Blast from the past! Nickelodeon has been home to childhood hits for years — and kids growing up in the 2000s will never forget the network’s leading ladies.
From Amanda Bynes, Emma Roberts and Keke Palmer to Jamie Lynn Spears and Miranda Cosgrove, women had a major presence on Nick from 2000 to the mid-2010s. While Bynes’ comedic legacy stretched from the late ‘90s to 2002 with The Amanda Show, Palmer didn’t burst onto the teen-TV scene until 2008 with True Jackson, VP.
Cosgrove cemented herself as a Nick darling in 2004 when she played the bratty sister on Drake & Josh alongside Drake Bell and Josh Peck. A few years later, she lanced her own show, iCarly, which also brought fan-favorite Jennette McCurdy into the spotlight.
While the ladies, who were just kids when they became famous, told different stories on screen, many of them had similar hardships while living in the public eye at a young age.
“For sure there was pressure,” Cosgrove revealed during a September 2022 episode of the “Reign With Josh Smith” podcast. “Even when you’re not on TV or acting or anything, just growing up, there’s a lot of pressure to try to figure so many things out.”
The California native, who reprised her role of Carly Shay on 2021’s Paramount+ reboot of iCarly, noted that she often found herself ignoring any positive feedback.
“When I was younger, I would go through and kind of ignore all the nice comments and look for the one mean one,” she explained of her experience on social media as a young celebrity. “I would be going through for awhile and be like, ‘Oh, found it!’”
Her remarks came one month after her former costar McCurdy released her debut memoir, I’m Glad My Mom Died, which detailed her troubling childhood and hard moments in Hollywood.
“I think seeing yourself is particularly difficult with growing up in the public eye, because you’re so public-facing and seen as one thing,” the comedian, who later starred on Nick’s Sam & Cat, wrote in the book. “That makes the reality of you so much more unseen and invalidated and unacknowledged. But now, because I see myself, I can accept being seen by others.”
The former child star also noted how difficult it was to see her Sam & Cat costar Ariana Grande become a megastar once their show ended in 2014.
“Every time something exciting happens to her, I feel like she robbed me of having that experience myself,” McCurdy recalled, claiming that Nickelodeon treated her differently than Grande. “And every time someone calls me a good sport, all I feel is how much I don’t want to be one.”
While the “God is a Woman” singer has yet to comment on McCurdy’s book, Cosgrove told The New York Times in August 2022 that she had no idea what her costar was dealing with when they were kids. (McCurdy also alleged that iCarly creator Dan Schneider caused her trauma on set.)
“I love Miranda to pieces. I always will. She has such a special place in my heart,” McCurdy told Entertainment Tonight after her book hit shelves. “She helped me grow as a person and heal as a person, and I hope I did the same for her. I just love her so much.”
Scroll down to see what some of your favorite Nickelodeon ladies from the 2000s are doing now:
