selena Gomez, broke out of the children’s business and definitely made a statement in the new movie “Spring-Breakers. Hudgens had already been under fire in years past for sending inappropriate pictures to High School Musical costar Zach Efron. Selena Gomez is well known for her leading role on “Wizards of Wavery Place”, as well as being in a serious relationship with Justin Bieber.

“Spring- Breakers”, was released March 22^nd 2013, and is rated R for good reason. The film follows four college aged friends who decided to rob a restaurant in order to found their spring break trip to Florida. Throughout the movie there is excessive drug and alcohol use as well as many sexual situations to the point where it’s completely overdone. Maybe I didn’t enjoy the movie  because I had grown up watching these girls act in innocent Disney channel programs. “Spring-Breakers” was the extreme opposite of anything that would ever even come close to being on Disney channel.

It is completely understandable that as these stars get older they have other interests than being on Disney channel, that isn’t even practical. It is such a drastic change to go from making children’s television shows to a movie portraying the exact opposite of what kid’s should be exposed too . No one is perfect by any means, but I do believe it will be hard for young kids to understand why they can’t watch “Spring-Breakers” because “Alex from Wizards of Waverly Place is in it.” While trying to break out of the Disney channel image, I think that these actresses could have chosen a numerous amount of other productions to be a part of, without having to take such extreme measures to prove a point, because it is already not that difficult to understand that they are growing up, just like the rest of us.