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These are the current best former child stars of the moment, ranked from least to most powerful.
Tisdale also voiced Candace on the animated showPhineas and Ferb.
Adult Highlights: She has maintained her career with guest spots and voice-acting gigs.
In 2010, she starred inHellcatswith Aly Michalka.
Chart Stats: Outside of herHSMhits, Tisdales song He Said She Said peaked at No.
58 in 2008.
Notable Deals:Tisdale partnered with BH Cosmetics to create her makeup line, Illuminate.
Power Move: Keeping the voice-acting checks coming with Disney long afterHigh School MusicalandSuite Lifewere over.
Power Miss: Tisdales music career hasnt taken off as hoped.
Adult Highlights:Though her music career has stalled, she was inSummer Nightswith Lana Condor and Analeigh Tipton.
Chart Stats:Her highest Hot 100 hit was Freak the Freak Out from theVictorioussoundtrack.
Notable Deals:No active deals, but she isnt afraid of a little Instagram sponcon.
Power Move:Getting on three Nick shows in seven years.
Power Miss:Ending her music career just as co-star Grande was beginning hers.
Adult Highlights: Mendler continues to make pop music.
She starred inFather of the Yearwith David Spade and NetflixsMerry Happy Whateverwith Ashley Tisdale.
Chart Stats: Ready or Not fromHello My Name Is …was certified gold and peaked at No.
49.
Notable Deals: Mendler has no active deals, but she previously worked in philanthropy.
Power Move: Hitting the child-star trifecta: guest spot, TV show, original movie.
Power Miss: Leaving Hollywood Records after just three years and before the release of her second album.
Bottom Line: The song Ready or Not lives on as a 2010s bop, but thats about it.
He also played Light Turner in Netflixs adaptation ofDeath Note.
Lately, he has pivoted to drama and horror with the upcoming filmsMainstreamandBody Cam.
Nat and his brother, Alex, continue to make music together.
Chart Stats: BothNaked Brothers Bandsoundtracks peaked at No.
Notable Deals:None at the moment.
Power Miss: Not getting onRiverdale.
He could totally be Jughead.
Its essentially this generationsHigh School Musical.
Chart Stats: Carsons highest place on the charts came from theDescendantssoundtracks Rotten to the Core.
Notable Deals: Earlier this year, she started a campaign with UNICEF for International Womens Day.
Power Move: Segueing from Disney star to Freeform star.
Power Miss: Although Carson has put out singles, were still waiting for a debut album from her.
Adult Highlights: Now she stars in the Marvel Comics Freeform showCloak & Dagger.
Chart Stats: Her EP,Olivia, peaked at No.
18 on theBillboardHeatseekers chart.
Notable Deals: She became a brand ambassador for Neutrogena in 2016.
Power Move: Securing a role on a Marvel show.
Power Miss: Only releasing two solo singles since 2017.
Bottom Line: Starring in Freeforms first MCU TV show has got to land her somewhere big next.
Chart Stats: With his band R5, Lynch has had two albums and two EPs break into theBillboard200.
Power Move: Getting that Netflix money.
Power Miss: Hes got a pretty clean slate, so maybe its that Danimals commercial.
Sabrina Carpenter
Child-Star Highlights: Carpenter began her career at Disney singing for two soundtracks.
She and Sofia Carson starred inAdventures in Babysittingtogether.
Since then, she produced, starred in, and performed a single for the Netflix movieWork It.
Yep, that too.
Chart Stats: Her song Almost Love peaked at No.
21 on theBillboardTop 40.
Notable Deals: No deals, just focused on being a triple threat.
Power Move: Skipping movie musicals and focusing on her own music.
Power Miss: The unfortunate cancellation ofGirl Meets World.
Bottom Line: Carpenter will not be going anywhere anytime soon.
(Cant shake those Disney ampersands!)
Chart Stats: Wolff has made it to theBillboard200 albums chart twice with theNaked Brothers Bandsoundtracks.
They also had one Hot 100 single.
Notable Deals:Yet another member of theDannon Danimalsyogurt-sellers club.
Power Move: The face-to-desk panic attack inHereditaryalone should secure acting work for him for years.
