It seems to me I answered this question sometime in the last year. That's okay, it deserves bringing up every so often.

For me, I guess it started with John Sheffield in the old Tarzan movies and moved on to TV boys such as Tommy Rettig and Johnny Crawford. David Ladd's appearance in 'Proud Rebel' I think confirmed my life-long interest in boy actors. *sigh*

My answer is very similar to Cal's. I have a general interest in films and I read and sometimes post at a lot of other film-related sites. But child actors are often neglected or ignored by both the industry and the general public. The only time young actors are mentioned to on a site like IMDb, for example, they are usually refered to as "that annoying kid" or something like that. I think they deserve more respect and recognition and I do what I can to contribute to that by helping on this site (when I have the time).

My special interest in boy actors developped when I was in my mid-teens. The first boy actor who really impressed me with his acting talent was Elijah Wood in the movie Paradise. He was one of the first young actors (along with Macauley Culkin and Jonathan Brandis) that I could identify by name and whose career I followed.

As for girl actors, I do think they deserve the same respect and recognition that boy actors do. But as I explained in another thread some time ago, girls are often encouraged to act like precocious little ladies in films and that's something that really turns me off. It seems to me that boys are given more freedom to act naturally and realistically. And their characters seem to have more depth and emotional resonance because of that.

Or maybe it's just me, I don't know. But I really do think the coming of age genre is a primarily male tradition (in literature as well as in film). After all, the genre (as well as our very concept of childhood) was invented by men in the Eighteenth Century (Rousseau, Goethe, etc.).

PS: Cal, in Explorer (as well as in Firefox), backspace is a shortcut key for the back button. As long as your cursor is in the text window, there shouldn't be a problem. But if by mistake it's not (for example if you hit tab) and you hit backspace, you will go back to the previous page. It's happened to me before and it is frustrating. But it doesn't have anything to do with the YaBB script, unfortunately.

I always like movies with boys ever since I can remembr.  When find out I cant grow like regular boy i want to be actor but its very hard to do bcause got to live in place where there is movies made.

I dont remember first movie I seen with boy in big role in film but I think was Searching for Bobby Fisher or Second Best.

It is fun to watch many different kind of movies but I like films got other boys in it most bcause I cant do things other teenager do and I can if with boys not teenagers yet.

I started  being a fan of Kieran's, Mac's since I was 8 in 1990 that I liked their movie "Home Alone" was so funny because Mac's character Kevin's screaming make me laugh and Kieran's character Fuller because he was cute with glasses and he was drinking too much pop. 2nd one, I liked Gregory Smith since I was 12 when I saw him on "Andre" that he was cute. 3rd one, I liked David Gallagher since I was 14 because he was cute that time when I saw him on "7th Heaven" and 4th one, Jeremy Leilott that I liked him  because he is  so cute and a good actor on "Jack" whehen I was 14 and 5th one, Lucas Black  that guy I liked that he was so cute when I saw  him on "Flash" but now all are grown up and handsome and cute young men so I can't believe that they are all grown up. I'm a big fan of them since I was a teenager.

RocketBoy... I didn't know much about boy actors either before I started hanging out at this place. I'm sure others will tell you the same thing. And in a year or two, if your interest doesn't fade, you'll probably know as much if not more than the veterans here.

As for that interest being "weird" or "odd"... sure, in the eyes of some people it will be. But you mustn't let that stand in the way of your passion for boy actors. I know I sometimes get weird reactions from some of my friends when we talk about a movie that features a boy actor and I casually let slip in the conversation not only the boy's name, but a list of two or three other movies he's been in.

I'm comfortable with my interest in boy actors. Sure, I don't necessarily advertise it, but I don't think of it as a dark secret either.

I read a comment recently by a man who works with boy choirs and who said he gets weird looks from people when he tells them what he does for a living. How ridiculous is that!?

Hi...

This is my first time visiting here, and this seems like the perfect thread to start with.

I think the first time I became a fan of a young actor was when I was about 8 years old.  I was watching a Disney movie on TV and decided I would like to become friends with the boy in the film.  Although that didn't happen, I watched every movie he made from that point on, and I always felt the same way about wishing he could be my friend.

Later on as I got older, the movies could take me back to a time which is one of the best parts of life: when you start to really develop your own personality, with independent and creative thinking, but before you get whacked with too much cynicism and the dark side of adult responsibility.  I still leave the theatre after a great young-actor movie wishing I could be his best friend. 

yeah i id ask this once before but becuase we have a lot of new member si asked it again.