“Dance Moms” star Maddie Ziegler has over 100k reasons to wanna make it to the “Dancing with the Stars: Juniors” finals … huge BUCK$ are on the line. The 14-year-old is guaranteed to make at least $ 50k for appearing on the ‘DWTS’ spinoff…
Showing posts with label Ziegler. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ziegler. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 1, 2018
Friday, May 11, 2018
Mackenzie Ziegler Blasts Dance Moms: I Had No Childhood!
While Abby Lee Miller struggles through her chemo treatments, another former Dance Moms star is telling all about her experience on the show.
13-year-old Mackenzie Ziegler is following in big sister Maddie’s footsteps; she has written a book!
In Kenzie’s Rules for Life, she talks about missing her childhood while dancing on TV, and she slams Dance Moms as a toxic environment.
RadarOnline reports on some of the contents of Mackenzie’s tell-all book. Within the pages, Mackenzie confesses that she felt inadequate and insecure during her reality television career.
“I didn’t feel like I was good enough.”
That’s a normal feeling to have, but for a young child to experience it while being thrust into the spotlight is … sad.
“I was also really nervous about people watching me on TV.”
Of course! She was a child. She is still, for that matter, a child. She’s barely a teenager.
“Would they laugh at me? Would I look really stupid up there?”
Dancing in a room full of dancers is one thing. Doing so on television is another.
“I know the cameras would be following us around and catching everything I did and said. I was embarrassed and really insecure.”
Like her sister Maddie Ziegler’s tell-all book, Mackenzie’s does not mention Abby Lee Miller by name.
But you can see “vague” hints that appear to refer to her.
“I always felt like I had to live up to people’s expectations of me.”
A number of people suspect that Mackenzie is referring to Miller, here.
“I thought everyone was constantly judging me, watching each move and tearing it apart, nitpicking everything I did, and laughing at me behind my back.”
Yeah, that definitely sounds like how Miller came across on the show.
“The competitive dance world and reality TV can get a little crazy.”
Mackenzie also mentions that she basically missed out on a lot of important parts of being a child.
“It was pretty much my answer to every party, play date, after-school activity, you name it: ‘Sorry, I have dance."”
Strange that we live in a world where you (correctly) can’t send your child to work in a mine or a textile factory, but kids can be trotted out on TV and dance themselves into exhaustion.
“I started to regret not being a ‘real kid’ with a real life. I felt like I had no childhood, and it made me sad and angry.”
Those feelings sound very justified.
To make matters worse, Mackenzie reveals that she was the target of online bullying over social media.
“People would be so cruel to me in comments.”
For one thing, they would make unfavorable comparisons between her and her sister.
“They would compare me to my sister, saying that I wasn’t as pretty or as talented as Maddie.”
Vicious and inexcusable.
“They called me fat; they said I was ugly and had big bunny teeth that stuck out.”
I cannot imagine saying these vile things to anyone, let alone a child.
“They made fun of my costumes and my routines, called me a crybaby and a loser.”
Absolutely despicable.
“I felt like I was constantly being attacked. It made me paranoid and insecure.”
That kind of experience can haunt you for life.
Mackenzie says that it took almost her entire run on Dance Moms to work up the courage to put her foot down and leave the series.
“I was over it.”
By the way, are you aware that Mackenzie herself was not paid for her time on the show? She’s worth 2 million, thanks to other appearances and endorsements and tours.
“I felt like the constant competition life was getting to me too much.”
Absolutely understandable.
“It wasn’t fun for me anymore; I was ready to move on and do something else.”
Good for her.
“It was me knowing I was capable of doing so much more in my life and feeling ambitious and a little ‘itchy’ to branch out. I was ready to move on.”
Considering that Maddie’s book also did not mention Abby Lee Miller by name, we assume that Mackenzie avoided naming her from the start.
That is for the best, since Miller has been diagnosed with cancer. Releasing a book that bashes someone while they’re in the hospital fighting for their life would be all kinds of awkward.
That said, Miller did shade Mackenzie over allegedly vaping, but that’s a far cry from actively bashing someone.
We hope that Abby Lee Miller makes a swift and full recovery.
We also hope that Mackenzie Ziegler continues to see success — and that she gets to, at least, have an almost normal adolescence since she was robbed of a childhood.
