No time to be a child

Asia Ray

Raising Asia” is a reality TV show that aims to showcase the fledgling promise of child star-in-the-making Asia Ray. At only 8 years young (at the time of the 2014 show), she’s already been making waves as singer, dancer and all-around entertainer, and hopes are high that, in only a few more years, she could emerge as the next Beyoncé Knowles!

Her TV show covers her busy schedule of workshops, rehearsals, recording sessions, personal appearances and other hectic, career-oriented activities from morning till night—an exhausting regimen that’s astounding and disturbing to behold, especially because she’s still so young and vulnerable.

But, the chilling reality is, it isn’t only Asia’s parents who are ambitious and driven for her to stellarly succeed—the child phenom herself is bent on making it big in the bruising biz! She may be only 8 years old, but the way she talks and acts, she sometimes comes across as 18—going on 80!

Yes, kids need to be ambitious and focused to stand out in “the business of show,” but Asia’s toughness and  sassiness are occasionally unnerving and cautionary to behold.

This is what can happen to other young hopefuls who are prepared to do anything and everything to advance their careers: They stop being children, lose their precious childhood years, and become too slick, tough and “knowing” for their own good.

Even when they do become big stars, it’s a “win-lose” outcome for them, because they’ve given up too much, and can never recover a lost childhood.

“Raising Asia” also devotes a lot of its focus on Asia’s “momager” or stage mother, Kristie, who has given up most of her other activities and relationships, so she can fully concentrate on getting her gifted daughter ready for the really big breaks, if and when they do come.

Even more driven than her daughter, she claims that she doesn’t have to sleep at all, and can go on second and third wind, ’round the clock, just to prep things up for Asia.

Never mind that she rubs people the wrong way and drives them up the wall, as long as Asia slowly but surely goes all the way to the top.

What about Asia’s father? He’s also trying to comanage his daughter’s career, and that increasingly creates friction not just with his wife, but with all of the other people (choreographers, dance coaches, voice teachers, etc.) who are helping to mentor her for the bigtime.

An even more cautionary discovery is that Asia has a younger sister, Bella Blu, who’s also being trained to become a pint-sized performer. She looks quite “normal” now, but can you imagine what she could become, after years of subliminally “imbibing” the family’s insidious “atmosphere” of excessive stress, drive and stellar ambition?

Lessons are raring and yearning to be learned from Asia’s experience, and we hope that one of them is that Bella Blu will be handled and trained with greater cognizance and respect for her right to enjoy  her childhood and her necessarily formative juvenile years.

Let children be children, even as show biz fame and fortune beckon. A few child stars have proven that it can be done—may their tribe increase.