Melissa Gilbert made a passionate plea for child actors in the wake of Hayden Panettiere's death.Gilbert, 62, admitted that she didn't personally know the "Heroes" actress, but took Panettiere's death personally as she begged for industry changes in a post shared on Substack."Within one year, Michelle Trachtenberg, Daveigh Chase and Hayden Panettiere have died," Gilbert wrote."Three former female child actors of the same generation are gone.
Tragically, heartbreakingly, agonizingly too soon."HAYDEN PANETTIERE'S CO-STAR JUSTIN CHATWIN 'P----- OFF' OVER HOLLYWOOD CULTURE AFTER HER PASSINGFormer child actress Melissa Gilbert begged for industry changes in the wake of Hayden Panettier's death at 36.(Getty Images)"They are gone and the question I have been turning over and over in my head is, ‘WHY?".
Why are these three sweet, wildly talented, vibrant, vital young women gone?"Trachtenberg died naturally of complications from diabetes mellitus in February 2025.She was 39.HAYDEN PANETTIERE'S FINAL PETA CAMPAIGN CAPTURED WEEKS BEFORE HER DEATH MARKED LIFETIME OF ADVOCACY WORKChase died in June from acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), according to the Los Angeles Medical Examiner's office.
She was 35."And why does this all feel so personal to me? I did not know Hayden personally and only worked briefly with Mishy and Daveigh," she wrote."It feels personal because I was them.
As were Tatum, Kristy, Brooke, Patty, Anyssa, Dakota, Elle, Shirley, Britney, Jodie, Drew and my sister Sara, to name a few."Melissa Gilbert starred as Laura Elizabeth Ingalls Wilder in "Little House on the Prairie." (NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty Images)Hayden Panettiere found fame at a young age, and starred alongside Denzel Washington in "Remember the Titans." (Walt Disney Pictures/Alamy)Gilbert wrote that the women were "all members of the same tribe" she coined the "Female Former Child Performers," and wrote that one member dies, "it runs through all of us like an electrical curren...