Hiya readers!!
As this is the first article I’ve written for the news team I thought I ought to introduce myself. My name is Bernie and I am fifteen years old and I live in Ireland. I love writing and reading and I’m so pleased to be part of the news team because I get to do both of these things. All going well, I’ll be writing the Saturday news article for the foreseeable future.

We’ve all had characters from T.V shows and movies alike that we grew to love as children, and who many of us still cherish now. We were fortunate enough to see some of our favourite stars, such as Miley Cyrus, Shia LaBeouf and Hilary Duff continue to blossom into wonderful actors and actresses, and unfortunate enough  to watch some others such as Lindsay Lohan and Amanda Bynes find the struggle to adult life a little more difficult. But there are also many of our favourite characters who seemed to more or less vanish of the face of the earth!

But fret no longer! I’ve put together a few short summaries on some of the world’s most popular child stars to put everyone’s mind at ease.

No! Not chicken from cow and chicken, but not a bad guess! Adam Lamberg, who you may recognise better as David Gordon or ‘Gordo’, the sneaky little brown noser with a hidden agenda from Lizzie McGuire! After a few smaller projects following Lizzie McGuire Adam left the showbiz world, reportedly saying "I was kind of the black sheep with the Disney kids. I was uninterested in making friends with most of them. I didn't really fall into 'the Disney mold.' I was more or less the kid hanging out with the crew members and got along with them far better." He is very fond of travelling, and went on to study geography at the University of California, Berkeley.

Similar to Adam, Mara Wilson who was possibly my favourite child actor also ended her showbiz career when she was still very young. She’s known best for her leading roles in Matilda, Miracle on 34^th street, Mrs Doubtfire and A Simple Wish. Mara majored in drama at New York University, but has kept quite a low profile since she quit acting, and says that the idea of a full-time live action career does not appeal to her. She writes a blog, and has spoken a few times on it about acting and why she didn't pursue the career: http://marawilsonwritesstuff.com/ which I found really quite interesting and enlightening!

Wow! Well done if you recognised him because I certainly didn't. This is Bug Hall, who is best known for playing the role of a funny little guy with a fabulous haircut called Alfalfa in the nineties film 'The little Rascals'. Although Bug didn't completely move away from the acting seen, he didn't exactly blossom into it with age. He has more recently appeared as a guest on The O.C, CSI: Miami, and 90210 but has yet to really play any roles as big as Alfalfa.

Finally someone a little more recognisable! Nicholas Hoult, one of the few child stars who did actually become more popular with age. I know him best for his role playing Marcus in About A boy, you probably know him best for his roles playing Tony in Skins, and one of his newest films just released this year 'Warm Bodies'. Nicholas is still quite big on the acting scene and it doesn't seem like he's going to stray from it anytime soon, if anything I think we might be seeing more of him!

Melissa Joan Hart is known for her leading roles in Clarissa Explains It All and Sabrina the Teenage Witch. She now seems to be very happily married with three sons. I actually thought she wasn’t acting anymore, but I later discovered she is currently playing the role of Mel in the ABC Family sitcom ‘Melissa and Joey.’ If you want to get to know her a little better here she is on MTV Cribs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q92EhS29Wf8. It’s probably one of the least interesting episodes I’ve watched but hey it’s Sabrina!

Macaulay Culkin is one of the most popular and successful child actor’s ever. He is renowned for playing Kevin McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. He is also very famous for his roles in Richie Rich, Uncle Buck, My Girl and featuring in the music video for Michael Jackson’s hit song, ‘Black or White’. His adult acting career hasn’t matched the success of his childhood one, and he has since unfortunately had to battle a destructive heroin addiction. Today he keeps quite a low profile and spends his time DJing around clubs in New York.

It's interesting to see how many child stars left the showbiz world very early on in their careers and also sad to see how many ended up having problems with drug and alcohol abuse later on in life.

Who's your favourite child star? :)