Jenna Ortega Recalls Struggles of Being a Latina Child Actor

Wednesday star, Jenna Ortega, opened up about her struggles growing up as a Latina child actor in Hollywood. She recalls having to “look a certain way” to book roles.

During an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, the Scream VI actress opened up about her experiences attending auditions and not fitting in as a child actress. She often felt pressured to conform to Hollywood beauty standards.

Ortega entered the industry at age of 9. By 12, she landed the role of Harley Diaz, an engineering prodigy going through life as a middle child of 7 siblings in the Disney series Stuck in the Middle. Additionally, she went on to land major television and film roles.

Although the actress has had much success throughout her career, she endured a lot of rejection early on. Ortega, born to Mexican and Puerto Rican parents, expressed that as a child actor coming up, it was difficult because there were not many “leading Hispanic actors,” leading to a hard time booking jobs.

“As a child actor, there are two jobs that you can get,” she revealed. “You’re either the younger version of someone or you’re playing somebody’s daughter, and there were just not any leading Hispanic actors who I could be that for,” she stated.

Having faced countless rejections by casting directors, Ortega expressed, “That was hard to hear that something you couldn’t change was what was preventing you from succeeding,” she revealed.

In addition, having struggled through those experiences has impacted her self-esteem, and the actress expressed to Bazaar that she considered dyeing her hair blonde to fit the image of Cinderella. However, she backed out on that thought and realized being herself is more than enough, and she will land roles meant for her.

“I thought, ‘I don’t want other young girls to look up at the screen and feel like they have to change their appearance to be deemed beautiful or worthy,” she stated.

Read more of Jenna Oretga’s struggles and experiences here.