Bailee Madison‘s acting chops are never-ending — from Bridge to Terabithia, Wizards of Waverly Place, Just Go with It and of course, Merry Christmas, Drake & Josh — her child acting is no joke! Now all grown up, she’s on to bigger and better things — like the newest hit teen series Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin! Keep reading to uncover her transformation on the red carpet from child star to adult actress.
“There’s always going to be uncomfortableness with growing up, especially growing up as a woman,” Bailee shared with Flaunt Magazine in August 2022 about growing up in the public’s eye. “Realizing that, even at seven, people were going to have something to say about what I was wearing, my clothes, or the fact that I re-wore a pair of sneakers on a talk show.”
She told the outlet that her family was her rock in those formative years — but so was something else: Pretty Little Liars. That’s right, before starring in PLL: OS as an adult, Bailee was a huge fan as a child and looked forward to watch it every single week.
The Disney alum explained that for those sixty minutes every Tuesday, it didn’t matter if the Internet or media outlet was making fun of her sneakers, or that she had to wake up early the next day to film. “I remember watching them,” Bailee said of the original Liars: Lucy Hale, Shay Mitchell, Ashley Benson, Troian Bellisario, and Sasha Pieterse “and being like, ‘One day, when I’m their age, I want to do a show about high school. I want to experience that world, and what those hours are like, and create a show like that. So, for it to be happening at that age, but with the show that made me want to have that experience, it is really mental. I get so excited.”
Since the show premiered in July 2022, it’s already received a second season renewal, critical praise and a new yet familiar ever-growing fanbase. “We also understand that there’s no world in which you can recreate what the original did. Therefore, we have no interest in trying to touch what was so perfect,” she told the outlet. “But we kind of give the fanbase a chance to go into a new world, and new realm full of new stories and new characters, but the same passionate interest that you would feel from the original.”
Scroll through our gallery to uncover Bailee’s transformation from child actress to PLL: Original Sin star!
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