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As former child stars speak out about their early careers, Ariana Grande has been rethinking her own beginnings on Nickelodeon. Grande appeared on her “The Boy Is Mine” co-star Penn Badgley’s podcast, Podcrushed, where she opened up about starring on Victorious from 2010 to ’13 as a teenager. She only alluded to the docuseries Quiet on Set and the allegations against Victorious creator Dan Schneider, saying it’s been “devastating” to hear from child-star “survivors.” “I’m still, in real time, reprocessing my relationship to it,” Grande said. She admitted that Victorious “pushed the envelope with our humor” but said, looking back, some moments make her think, “Damn, really? Oh shit.” (Schneider is suing Quiet on Set producer ID for defamation. No one from Victorious appeared in the series, but it did use footage from the show.)
Grande also outlined some ideas of what could improve on sets. “I think the environment needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting, and I think there should be therapists,” she said. “I think parents should be allowed to be wherever they want to be, and I think not only on kids’ sets. If anyone wants to do this, or music, or anything at this level of exposure, there should be in the contract something about therapy is mandatory twice a week or thrice a week, or something like that.”