Tuesday, March 20, 2018
Abby Lee Miller Shades Mackenzie Ziegler Over Vaping Video
Even though Abby Lee Miller is still locked up despite having been scheduled for early release, she can still throw shade at her former students.
This time, she"s taking aim at 13-year-old Mackenzie Ziegler with a tweet.
Why? Because, as you can see in the video below, Mackenzie Ziegler has allegedly been caught vaping.
Abby Lee Miller is proving that she doesn"t need occasional prison visit to be able to tell her former dance students exactly what she thinks of them.
Some people may be unaware, but many of those who are incarcerated are allowed to access the internet during carefully limited, established periods of the day.
However, someone else has been posting on Miller"s behalf during her prison stay — innocuous little posts to keep her accounts active, as if the entire world didn"t know that she"s in prison.
For that reason, it is unclear if the former Dance Moms villain — sorry, former Dance Moms instructor — is the one who personally tweeted this.
And yes, it matters.
In what seemed to be an attempt to tweet at Justice, the clothing store that markets heavily to tweens, Abby Lee Miller appears to be throwing shade at one of her former students.
(She actually tweeted at a fan account for Justice … because even clothing stores have those)
Her tweet asks a simple question:
"Do you sell vapes now?"
There"s a joke in there somewhere about the prison stereotype of people in prison trading cigarettes for currency but … whatever.
It was immediately clear to everyone who"s been keeping up with Dance Moms gossip that Miller"s interest in vapes was not personal.
See, Mackenzie Ziegler has recently been "caught" vaping.
Not on Instagram — her public Instagram account is all smiles and staged photographs that look less like a 13-year-old"s actual life and thoughts and more like what her family might hire a publicist to post.
(Which is totally fine; Mackenzie is just a kid and does not need her every real thought and deed to be exposed to the world)
However, though Mackenzie is only 13, she has been "caught" on video.
Many fans believe that she has been vaping.
Vaping, though not as harmful as cigarettes (and infinitely better-smelling … usually), still delivers a dose of nicotine and can be addictive.
Mackenzie has responded to those claims by saying that she is using a Monq.
That would be water vapor mixed with essential oils, and considered harmless.
(Please note that essential oils are not necessarily harmless; both lavender and tee tree oil have been found to disrupt certain hormones and may be an environmental hazard around children)
Some fans don"t believe her, however, and say that the vapor looks too thick to simply be from water and oil.
We certainly hope that she is making the best choices for herself. Mackenzie may be worth a couple million now, but that doesn"t mean that her life couldn"t spiral downwards if she makes the wrong choices in her teens.
So it seems that Abby Lee Miller was throwing shade at Mackenzie, poking fun at her age and at the vaping rumors.
Mackenzie isn"t only young, but she"s collaborated with Justice on dance-inspired activewear clothing lines.
Honestly, the mis-tagged Twitter account aside (really, she should have phrased the tweet differently for maximum effect and visibility), it was a pretty good tweet.
This living terror has a pretty good sense of humor.
Take a look at the video below and decide for yourself if you believe Mackenzie"s claims that she isn"t using traditional vape fluid.
Tuesday, August 8, 2017
Ex-"Dance Moms" Star Mackenzie Ziegler Countersues Music Producer, Blasts Abby Lee Miller
Ex-“Dance Moms” star Mackenzie Ziegler is firing back at a music producer who sued her, saying the guy’s a fraud who never paid her for her tunes … and she’s laying the blame on Abby Lee Miller. Mackenzie and her mom, Melissa Gisoni,…
Tuesday, June 20, 2017
"Dance Moms" Teen Mackenzie Ziegler Sued, Producer Says She Bailed On Music Deal
“Dance Moms” star Mackenzie Ziegler is two-timing a music producer by bailing on performances and record sessions, and working with another producer on the side … according to a lawsuit. Kismet Music is going after 13-year-old Mackenzie and her…
Thursday, June 15, 2017
Maddie Ziegler: I"m So Glad I"m Not on Dance Moms Anymore!
Hasn’t Dance Moms always been the most delightful show, a lovely little showcase of the incredible talents of the girls who’ve spent to much time and effort perfecting the art of dance?
