Scandalous Disney kids forced to take ‘life classes’

It’s a far cry from the 19-year-old’s days playing cutesy dancer CeCe Jones on the Disney Channel show Shake It Up.

But Thorne’s rebellion is par for the course for the kiddie network’s roster of female stars — many of whom have ditched Disney’s squeaky-clean image for meltdowns, arrests and scandal.

Last April, 23-year-old Debby Ryan, the actress who starred in Disney’s Jessie, was arrested for DUI and pleaded no contest to the lesser charge of reckless driving after crashing her Audi into another vehicle in Los Angeles.

Demi Lovato, who appeared on Disney’s Sonny With a Chance for two years, has been candid about her battle with drugs and alcohol, as well as bulimia and self-harm.

Last April, two months after her Disney XD show Lab Rats ended, then-20-year-old actress Kelli Berglund was arrested for using a fake ID.

There was High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens’ nude-photo leak of 2007 and Miley Cyrus’ barrage of hypersexualised, pot-smoking antics.

And no one can forget Mickey Mouse Club member Britney Spears’ epic, shaved-head, umbrella-thrashing meltdown a decade ago (her former manager, Sam Lufti, said in a lawsuit that Spears was on drugs at the time).

While stars-gone-bad is not a new phenomenon, Disney’s sheltered teen flock trashing its squeaky-clean image faster than you can say M-I-C-K-E-Y — letting the world know they are sexual beings and unashamed to party.

Recently, Disney has tried to provide more guidance to its young stars with classes focused on healthy living and social-media responsibility.

Speaking toThe Post exclusively about the courses, studio insiders also reveal for the first time that the network offers “life skills,” coaching actors on how to navigate the wilds of social media and pitfalls of fame.

It’s the golden handcuffs. The success comes at a cost.

But if the latest batch of troubled Disney princesses is any indication, the kid-friendly channel still has its work cut out for itself.

“It’s the golden handcuffs. They are going through things anyone in high school goes through,” said Marlene Wallach, president of Wilhelmina Kids & Teens, who has repped Disney stars, including one young actress who appeared on Jessie and Bunk’d.

“But it is so magnified and there is so much attention given to them when they’re on a Disney show,” she added.

“It’s just 1,000 times more intensified than that for your typical kid. The success comes at a cost.”

Anneliese van der Pol., now 32, saw the cost first-hand.

From 2003 to 2007 she starred alongside Raven-Symoné on the Disney Channel’s That’s So Raven.

She pointed out to The Postthat it’s more than just the bright spotlight that separates the network’s stars from your average 16-year-old.

“You have all these things that aren’t accessible to other people,” says van der Pol., who managed to avoid the public pitfalls that have plagued so many of her fellow stars.

“You don’t really necessarily have to answer to anybody [except at] work, who’s telling you you’re great and fabulous all the time because they need you. And you have all this money and sometimes you don’t always know what to do with it.

“You’re on this weird roller coaster chasing [a] high. What can be better than that? What drug, essentially?” she asked.

“Just going to the movies or chilling at home isn’t going to be as much fun because yesterday you made a million dollars … on a commercial set and everyone said you were great.”

The actress, who is currently filming the Raven sequel, set to air later this year on Disney, says being on the network allows you to afford more of whatever you enjoy.

And, since most child stars don’t have time for hobbies, when the show stops, they sometimes find other substances to replace that high.

“People fall into depression,” she said, “and a big thing they turn to is drinking and drugs and sex because those things make you feel good.”

Disney seems to have finally realised exactly that.

In 2009, just two years after Spears’ public meltdown and Hudgens’ nude-photo scandal, the studio premiered a series of classes to help its young stars adapt to fame.

“We realise these are young people and they are in a transition in their own personal life. Rather than dictate what they can and cannot do, we try to provide resources with these kind of classes and partner with their parents to give them support and guidance,” said Judy Taylor, head of casting and talent relations for Disney Channel.

New talent attends a half-day session called “Talent 101,” which provides a road map about what to expect on set and how life will change.

“We talk to them about staying in touch with their friends who knew them before they were on a series … just to give [them] a sense of real life and to stay grounded,” said Taylor.

There are also monthly optional “life skills” classes, which the network has not previously talked about in the press.

The courses, which started three years ago, focus on emotional and physical wellbeing and are taught by a paediatrician and a Ph.D. expert on child development.

One recent lesson was on “commonsense media,” in which the group looked at mock Facebook pages of two potential hosts for a reality TV show — scrutinising posts for reputation-damaging information.

“They have to decide who to cast for the host,” said Yalda Uhls, one of the life-skills instructors. “They are learning, ‘What are the teeny little things these people are posting online that may be inappropriate or inconsistent with who they’re projecting to be?’”

Projecting the right image is paramount to Disney. And that all starts with the casting process.

Michael Poryes, who co-created the Disney series Hannah Montana and That’s So Raven, says once he finds his star, he writes the part around the actress.

“If I do my job right, you don’t know where the character I created ends and the real person who’s playing it begins,” said Poryes.

Which can only add to the pressure for some of Disney’s starlets.

Raven-Symoné knew she was a lesbian at age 12. But she only came out in 2013, six years after That’s So Raven ended.

“My likeness [while filming the show] … had 15 people dictating what I should and should not look like. If I did whatever I want, I’m not gonna sell ’cause it doesn’t go with the brand. I was branded at such a young age,” Raven said in a docuseries last year.

In a 2013 New York magazine article, Joe Jonas, who starred in the Disney show Jonas, recalled when Vanessa Hudgens was embroiled in the nude photo scandal.

“We heard that she had to be in the Disney offices for a whole day because they were trying to figure out how to keep her on lockdown.

“We’d hear execs talking about it, and they would tell us that they were so proud of us for not making the same mistakes, which made us feel like we couldn’t ever mess up,” Jonas told the magazine.

“We didn’t want to disappoint anyone — our parents, our fans, our employers — so we put incredible pressure on ourselves, the kind of pressure that no teenager should be under.”

This article originally appeared on The New York Post.