The 30-year-old found fame as a teenager on children’s TV channel Nickelodeon, portraying Cat Valentine on Victorious, before she went on to star in a spin-off show called Sam And Cat opposite Jennette McCurdy. Grande reflected on her time on the shows, after former child actors made allegations of emotional and physical abuse on Nickelodeon sets in documentary series Quiet On Set: The Dark Side Of Kids TV. Although she did not mention the series by name, the actress and pop star empathised with the “devastating” allegations which had recently come to light.
Grande said she had a “beautiful” experience on the TV sets, but insisted that the environment around child actors “just needs to be made a lot safer all around”. During an episode of the Podcrushed podcast, co-hosted by US actor Penn Badgley, Grande suggested that therapy twice or three times a week to offset “the level of exposure” to child stars should be included in their contracts. “There should be an element that is mandatory of therapy, a professional person to unpack what this experience of your life changing so drastically does to you at a young age, at any age,” she said.
Grande suggested she has been “reprocessing” her experience on the Nickelodeon sets, which she said “has and is” changing. “A lot of people don’t have the support that they need to get through performing at that level at such a young age,” she said. Alongside the mandatory therapy, Grande said that parents sh.