Melissa Joan Hart Says Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber & Others in Young Hollywood Need to 'Escape Their Past' [EXCLUSIVE]
Actress Melissa Joan Hart spoke to Enstars about her new memoir and the trials of being a young star in Hollywood.
Dressed in a green leather dress, Hart, looked radiant at the New York City launch party for her new book Melissa Explains it All: Tales from My Abnormally Normal Life. As the warmly-lit room was abuzz with the chipper flourish of Hart's friends and supporters, in a brief welcome speech she did warn them that a lot of them might find themselves in the book.
Hart -- who is probably best known for her roles in Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, Melissa and Joey, and Clarissa Explains it All -- left no stone unturned while writing about her life as a young teenage star in Hollywood; from experimenting with drugs and wild parties to hooking up with other stars.
Hart has since left that lifestyle behind and takes on mom duties for her three sons with husband, musician Mark Wilkerson.
She sympathizes with the new generation of young stars like Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber who have been pushing the bounds of partying hard, which the press has been swiftly relaying into a scandalous public image. While she suggested that it was but natural to act rebellious at that age, she also believed that the parents had a very crucial role to play in all of this.
"I think it starts with the parents first of all, you've got to train your kids to make good decisions so that when they are out on their own, they know right from wrong," she said. "But that being said, everyone in their teens and their early 20's is going to go through some rebellion."
Hart does believe that she had it easier back in the day as there were still ways of dodging the media's voyeuristic eye but now the game had completely changed.
"Mine, as I say in the book, was a very careful rebellion but it was rebellion none the less. Luckily, I was able to do it behind closed doors because there wasn't social media and so many outlets for news and media. So these kids are going to have their past follow them through their future," she said. "It's going to be very tricky for these kids to escape their past. We are going to have a future full of politicians where we know all about their past, it's not dug up, it's already there for you."
Melissa Explains It All: Tales from My Abnormally Normal Life is out Oct. 29.
