Aaron Carter wants to help young stars navigate fame
Los Angeles, Feb 18 (IANS) Singer Aaron Carter says he is taking steps to help strengthen laws affecting child stars in Hollywood.
Carter shot to stardom at the age of 10. Last year, he was arrested for DUI and drug possession, and went to rehab.
“One of my things that I wanted to do and one of the things I’m still striving to do is to create a new law,” etonline.com quoted Carter as saying.
“Paul Petersen created the ‘Coogan Law’ that puts 15 per cent of kid’s money into a block trust fund account before they turn 18, but there are some faults in that,” he explained.
“You just turn 18 and you’ve got all of this money, like, what are you going to do? So, I really want to try to recreate a new law called the ‘Carter Law’ that makes kids have to go through business schoolings and they get their money through increments throughout a 10-year period after they turn 18, so that they actually learn to manage their own finances and they don’t blow through it.”
Carter says he has already started taking first steps.
“I actually met with Paul Petersen, um, it was a while ago, but… it’s going to be tough to do, but that’s one of my goals and one of the things I want to leave as my legacy is that I went through certain experiences and then I created this law protecting kids from themselves essentially and from their lack of experience,” he said.
Carter is also contemplating writing an advice-filled book aimed at young, aspiring stars, reports etonline.com.
He said: “That is something that my team and I have been talking about. Doing a book and really getting in-depth though and not just making it some tell-all.
“I think my experiences can teach a lot of people a lot of things about this industry and growing up and there’s a lot of young kids that, like, are being put into this industry and I see it and I desperately want to find ways to protect them because I grew up, you know, with parents that didn’t do the best job managing money and finances and even raising their kids and teaching them right from wrong.
“I learned a lot of things a little bit later in life because of the industry that I had growing up.”