Just finished: Full Circle: From Hollywood to Real Life and Back Again by Andrea Barber, aka Kimmy Gibbler from Full and Fuller House. I used to work with child actors, so I kind of gravitate towards memoirs written by people who were famous as kids. Barber has the kind of attitude towards being a child star that I wish more people got to see: it was really just an after school activity for her, her parents were supportive but told her she could quit anytime, and she still got to do all the "normal" kid things while she starred on a highly successful TV show. I think people see the very public breakdowns of people like Lindsay Lohan and Macaulay Culkin and assume that child actors can only become dysfunctional adults. It really all comes down to who that child is surrounded by--if you have parents like the Lohans, who used their kids as meal tickets, then yeah, it's gonna end in disaster. But if the parents, reps, and production staff in the child's life operate in the kid's best interest and not on their own personal agendas, there's no reason a child star can't turn out perfectly well-adjusted.
The only part of the book I didn't like was her need to speak well of Lori Loughlin. I know she actually knows Loughlin and would therefore have a more nuanced view of everything that happened to her than most of us, but is anybody really jonesing to read anything positive about her right now? It also read differently than the rest of the book, and I kind of suspect Loughlin's people might have paid for Barber to insert this bit as a precursor to the redemption tour we all know will come eventually.
Next up: Run Away by Harlan Coben.
