I grew up watching Destiny Kids as far back as 2004 and ,2005, and there used to be something about this trio back then that would immediately impact the lives of kids and even adults watching them. These sets of kids back then, though they are all grown now always perform brilliantly in front of cameras and videos.
Their glancing, dancing, singing were always lit and perfectly timed reactions. I know someone will say they had practice and had enough directings. But that aside, these kids knew what they were doing as kids and they were doing it more than some adults.
The house environment and culture where I grew up from. Children were always seen but hardly heard. Family decisions always come from the top and filter down to the last. And we dare not question the decision that our parents have made because if we dare to do something, it is like moving against their authority and disrespecting them.
The way the culture has been structured is that nobody asked us what we wanted. The decision that is best for us always comes from the above. And now that I am matured, I now have a better understanding of things and how much these decisions they made affected some people quietly.
What happened to those Destiny Kids back then and the children influencers we now have today is that same structure with a camera and monetization strategy attached. Their parents saw a very bright potential in them, turned it into a brand by singing and performing, and people started knowing them while their numbers grew and made a decision the children cannot meaningfully consent to. And that Is why those kids spend their formative years performing living and not just living.
Everything they say, everywhere they go, the type of clothes they wear, things they do automatically become content to be consumed by strangers.
The most difficult part that people don't talk about is not even the screen time or predators. Though these two are very real and almost similar. And at the very young age of let me say eight to fifteen, there is always this psychological development that happens in children where they always want to be something different from what their parents and environment want for them. And this phase requires privacy in a way that it will require freedom, inconsistency, and confusion. But most of these kids are always robbed of that like it was shown in a movie I watched, “Reasonable Doubt,” that I recently watched. These kids lives always revolve around cameras, and they have a public life before a private one. And when the paparazzi even stop, because it always does, they have not inner life to return to.
And from what I know, all the parents who are into this will never say it is exploitation, but rather it's providing, giving those kids a pathway and better opportunities. The way they reframenir is the most familiar part of this entire discussion for anyone born and buttered over here.
Those Destiny Kids and other kids in the videos we now watch knew exactly exactly when their reaction won't be enough, because they are five, six, seven, eight.
Thank you for reading.
Images created by Gemini AI
