Dove Cameron Addresses Fans Who Say She ‘Changed So Much’ Since Disney Days: ‘The Difference Is Some Hair Dye, and Now I’m 30’

Victoria EdelMon, February 23, 2026 at 6:48 PM UTC

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Dove Cameron on 'Liv and Maddie' (left); Dove Cameron on Feb. 11 (right)

Ron Tom/Disney Channel via Getty; Steve Granitz/FilmMagic

Dove Cameron addressed fans who think she's changed 'so much' since her days as a Disney star

Her Disney series Liv and Maddie premiered in 2013, when she was 17

Cameron said that any changes are due to the passage of time, but she understands why fans might not be able to 'reconcile' the difference

Dove Cameron is opening up about fan expectations from her days as a Disney Channel child star.

The actress and singer, 30, opened up in a Feb. 22 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, tied to her new series 56 Days, a sexy thriller on Prime Video. Cameron rose to fame for her dual role as the titular twins on Disney’s Liv and Maddie. Cameron was 17 when the series premiered in 2013. The show won her a Daytime Emmy and ran until 2017. She also starred in Disney’s ultra-popular Descendants film franchise, which began in 2015.

THR asked Cameron how she “broke out” of expectations placed on her as a former child star.

“I think there’s always going to be a large number of people who hear my name and think of me when I was 19, platinum blonde and smiling at the camera,” she said. “ ‘She changed so much.’ I think it would be so bizarre if I was still behaving like an 18, 19-year-old as a 30-year-old woman.”

From left: Sofia Carson, Cameron Boyce, Dove Cameron, and Booboo Stewart in 'Descendants'

Jack Rowand/Disney Channel

She continued, “Sometimes I see these TikToks of like, ‘Dove Cameron when she was on Disney, she had this spark.’ It’s like, guys, please, literally the difference is some hair dye, and now I’m 30. That’s it. I’m exactly the same person.”

The actress said there will “always” be a “large number of people” who see her as a child star. She noted that the way she “broke out” of the child star mold was by “not trying” to.

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“I never really had a big moment where I was like, now I’m going to show people that I’m an adult. I never did that,” she said. “I just didn’t have that instinct and that energy. I just didn’t really care.” Instead, she focused on continuing to work and following her “instincts” as she got older, including when she began recording her own music. Her debut EP, Alchemical: Volume 1, was released in 2023.

“I guess my music did play a big part in that because I do think some people view that as a huge page turn. Whereas to me, I was no longer representing a children’s company, so I was just writing the music that I wanted to write,” she said. “All of the music that I released with Disney, I didn’t write it. I was just singing for them. I was in the studio for them. Once my contract was up with Disney, I started wondering what I wanted to do.” But she said her transition to adult roles was “never really stark.”

Dove Cameron on Feb. 17

John Nacion/Getty

She noted that working on the Apple TV+ series Schmigadoon!, which aired from 2021 to 2023 also helped the transition. “It’s campy, it’s musical, but it was with older actors, and I was the baby,” she said. “I think that some of these things were just little sideways stones to now, I’m 30, and my work has changed. You just wake up one day and the world has shifted with you in this line of work.”

At the same time, Cameron said she doesn’t feel bad about some fans forever thinking of her as a teen. “I don’t think [of it as] unfortunate. It’s just their reality. I don’t really need anyone to get on the same page as me, to have me feel good,” she said. “I understood that people’s perception of me had nothing to do with the person that I am a really long time ago.”

She said that if the version of her people think of is “from their childhood,” that's a “beautiful memory” for them, and she doesn't want to take that away. “They can have that,” she said. “Whatever I’m doing now, I don’t have to do that thing forever to make them happy. But we can both appreciate it. I loved that time, they loved that time. I love what I’m doing now. Other people will hopefully love what I’m doing now, but it doesn’t have to be a fight.” She admitted that she had “favorite actors” from growing up that she also can’t “reconcile the difference.”

Speaking to PEOPLE earlier this month, Cameron called 56 Days "the best script I've read in a very long time.” She explained it had "all of these components of things that I'd never done before, but I just felt ready."

on People

Original Article on Source

Source: “AOL Entertainment”