It probably didnt hurt that Texas, unlike California, has no state income tax.
Its just verygood vibes only.
Like, How could the right opportunity come along if youre just not there?
Romano spent years waiting for the phone to ring with the perfect part.
It never did, so she turned to YouTube.
That is like the foot on their neck.
Tea, usually just barely steeped, is spilled.
Memories are picked over like meat on the bone.
I have to… not trick the algorithm, but I have to clickbait.
I have to game it.
And its only because its in the best interest of getting the videos out there.
I mean, thats just the game.
Romano estimates hundreds of thousands of dollars have been invested into the overall production costs alone.
Then theres the emotional investment.
And hes like, But you’re not getting hired now.
At one point, her Connecticut hometown even named a holiday (Feb. 22, 2005) after her.
She kept acting (and directing) long after Disney stopped calling, but nothing broke through the mainstream.
For a long time, I was pushing that away.
She even directed a film (2016sChristmas All Over Again), written by her husband.
I became humble when I had an awareness of how much Ive been given.
Its a lesson thats inspired her to build her budding mini empire at home.
Im the data pipe, I can give myself the green light, she says.
Thats the best part about it.
You control your own production destiny.
After years of feeling at the whim of others, this control is reassuring.
This is my life experience.
She really lets people in and who doesnt love that?
I mean, it’s one thing for you to be a cute kid with a ton of personality.
It’s something entirely else to…
I dont want to use the word fetishize it.
But it does that.
It fetishizes the fact that youre young and cute and then, Lets make money off it, right?
It’s not a childhood anymore at that point.
Romano is rare among former child actors in her willingness to speak so openly.
When are they going to OD?
When are they going to fuck up again?
Thats not how you reward somebody whos given you their childhood, but alsoyourchildhood memories.
Like, great: I get it!
That contents already been made.
Theres a lot of other stuff I want to talk about.
And now that I know my brand, its about building the brand back up.
People are starting to fall into the Christy Romano rabbit hole, she says.
Now that were doing more production stuff, we have a bunch of cameras and a bunch of gear.
We are able to, at some point, go and shoot our own feature film now.
We know the value of what we have.
Photographer: Parker Thornton
This article was originally published onDec.
