Lindsay Lohan’s career has seen the impact of childhood stardom

From the fan-favorite movie series Mean Girls to the notorious classic The Parent Trap, this Disney actress earned a name for herself in the 2000s due to her flawless acting skills. Lindsay Lohan, the former Hollywood “it” girl, has recently stepped back into the spotlight after overcoming numerous legal troubles.

The average 10-year-old kid would consider Lohan’s childhood “a dream,” as she was discovered in the early onset of her life. This teenage actress was destined to become a megastar; yet, as soon as her reputation began to rise, she went down the wrong path.

After modeling as a child, in 1998 Lohan starred as twins in The Parent Trap, which later resulted in getting a three-film contract with Disney. At 11 years old, Lohan played the part of two different people living completely different lives, even one with a British accent. In 2000, Life-Size premiered on ABC’s “The Wonderful World of Disney,” and the Disney Channel Original Movie Get a Clue premiered in 2002 which was just the start of her fame. Despite the fact that instantly after the films came out she became a star, Lohan strived to live a normal life like all her friends at school. In 2003, the world was once again stunned as Lohan took on the role of a 40-year-old mother and teenager at the age of 16 years old in the classic film, Freaky Friday. Lohan’s success in Hollywood quickly continued with the Mean Girls release in 2004. Her fans saw her as an all-around icon who had a natural gift for acting. Mean Girls went down in history as one of the best teen films of all time. The jokes and reality of high school in this series allowed Lohan to be known as a teen movie queen. Lohan scored several MTV Movie and Teen Choice awards for her Mean Girls work. Mean Girls secured Lohan’s fame for generations to come; the classic series will never get old. Soon after the Mean Girls debut, Lohan went on to star in Disney’s Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005) and began making music, but her life changed when she started experimenting with a different lifestyle.

After starting to party hard and experiment with various drugs, Lohan drifted away from the spotlight. During the filming of Herbie: Fully Loaded, she was hospitalized from fever and exhaustion. Lindsay had family issues including an abusive father and in January of 2005, Lohan’s parents got divorced which was a long and painful process. In the summer of 2006, Lohan had lost focus of filming because of her partying behavior. Lohan stopped filming because she was not in the right headspace to perform as she used to. From 2007 to 2012, Lohan struggled with substance abuse and eating disorders that slowly took over her career. In the summer of 2007, Lohan went to rehab for the second time after being arrested and charged with drunken driving, cocaine possession, and driving with a suspended license. She had her first DUI and her first experience with drugs when she was 20 years old, following a night out clubbing with individuals she felt she shouldn’t have been with in the first place. Lohan admitted to being addicted to drugs, alcohol and breaking the law, and took responsibility by pleading guilty to the charges. Although Lohan believed in living with no regrets and instead learning from her actions, she took the initiative to take back control of her life and improve her health. As a result of Lohan skipping out on compulsory court hearings and educational classes in 2009, her probation was extended. Over the next year and a half, Lohan underwent extra rehabilitation as well as additional time in jail for her addiction problems, a shoplifting incident and missing psychotherapy appointments and community service hours.

Lohan was ready to start a new chapter in her life and get back to the good old days. Lohan appeared on Glee (2012) and The Canyons (2013) and realized how much she missed doing what she is best at. Unfortunately, in the summer of 2013 reckless driving and lying to police caused Lohan to enter rehab once more, pushing off her probation. After finishing her community service, Lohan moved into an NYC apartment and worked with a life coach to get back on track for real. In 2014, Lohan made the decision to live abroad as she grew up and changed. If she wasn’t fighting enough battles already, she was physically assaulted by her ex-husband in Greece and had to deal with the trauma. Lohan started opening up beach clubs and speaking out on her past, and in 2020 eventually decided to start filming again and move back to the United States. In 2020, she appeared with cast-mates in reunions for The Parent Trap and Mean Girls and hopped back on the social media grind as she joined in on viral TikTok and Instagram trends. Today, the star is doing personalized Cameos, appearing in commercials such as the 2022 Super Bowl Planet Fitness commercial and is back on the screens. Lohan recently played the lead role in the Netflix holiday film, Falling for Christmas, which marked her first major comeback in a movie. Lohan is an inspiration to many, and will always be an icon holding that natural gift on the screens. This is only the beginning of a new chapter in her life as she embarks on this new phase of development and change. It will be exciting to see how Lohan’s comeback grows as she still has a lot of life to live and wonderful opportunities ahead of her.