(Though you’re able to bet Nat isnt complaining about that John Green money.)
Bottom Line: Safe.
Hes the Wolff bro with the cheek mole.
She also starred in the Disney Channel seriesLiv and Maddie, for which she won a 2018 Daytime Emmy.
There was also her recurring role inAgents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
After an EP and a few singles, the band (i.e., the relationship), broke up.
Power Move:Taking the name Dove Cameron after being born Chloe Celeste Hosterman.
Only a person who truly bets on herself can elect the name Dove.
Power Miss:The direct-to-videoR.
L. Stines Monsterville: Cabinet of Souls.
She has also amassed an impressive social following, which helps with the ever-important #clout consideration.
Cameron has a lot of potential.
Lets see what she does with it when the golden Disney handcuffs are off.
Adult Highlights: The much-praised Jonas Brothers reunion album,Happiness Begins(on which he sings solo!
Kevin also has two kids, which is nice for him.
Chart Stats: The Jonas Brothers have had two albums reach No.
1 on theBillboard200 chart, with 19 songs cracking the Hot 100.
Sucker, the lead single fromHappiness Begins, was the bands first to hit No.
On a smaller scale, they were once slingingBreakfast Breaksfoods.
Power Miss: The E!
docuseriesMarried to Jonas,which was mostly about him and his wife just living in New Jersey.
She was featured on Mouse House soundtracks, then started her own band, the Never Ending.
Chart Stats: Shes just doing it for the love of singing, all right?
Notable Deals:None so far, which seems pretty surprising.
(She also gives a damn good hilariously unhinged performance on the show, for whatever its worth.)
Power Miss: Her highly promoted Netflix show that was marketed primarily with her celebrity appealgetting torchedbyreviewers.
But hey, she still gets to cash those checks.
Bottom Line: Bless the Who queens.
Chart Stats:drivers licensedebutedat No.
1 on the Billboard Hot 100.
All I Want, her TikTok viral love song fromHSMTMTS, reached No.
Notable Deals:Does aTaylor Swift endorsementcount?
Power Move:Dropping her breakup ballad before co-star and rumored ex Joshua Bassettcould drop his.
Power Miss:Shes young, she has the rest of her life to make some mistakes.
Shes got the whole worlds attention now.
She also put out two EPs and was an outstanding high-school mean girl inThe Duff.
She has also kind of worked backward and parlayed her film and TV fame into social-media celebrity.
And she was also one of those Dannon Danimals child-star pitchpeople.
Power Move: Bitch Im Bella Thorne, which really cemented her DGAF status.
Power Miss: Maybebeing instrumentalin the cancellation of her own show,Famous in Love.
(If social-media clout has any power, she has figured out how to monopolize it.)
Adult Highlights: The unquestionable highlight is the slow-motion mayhem of the Britney Spears Everytimecrime montagefromSpring Breakers.
All three of thephenomenally successfulHigh School Musicalsoundtracks reached the top of the albums chart, hitting Nos.
1, 1, and 2, respectively.HSMalso produced a ton of hit singles.
She has also done ads for Candies and Neutrogena.
Power Move: Truly detonating herHigh School Musicalimage with a role in Harmony KorinesSpring Breakers.
Power Miss: Most of her other movies.
You may not always hear her name, butthe girl has staying power.
They have released multiple studio albums and have performed under the names Aly & AJ and 78violet.
Aly also co-starred inthe second-best Emma Stone movie of all time,Easy A. from their upcoming LP.
Power Move: Getting Alex Ross Perry to direct the video for their song Church.
Hooray for gay rights and science!
Chart Stats:Citrinecracked theBillboard200 albums chart and spent one week at No.
93, whileExpectationsreached as high as No.
And being the ambassador of20GayTeenhas to count for something.
(That roadside kiss with Kehlani in What I Need was queer visibility at its best.)
Power Miss: That Velma Dinkley hairdo inScooby Doo!
With the Disney engine behind her, she launched her music career.
1, but the other five have all reached the top three.
Demi said gay rights!
Power Miss:Camp Rock 2: The Final Jam.The first one was good enough.
