How Jennette McCurdy’s New Book Liberated Herself - And Others - From Nickelodeon
Where did Jennette McCurdy go?
The former child star was silent for a long time. She completely stopped acting after iCarly ended in 2012. An icon who was once one of our childhood sweethearts just slipped away into quiet oblivion.
But not anymore. Jennette is back and better than ever. She’s all we can talk about. She found her voice through her autobiography, I’m Glad My Mom Died, where she details the shocking abuse she endured from both her mother and network execs during her time at Nickelodeon.
A fun story for everyone: I worked in a yoga studio when I was in high school, and Jennette McCurdy came in for a class. Excited, the teacher went up to her after class and said she’d heard Jennette was in a show. Kindly, Jennette informed her that she doesn’t like to talk about it…
Now we know why.
Jennette recently appeared on the Red Table Talk with Jada Pinkett Smith to read an excerpt from her novel. She held nothing back and got real about the horrors she endured growing up. It reiterated what we all knew: Jennette has been through a lot, and it’s time for us to listen.
In her book, Jennette often references “The Creator,” one of her network bosses who would force her to drink alcohol underage and give her massages. The Creator is never named, but one can assume that it is Dan Schneider.
Schneider gave us some of our childhood favorites like The Amanda Show, Drake & Josh, Zoey 101, Victorious, and of course iCarly…but at what cost? Hundreds of traumatized actors and actresses who may or may not be taken seriously when stepping up?
He finally left Nickelodeon in 2018 and has faced several abuse allegations over the years. But now that Jennette has fully detailed her experience, more and more women are coming forward to talk about their abuse on Nickelodeon.
Actors and crew members who previously worked with Schneider and left due to allegations that he was verbally abusive on set, have now revealed the nightmarish events that would occur off-screen. Unwanted massages, coercing actors to sit on his lap, and creating disturbing scenes with underage children…yikes.
Daniella Monet of Victorious recently revealed that Nickelodeon refused to cut a scene that she said was too sexual from the show.
The ever-charming Schneider was known for making comments about how women aren’t funny, and even asked for another female writer to mimic sodomization. A pleasure to work with, I’m sure.
By being candid without naming Schnieder, Jennette McCurdy gave a credible report on her abuse without making it about the names of the men. It gave others the platform to speak out as well.
Jennette McCurdy’s book was sold out across Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and bookstores everywhere for weeks. It quickly became a New York Times bestseller. It’s eloquent and powerful without being in your face.
News like this can be hard to digest in a book, especially when you realize that these events really happened to her. Although we loved watching her on these shows, and they gave us a lot of happy memories, they were some of her worst.
Jennette is best known as her character Sam from iCarly and, later, the spinoff, Sam & Cat alongside Ariana Grande’s character from Victorious. However, this work of literature isn’t successful merely because of McCurdy’s childhood screen success.
In a review by The Atlantic, they write:
“McCurdy takes her time to remember difficult and complex moments of her life, staying true to her younger self while ultimately trying to come to terms with who she is as an independent adult. It’s a triumph of the confessional genre,”
People aren’t reading this book just for the vibrant cover and clickbait-y title. It’s not about Jennette triggering a bunch of nostalgia. It’s hard-hitting, raw, and brutally honest.
McCurdy reminds us that everything isn’t as perfect as it once seemed. Nickelodeon was riddled with executives who allowed a lot of abuse to happen in the name of television ratings. There shouldn’t be this many people who come out with their discomfort from their time on the network.
Maybe soon, we will live in a world where abuses of power aren’t being revealed almost a decade after they happen. One where we won’t even have to worry that it’s happening in general…but for now, I am glad Jennette was the catalyst for this one.
