The backlash continues. Daniella Monet opened up about feeling “sexualized” during her time on Victorious — and claimed Nickelodeon ignored her concerns.
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Per Variety, a report from Insider published on Tuesday, August 30, claimed that Dan Schneider — who created various shows for the network including Victorious, iCarly and Zoey101 — often ignored Nickelodeon’s standards department. The executive producer, 56, would allegedly “sign off on all outfits” and regularly suggest “skimpier options” for costumes.
Monet, 33, who portrayed Trina Vegas on Victorious from 2010 to 2013, confirmed to Insider that some of the actors’ outfits on the show were “not age appropriate” and that she “wouldn’t even wear some of that today as an adult.”
While the California native noted that the teen comedy was “very PC, funny, silly, friendly, chill,” she explained that there would occasionally be questionable scenes.
“Do I wish certain things, like, didn’t have to be so sexualized? Yeah, 100 percent,” she said, recalling a time when she contacted Nickelodeon about her character eating a pickle while putting on lip gloss. The Follow Your Heart star claimed she voiced concerns that the moment was too sexual to air, but was ignored by the network.
The Winx Club alum also recalled how male-dominated the writer’s rooms were at the time, noting that “none of Schneider’s shows credited more than two female writers in the entirety of their runs.”
Per Variety, Alexa Nikolas, who starred in the first two seasons of Zoey 101 as Nicole Bristow, protested outside of Nickelodeon’s Burbank offices with her organization, Eat Predators, last week. The actress has also been vocal about the “traumatizing” experience working with the network, alleging to Insider that Schneider once “screamed at her until she broke down in tears,” also claiming that the Tenessee native would “often take photos with teenage actresses sitting on his lap.”
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The actress’ comments come just weeks after Jennette McCurdy, who rose to stardom playing Sam Puckett on iCarly, released her memoir titled I’m Glad My Mom Died. In the book, the Sam & Cat alum, 30, details the trauma she experienced from being a child star.
“My whole childhood and adolescence were very exploited,” she told The New York Times in August. “It still gives my nervous system a reaction to say it. There were cases where people had the best intentions and maybe didn’t know what they were doing. And also cases where they did — they knew exactly what they were doing.”
Though McCurdy did not address Schneider in the memoir by name, she seemed to allude to him as “The Creator.” The author appeared to claim her former boss got in trouble with Nickelodeon for “accusations of his emotional abuse,” which she wasn’t shocked by.
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Russell Hicks, Nickelodeon’s former president of content development and production, told Insider that the standards and practices read all the scripts for Schneider’s shows and parents or guardians were always present on set. “Every single thing that Dan ever did on any of his shows was carefully scrutinized and approved,” Hicks wrote in a statement to the outlet.
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