Ariana Grande was put through the ringer as a young star — and now that she’s older, she’s advocating for change in the entertainment industry so that the people who follow in her footsteps have an easier time.
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On the latest episode of WTF With Marc Maron posted Monday (Feb. 10), the singer-actress said that therapy should be a “non-negotiable” part of record-label contracts for young signees, while reflecting on the whiplash of finding fast fame as a Nickelodeon actress-turned-pop star in the early 2010s. “I was 19 when all of that nonsense started happening to me,” she began of the immediate public scrutiny she faced in the spotlight. “It started when I was so young with my body or rumors about my relationships or about my team or about my mom or about people I love. There was just no limit.”
“It’s so important that these record labels, these studios, these TV studios, these big production companies make [therapy] a part of the contract when you sign on to do something that’s going to change your life in that way, on that scale,” Grande continued. “You need a therapist to be seeing several times a week.”
Adding that big entertainment companies “should be responsible for protecting” young creators from the mental turmoil that’s almost guaranteed when they become globally famous in a short period of time, the Wicked star again said that counseling “should be non-negotiable” in contracts. “To be an artist, you are a vulnerable person with your heart on your sleeve,” she said. “So the same person who is meant to do art is the exact same person who is not meant to deal with that s–t.”
Grande’s comments echo what she previously said on Penn Badgley’s Podcrushed in June, when she revealed that she was “reprocessing” her time on the shows Victorious and Sam & Cat after allegations of sexual harassment and toxic workplace conditions from other former child stars came to light in the documentary Quiet on Set. At the time, the Oscar nominee said, “I think that the environment needs to be made safer if kids are going to be acting, and I think there should be therapists … I think there should be parents allowed to be wherever they wanna be.”
The topic is also newly prevalent considering Chappell Roan’s much talked-about best new artist speech at the 2025 Grammys, which sparked debate between the Midwest Princess — whom Charli XCX, Halsey and Noah Kahan later backed up — and former music industry executive Jeff Rabhan. In her speech, Roan had called on labels to “offer a livable wage and healthcare” to signees, “especially for developing artists.”
Later, after Rabhan called her take “wildly misinformed” in an op-ed published in The Hollywood Reporter, Roan clapped back by donating $25,000 to funds for struggling artists and wrote on Instagram Sunday (Feb. 9), “Sharing my personal experience at the Grammys wasn’t meant to be a crowdfunded bandaid but a call to action to the leaders of the industry to step up, help us make a real change and protect their investments in a sustainable way.”
Listen to Grande open up about the importance of therapy for young stars below.
