Some child stars struggle to keep their careers going as they get older, while others choose to ditch Hollywood entirely, going on to become veterinary surgeons, fashion designers or even car salesmen. Here are six girls who made it to our screens at a young age but later opted for another path in life. Jennette McCurdy McCurdy made her on-screen debut with a 2000 episode of Mad TV when she was just eight years old, and she got steady work for a while after that, appearing in Malcolm and the Middle , Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and Tiger Cruise . But, of course, she’s best known for her role as Sam Puckett in iCarly and its spin-off Sam & Cat . The show began in 2007 when she was 15, and she played Sam for seven years, through 2014. After Sam & Cat ended, McCurdy appeared in sporadic episodes of different shows, and starred in the sci-fi series Between , which was cancelled after two seasons in 2016. Now 30, she returned to acting in 2020 for a one-woman show she wrote called I’m Glad My Mom Died . Although the show continued through 2021, she called it a “one-time thing” during a 2021 episode of her podcast Empty Inside. Who is the richest woman in the world right now? (No, it’s not Kim K) McCurdy confirmed in March 2021 that she has retired from acting. “I quit a few years ago to try my hand at writing and directing – it’s going great. I quit a few years ago because I initially didn’t want to do it,” she said. “My experience with acting is, I’m so ashamed of the parts I’ve done in the past. I resent my career in a lot of ways. I feel so unfulfilled by the roles that I played and felt like it was the most cheesy, embarrassing. I did the shows that I was on from like 13 to 21, and by 15, I was already embarrassed,” she continued. “My friends at 15, they’re not like, ‘Oh, cool, you’re on this Nickelodeon show.’ It was embarrassing.” In August 2022, she’s releasing her memoir, also called I’m Glad My Mom Died. Amanda Bynes Bynes began acting in 1996 when she was 10 years old, as part of the Nickelodeon sketch show All That . She was so popular that she received her own show, The Amanda Show , three years later. It ended in 2002. Inside Dream Kardashian’s fabulous life, from baby Bentleys to Amazon ads After that, she explored a film career with roles in movies like What a Girl Wants , Big Fat Liar , She’s the Man and Sydney White . Bynes also starred in the Warner Bros sitcom What I Like About You from 2002 to 2006. Bynes, who is now 36 and was released from a nine-year conservatorship in March 2022, announced her retirement from acting on Twitter in 2010, when she was just 24. “Being an actress isn’t as fun as it may seem,” read the tweet. “If I don’t love something any more, I stop doing it. I don’t love acting any more, so I’ve stopped doing it. I know 24 is a young age to retire, but you heard it here first.” Two years on, Bynes found herself repeatedly in the headlines for multiple arrests. She was charged with a DUI (drinking under the influence of alcohol or other drugs) after a 2012 incident, but the charges were later dismissed and she was given three years probation. Again, she was arrested on suspicion of driving under the influence in 2014, but the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office decided not to bring charges. She also made headlines for erratic posts on social media regarding Rihanna, Drake and the NYPD. Bynes gave one of her first interviews in years in 2018 to Paper magazine, detailing her drug abuse, her mental health struggles and her intention to graduate from fashion school. After Bynes started a fire in a stranger’s driveway in 2013, she was hospitalised involuntarily for 72 hours for mental evaluation, and Bynes’ parents asked the court to create a temporary conservatorship. Actress Amanda Bynes has been charged with two misdemeanor hit-and-run counts, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles city attorneys office said Wednesday. The 26-year-old star was allegedly involved in incidents on April 10 and August 4. She pleaded not guilty in that case pic.twitter.com/hu1GlcUlVY — Caroline (@Carolin47226771) July 12, 2021 Her mother, Lynn Organ, was ultimately granted legal control of her daughter’s financial and medical decisions. Last year, a judge reinstated the conservatorship until at least 2023. In February 2022, the actress filed to end her conservatorship, according to her lawyer. The conservatorship was officially ended by a judge in March after nine years. The fabulous life of Kourtney Kardashian’s 10-year-old daughter Penelope Mara Wilson Wilson was just six years old when she made her on-screen debut in Mrs Doubtfire in 1993. Over the next seven years, she racked up an impressive nine further roles, in films like Matilda , Miracle on 34th Street and Thomas and the Magic Railroad . Wilson, now 34, retired from acting in 2000 at age 13, although she continues to do voice-over work. She’s since become an author and journalist. After Thomas and the Magic Railroad , Wilson, then 13, decided to step back from the acting scene. She attended NYU to study film and graduated in 2009. She’s since published a memoir, Where Am I Now?: True Stories of Girlhood and Accidental Fame , and written a play called Sheeple . Despite her “retirement”, she appeared in an episode of Broad City in 2016 and voiced a character in the third season of BoJack Horseman . She also voices a recurring character in Big Hero 6: The Series and multiple characters in Helluva Boss . Who is actress Sonoya Mizuno, about to star in the Game of Thrones prequel? In 2021, she wrote a personal essay for The New York Times about how she was sexualised as a child star. “It was cute when 10-year-olds sent me letters saying they were in love with me. It was not when 50-year-old men did,” she wrote. Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen The Olsen twins were infants when they began starring on Full House in 1987, and were nine years old when it ended. They also starred in multiple direct-to-video specials, like the You’re Invited to Mary-Kate & Ashley’s … series and The Adventures of Mary-Kate & Ashley , plus direct-to-video films such as Holiday in the Sun and Our Lips are Sealed . They made their way back to network TV with shows So Little Time (2001) and Two of a Kind (1998), but neither lasted more than a season. The twins also starred in 2004 romcom New York Minute , which was their first theatrical release since 1995’s It Takes Two . New York Minute was also the last thing they acted in together. The Olsen twins, now 36, are still famous, but now it’s for their clothing lines and personal lives, not their acting. Mary-Kate continued to act after New York Minute – she was in 2011’s Beastly , and had a recurring role on season three of Weeds in 2007, but both have now retired. The twins announced in 2012 that they were officially retiring from acting to focus on their fashion line, Elizabeth and James , which they launched in 2007. Ariana Richards Richards was 14 years old when she starred in Jurassic Park (1993) as Lex, one of the grandchildren of the park’s creator, John Hammond. Even though it was her first big role, she had started acting six years prior, in a 1987 episode of The Golden Girls . After that, she appeared in multiple made-for-TV films, and made a cameo appearance in The Lost World: Jurassic Park . The 5 most exciting films hitting cinemas – and Netflix – in June Richards made her last on-screen appearance in 2001 in a direct-to-video movie Tremors 3: Back to Perfection . She’s now more focused on painting. In 2001, Richards was 22 and had already taken a three-year break from acting, graduating from Skidmore College in upstate New York in 2001. Richards, 42, is more focused on her art nowadays, and runs her own gallery. She did make a return to TV in 2013, with a role in Battledogs , but it was just a one-time thing. She married Mark Bolton in January 2013 and the couple have a daughter. This article originally appeared on Insider Want more stories like this? Follow STYLE on Facebook , Instagram , YouTube and Twitter .