Christy Carlson Romano talks new memoir

Well, once upon a time, Christy Carlson Romano dominated Disney Channel's airwaves as Ren Stevens or Cadet Captain Stone and teen superhero Kim Possible. But she wants the world to know all that success came at a cost. So she's laying it all out in her new book, Once Upon a Trainwreck. We've got Christy Carlson Romano joining us live now to pull back the curtain on her child star experience. Thank you so much for being here with us. Thank you very much for having me. Of course. I know you've got some great messages in this book for these overachieving millennials and observant Gen Zs. So let's start off with why this book and why now? You know, the book has got a lot of undercurrents of resilience and just getting through the hard times. It's anchored with letters to my daughters. I have a nine and a half and a seven and a half year old. And it really is sort of a legacy book for me to reach through time and space. And I loved the motherhood aspect of my book, but it is a memoir as well. And there's lots of tea, lots of industry know-how, and it's all in there. It really is a beautiful way of achieving multiple goals here. You're telling your children the wisdom that you have learned and earned. But I can't let you be on our air without me asking you if there's a character of yours that really resonates with you, a favorite, or maybe one you don't like as much. um i would say kim possible has always proved to be such an inspiration to me her whole motto of you can do anything has been sort of a north star for me in hard times and i've just always been so proud to play this character over the years and yeah kim possible for sure what a great answer of course i'm biased because i would have given the same one in fact a few years ago i was kim possible for Halloween, Christy? I wonder if we have the photo. I quite literally used my hair dryer to make it look like the grappler. You look beautiful. Thank you. I tried to get like a little reddish looking wig and I had the cargo pants. And I'm just curious as to if you feel something when you when you hear from fans who are like, look, Kim Possible meant so much to me. Ren Stevens meant a lot to me. What does that do for you? I mean, it's interesting in the framework of the book. It kind of takes people's expectations of me over the years. And it kind of, like you said, draw back the curtain and sort of shows you that there's like a full person behind the industry facade. And I can appreciate that because now everyone's grown up and they can kind of take the truth in with the good and the bad and all of the in-between. And this book really achieves that. And I'm really proud of the way that it's come through after two years of writing it. Yeah. Well, you mentioned that this book is like a love letter to your daughters, but it's also for anyone who just wants to do a good job. So I want to read a portion of your book that really stood out to me about try hard. So you define them as a person who goes into something, a game, a part of conversation with a little too much enthusiasm or excitement. You go on to say all that energy looks like desperation from the outside, but you also say, give a try hard the right ally and watch what happens. They become unbeatable. So which life experience of yours brought you to this conclusion? You know, I think motherhood, because I think once you become a mom, you try so hard to keep them alive and happy and thriving. And then you just realize that, you know, part of being a mother is also for you to enjoy it as well. And so you stop killing yourself to be the perfect everything and you kind of hold a mirror up to yourself and so i mean i think the book is also that where it's holding up a mirror to all of my life experiences and motherhood truly brought that full circle for me i can't help but wonder if any of those revelations came from Hillary Duff's mom i've been seeing your posts on social media and you've been quite vocal about your experience and she told you to be a little less agreeable to push for what it is that you want. How does that show up in your life today? I mean, I think that there's, you know, there's always hate out there. People are, can be hateful and for no reason. And I think I'm finally learning to, to let it go and just to accept like who I am fully. And, um, I think it's kind of inspiring because if I can do that after this many years of people pleasing, I think that anybody can just learn to accept themselves and and find their tribe out there yeah yeah well from a fellow try hard i believe that you're doing going to resonate with a lot of people when they read this book now you did say that um there was a relationship with your male co-star from Cadet Kelly that that didn't go quite as long as you expected because you weren't a high profile enough actress and i'm curious as to if there are other examples of that that have happened throughout your career. Is that a common thing? It can be. I think that, you know, there's a lot of, you know, not stunt casting, but there's a lot of prearranged situations that happen in the industry. And it's something that's not really talked about, but everybody kind of knows through publicists that that stuff can happen at the right time. It really propels people forward. It's unfortunate, but I mean, that's just scratching the surface of what happens behind closed doors you know sure and i'm sure we get more of that in your book really quickly to just end on one note here lots of child stars are coming forward and sharing their experiences saying that not all that glitters is gold so i'm curious as to if you believe there is something the entertainment industry needs to change or do to make it better for the next generation of child stars absolutely i think that the mental health portion of this experience needs to happen and have interventions early on from when the children joined the union. And I think there's a lot less social work involved right now and just not a lot of data. And so I think these case studies of all of us coming forward and writing our books and having such support from the public is a sign that there's going to be some changes coming forward for sure. Wow. Well, I've just started diving in. I can't wait to finish it. Thank you so much for your time. We appreciate it. And in case you guys are interested, Christie's new book, Once Upon a Trainwreck, is available now for purchase on Amazon.