There was also that weird time when she hired a prostitute in Vegasto kind of sexually assault her bodyguard.
Bottom Line:Lovato has dealt with a lot.
So maybe shell be back soon tosave our summers.
She alsomarried (and divorced) a Hemsworthand flirted onstage in onesies with Ariana Grande.
1 albums on theBillboard200 and 14 total entries on that chart between EPs and LPs.
No big deal that the original is byher godmother, Dolly Parton.
Power Miss:Theres respectfully exploring other genres of music, and then theres brazen appropriation and cultural tourism.
Cyrus did the second (never forgetMiley, whats good?
), and while she did apologize for her privilege blindness,it took her a few years.
Duffs stardom also made the Disney originalCadet Kellya huge hit.
Outside of those contractual commitments to the Mouse, she starred in important-at-the-time movies likeA Cinderella StoryandAgent Cody Banks.
And hey, shes also a New YorkTimesbest-selling author.
Breathe Out.from 2015 debuted in the top 5 onBillboardsTop 200.
(She has had seven entries on that chart overall.)
She starred in the Nick seriesTrue Jackson, VP, and an original movie calledRagsfor the channel.
Chart Stats: She has had an EP and an album reach the R&B/Hip-Hop album charts.
Notable Deals:You see that moisturized skin, and you just know youre looking at anOlay spokesperson.
If someone doesnt give her opportunities, she makes them for herself.
Adult Highlights:After Nick broke up the band, Joe started the pretty fun dance-pop group DNCE.
Joe has also had a handful of albums slide into theBillboard200 albums chart across his various musical ventures.
Notable Deals:He used to promote Xbox 360 with his brothers.
Power Miss:His first solo album before starting DNCE, calledFastlife.
This is the only way you could earn the hand of the Queen in the North.
He and the bros were also big in theCamp Rockuniverse.
Also: Dont sleep on how good he was as a closeted gay MMA fighter in the showKingdom.
Chart Stats:Two Jonas Brothers albums have reached No.
1 on theBillboard200 chart, with 19 singles in the Hot 100.
Power Move:That post-child-stardomglow upand becoming Mr. Priyanka Chopra.
Power Miss:The Disney showJonasand breaking up the Jonas Brothers.
Additionally, theres a new documentary and amemoiron the way.
This guy churns out hits at will.
She was also in the incredibly named Disney original moviePrincess Protection Programand kicked off her long-running singing career.
Shes an original member of the Taylor Swift Squad inner circle.
Not to mention her part-time gig carrying theHotel Transylvaniaanimated film franchise.
The actress currently hostsSelena and Chef, an Apple TV+ show where she learns to cook.
Overall, she has had six albums on theBillboard200 chart, three of which have peaked at No.
1, and a formidable 27 songs on the Hot 100.
Her latest album,Rare, debuted in the top spot.
Power Move:Gomez has beenpretty clearabout the pressure her humongous social-media following puts on her.
Shes like a Hot 100 cheat code.
(Its not even the official video!)
), and she has demonstrated mogul tendencies with her film and TV work.
If Selena has the energy to keep on weathering storms, she will stay some kind of power player.
She sang at the time, but as Victoria Justice so accurately pointed out,didnt they all?
Its possible she isyour momsfavoritepop star.
Chart Stats:She has had five No.
Four of her albums have reached the top of theBillboard200, another (Dangerous Woman) peaked at No.
2, and even her EPChristmas & Chillmanaged to land a Top 200 spot.
Bottom Line:Her pop mega-stardom makes it easy to forget she was even on Nickelodeon.
Youre talking about one of the five most powerful pop stars in the world at this moment.
Zendaya
Child-Star Highlights:Zendaya starred in the Disney showsShake It Up!andK.C.
Undercover, the latter of which she produced.
She also snuck in a briefBillboard-charting singing career.
(We stan the hustle.
)Shes respected by auteurs such as Denis Villeneuve.
Chart Stats:She has one song on the Hot 100and one album in theBillboard200.
Power Miss:So far, her star has only been on the rise.
Just imagine the impact if she got a spandex suit of her own!
