Television

Tween Stars Wanted: Must Be Primed for Pressure

Richard Perry/The New York Times

With a record deal in place and a new Disney Channel comedy debuting in June, China Anne McClain, 12, is poised to become the company's Next Tween Queen.

LOS ANGELES — China Anne McClain, 12, was taping a scene for her new Disney Channel comedy here recently, when fiction and fact collided. As the cameras rolled, her character — heading off to start big, bad high school — got some parental advice.

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Bruce Birmelin/Disney Channel

Ms. McClain, with Carlon Jeffery, left, and Jake Short in “A.N.T. Farm,” which will have a preview on May 22 and begin in June.

“Just be prepared, Sweetie,” her television mom warned. “There’s going to be a lot of temptations here.”

The same counsel applies to Ms. McClain in real life, as she prepares to make a full-tilt, Disney-backed charge for the title of Next Tween Queen. Pretty and talented yet nonthreatening, Ms. McClain, as an actress and singer, clearly has the potential to commandeer prepubescent culture. “A.N.T. Farm,” the series Disney tailor-made for her, will have a preview on May 22; the premiere is in June. She also has a record deal.

Children’s television is at a transitional moment when it comes to female stars. At Disney, the Big Three — Miley Cyrus, Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato — have all moved on. Miranda Cosgrove, the star of “iCarly” on Nickelodeon, turns 18 this month. Both companies are feverishly trying to mint new headliners capable of drawing the attention of tweens, roughly defined as viewers 9 to 14.

But the manufacture of child stars is not as easy as it used to be. There was a time when all it took was a perky personality, a little talent and a slot on the Mickey Mouse Club. Now child stars have to anchor TV series and movie spinoffs, churn out hit songs, write books and headline global concert tours — when they’re not introducing their signature line of clothing at Wal-Mart.

There is also more competition, and not just between Nickelodeon and Disney. Add “Glee,” ABC Family, MTV, CW and almost every record label into the mix; Justin Bieber ascended via YouTube. There are also more opportunities for teenage stars to screw up in a world where Twitter and Facebook stand ready to document every roll of their eyes. It remains to be seen whether Ms. McClain will be able to absorb fame without becoming yet another teenage train wreck.

Disney and Nickelodeon executives worry about pushback from parents who are fed up with a situation that has become all too common for tween stars: actresses sold as role models who quickly become the opposite. At what point do skeptical parents stop allowing their children to tune in?

Jamie Lynn Spears of Nickelodeon’s “Zoey 101” became pregnant at 16. Vanessa Hudgens (“High School Musical”) had a nude photo scandal. Ms. Cyrus abruptly adopted a sex kitten persona, a transformation inexplicably backed by the Disney-owned Hollywood Records. Ms. Lovato, famous for “Camp Rock” and “Sonny With a Chance,” has recently been in rehab.

“These channels are starting to lose my trust in this department,” said Tara Shannon, a Denver mother of a boy, 8, and a girl, 11. “We’ve taken the bait time and again, and time and again it has left us as parents with a mess to clean up.”

Michael McClain doesn’t blame parents who feel that way. He’s one of them. He promises that his daughter, who goes by China Anne, will follow more in the footsteps of Ms. Gomez, who as the star of “Wizards of Waverly Place” has successfully navigated fame.

“Our family is extremely close knit, and the minute her mother and I or her older sisters sense the slightest whiff of diva behavior, we will jump all over it,” Mr. McClain said.

He added that he and his wife, Shontell, have sought advice from Ms. Gomez’s parents. “Selena is my role model,” said China Anne McClain, sitting primly on a sofa in her dressing room. “I’m never going to disrespect myself — never.”

That’s easy for her to say now. Fame, not to mention puberty, has only begun to hit her, and she only recently relocated with her family to Los Angeles from suburban Atlanta. Even so, Gary Marsh, the president of entertainment for Disney Channel, said that his gut told him that Ms. McClain would be different.

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