Maddie Ziegler opens up on Dance Moms past: 'I have my feelings...'
Maddie Ziegler finds it "scary" that some fans still expect her to be a child star.
The 21-year-old actress shot to fame more than a decade ago when she was featured on 'Dance Moms' but is more recent years has starred in films such as 'Fitting In' and while she has her "feelings" about her childhood career, she is aware that she would not be able to explore her other passions such as acting and music without it.
She told Teen Vogue: "Obviously, I have my feelings about that [show], but if I didn’t do it, I would not be where I am right now at all. I wouldn’t have been found by Sia. I wouldn’t have found my love for acting through music videos, and I wouldn’t be where I am, literally, right now talking to you.
"I’m not always going to be that little girl. I still that same goofy, loving, hard-working girl, but I’m also changing and growing. It’s scary when people are like, ‘But you’re not who you were when you were younger.’ And I have to explain, ‘Yeah, because that’s just not realistic.’"
The 'Music' star previously admitted that she felt "set up to fail" when she was cast on the Lifetime series as a child.
She told America's Cosmopolitan magazine: "People thought I was a brat because in all my interviews I would say, 'I'm the best. I know I'm going to win.' But that's because the producer was telling me to say that.#
"I don't think I'm better than everyone else. I was just doing whatever they told me to do because I thought that's what you did.
"They set you up for failure."