Surviving Child Stardom

Famous as the adorable star of Matilda and Mrs. Doubtfire, she gets candid about her struggles in a new memoir.

- Jeff Nelson

Mara Wilson booked her first commercial as a baby, starred with Robin Williams in Mrs. Doubt-fire at age 6 and sang the opening number at the Oscars at 7. But she had very little idea she was a child superstar. “My parents would downplay everything because they wanted to keep me grounded,” Wilson says of her folks, TV electronics engineer Michael and homemaker Suzie, who raised their five kids in Burbank. “My priorities were still kid priorities. So I would be mad if I didn’t win the crazy clothes-day contest at school, and my mom would be like, ‘Okay, but other kids don’t get to go to the Oscars, Mara.’”

She became one of the leading child actresses of the ’90s, starring in 1994’s Miracle on 34th Street remake and 1996’s Matilda. But at the height of her career, the young star was forced to grow up quickly: When she was 8, her mom died of cancer. “I felt kind of out of control,” says Wilson, who was diagnosed with obsessive-compulsive disorder,depression and generalized anxiety disorder in seventh grade. “I felt lost for a while. It was hard.” It was also hard growing up in an appearance-obsessed industry. By 2000 she wasn’t getting any roles, and scrutiny of her looks weighed so heavily on her that she decided to retire from the “toxic” culture. “I realized, ‘I don’t fit their idea of what a Hollywood actress looks like, so there’s no room for me here,’” Wilson says. “It’s hard to come out of that sane and without some serious doubts about yourself.”