Rooting for Amanda Bynes.

Hello and Welcome to Medi8tor!

Medi8tor is an entertainment blog catering to up & coming artists, entertainment business professionals, and fans of the entertainment industry.  Since this blog’s inception we have covered many topics pertaining to entertainment, but the topic that is closest to our hearts is “ Fame Management.” We discussed this concept of “Fame Management” in our first blog post Welcome to Medi8tor.  After this post we began a series of profiles entitled “Fame vs. Personhood” to see which artists were balancing their fame and personhood well, and who was floundering under the pressure.

Fame is a person’s reputation and influence in the public eye, while Personhood is simply being a person.  The first few artists we highlighted were: Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown, and T.I.  Today, we will be adding another person to our list.  If you’re like me, you may remember this adorable face, and this hilarious sketch as a kid:

Nickelodeon kids everywhere remember turning in weekly to watch the hilarious sketch comedy show All That.  I remember all of the young actors who week after week brought colorful characters to life, brightened our weekends, and put a smile on our face every Saturday night.  This show also sparked my interest to begin pursuing performance, and convinced me that if the young actors on this show could make it, I should strive for my dreams as well.  If you were like me as a kid, Ask Ashley was one of your favorite sketches.  The young actress in this sketch had incredible timing, an ability to quickly change emotions that was spell bounding, and often left me clutching my sides with laughter.  This young woman, Amanda Bynes, wowed me with her talents.

Now lets fast-forward to present day and that same sweet-faced, talented, hilarious Amanda Bynes has now become:

http://www.examiner.com/article/amanda-bynes-wants-to-sue-nypd-for-drugs-and-being-institutionalized

A very troubled Amanda Bynes.  There have been strange tweets, bizarre behavior, strange photographs, drugs, and an arrest.  We here at Medi8tor derive no pleasure from supporting, or encouraging wreckless and dangerous behavior.  In addition, we do not want to exploit Amanda during this very difficult time in her life.  Therefore, if tabloid fodder tickles your fancy The troubled and talented Amanda Bynes article from Fox News chronicles Amanda’s past and present in pictures; while the Huffington Post has an entire section dedicated to Amanda Bynes every move.

Medi8tor’s goal is never to scrutinize, punish, or ridicule any artist and especially one who is having a hard time.  Instead we want to sympathize, understand, and help.  But like this clip illustrates we have to know where it all began.

For Amanda Bynes maybe it was: the money & stardom at a young age, drug abuse, a bad relationship, a parenting misstep, undiagnosed mental illness, etc.  Unless Amanda lets the world know what’s going on inside her head, we’ll never know what set her on this path.  But whatever it was, it can be overcome with honesty, transparency, communication, and love.  Therefore Medi8tor wants Amanda to know that we genuinely care about her well being, and that whatever or whomever sent her on this destructive path can be stopped.

But Amanda, you must find the power and courage to face those things or people yourself.  Perhaps the things you have seen in this industry have disenchanted you, and caused you to distrust others.  We do not want to discredit your experiences, and sympathize with the difficulty and pain that comes with betrayal (especially from those closest to you); but we also know that forgiveness is a necessary part of life, and that to forgive takes courage, and we want to encourage you to be courageous and take your life back.  Or perhaps this current society has made you believe that your relevancy can only be maintained by displaying outlandish behavior on social media.  These temporal celebrity sensations that will do anything for 15 minutes of fame in the spotlight, must continue to exploit themselves in order to maintain their relevance, because they do not have a talent sustainable talent to offer the world.  This was never the case with you Amanda, you have the talent and the courage to succeed in entertainment or whatever career path you choose.  You also have the ability to combat whatever is plaguing you that might seem overwhelming and scary, but I believe that you can do it.  I believe this to be true because at 10-years-old you could do this:

Although you are an adult now, and whether or not you still want to be an actress, that brave Amanda still exists somewhere inside of you and is capable to take on this current state.  I believe that beneath the denial, the pain, the harsh words, the ridicule, the slander, the illness, the voices, the heartache, the heartbreak, and the darkness is the Amanda who had “Her eye on the prize, goals in life, and wanted a long career,” no matter what you chose to do in life next, you still matter.  There are still people who care about you, and who want to see you succeed in life.  But you must take the first step to get there and no one can do that for you.  We here at Medi8tor are rooting for you Amanda, and want to see you living a lifestyle worthy of the work that you put in during your foundational years in this business.

Medi8tors if you agree with this post, instead of using social media to ridicule and perpetuate Amanda’s behavior lets support her by sending her encouraging tweets to help get her back on the right track.  Whenever you send her a message please use the hash tag #Rooting4AmanadaBynes, and lets see if we can’t use Twitter to uplift this young woman.

See you next time!    

Sources:

Fox News. (2013). The troubled and talented Amanda Bynes. Retrieved on June 7th 2013 from http://www.foxnews.com/slideshow/entertainment/2013/05/28/lovely-talented-amanda-bynes/#slide=1.

Huffington Post. (2013). Amanda Bynes. Retrieved on June 7th 2013 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/news/amanda-bynes/.