Ha ha, just kidding — there’s some dancing, of course, but when one thinks of Dance Moms, one thinks of Abby Lee Miller.
And when one thinks of Abby Lee Miller … well, nothing good happens.
For years, the show featured Abby berating young girls and their mothers as she teaches them a variety of dance routines.
It’s usually been about drama just as much as it’s been about dancing.
Things could change now that Abby’s off to prison and Cheryl Burke is stepping in as the head coach, but we’ll have to wait to see.
And Maddie Ziegler, the show’s biggest star, will have to wait to see too — she quit Dance Moms last year.
Things are definitely looking up for her: she’s got two movies coming out this year, and who knows when she could do some more work with Sia.
She’s already an author at just 14 years old, and if all else fails, she’s always got some killer dance moves to fall back on.
But even if her big career plans don’t work out, it sounds like she’s just glad to be done with the nightmare that was Dance Moms.
In a new interview with Seventeen, Maddie says that “The show was a really stressful time.”
It was stressful to watch as an adult, so yeah, we’d imagine being a kid living through it all was considerably worse.
“I just didn’t want to deal with all the drama anymore,” she explains. “I’m happy I moved on. I get to step out and do my own thing and be myself.”
“But I am thankful for the experience, and I miss dancing with the girls.”
If she sounds grounded for a 14-year-old who’s already experienced pretty massive levels of fame, that’s because she is.
“I’m still just a teenager, she says. “I get so caught up in what I’m doing that my friends and family sometimes have to remind me that what I’m doing is cool.”
“I never imagined this.”
While Maddie is obviously very appreciative of all the opportunities she’s had so far, she also unfortunately has to deal with haters.
And nobody likes a hater.
“I try to stay away from online comments,” she admits. “Why should I bother reading something from someone who has nothing better to do than try to make people feel smaller, so they can feel bigger?”
“It’s not OK.”
Doesn’t she just sound like the greatest kid? Like she escaped from the claws of Abby Lee Miller just in the nick of time?
Thank goodness for that.
Wednesday, March 8, 2017
Maddie Ziegler Slams Abby Lee Miller in New Tell-All!
Maddie Ziegler has grown up so much, hasn’t she?
It seems like just yesterday that she was a tiny little girl, dancing her heart out on Dance Moms, but that was then, and this is now.
And now she’s 14 years old — and she’s already releasing a memoir!
Her book, titled The Maddie Diaries: A Memoir, was just released yesterday, and judging by these excerpts, it sounds like her childhood — well, the Dance Moms part of her childhood — was actually pretty rough.
“People ask me a lot if what they see on Dance Moms is real,” she writes in one segment. “Well, I can’t really answer that — I don’t watch the show.”
“I’ve probably only seen one entire episode from start to finish. I don’t love watching myself. I’ve lived through it, why do I need to watch it happen all over again?”
“I was eight years old at the time,” she continues, “and there were cameramen following me around everywhere I went. I would just ignore them and go about my business.”
Pretty mature for an 8-year-old, huh?
“Eventually,” Maddie explains, “you feel a little exposed because you’re on all the time. Your life is what the show is about, but you’re also trying to live it.”
“I just wanted to dance; I didn’t want all the drama.”
But if you’ve seen even a few seconds of Dance Moms, you know that the drama was unavoidable. From dance coach Abby Lee Miller screaming to the mothers screaming to the kids crying, drama is just as important to the show as dancing.
In another part of her book, Maddie laments that “When it came to competing, people expected us to be the best because we were the ones with the TV show.”
“That was a lot of pressure — we had a reputation to live up to.”
In addition to the pressure, there was also some danger, too — at one point, she recalls a an event at a mall when “a thousand screaming fans” were “pushing and shoving and trying to get close to us.”
“It was pretty scary,” she writes. “We actually had to hide locked in a store for a while till the crowds thinned out and the screaming stopped.”
But what about Maddie’s infamous dance instructor, Abby Lee Miller? She was a huge part of her life for several years, so there’s probably oodles of stories dedicated to her, right?
Wrong. Maddie doesn’t mention Abby one single time. Not once.
Beautiful, right?
But while she doesn’t mention Abby by name, she did write that before she met Sia, “I would say yes to a lot of things I didn’t want to do because I thought I had to — I didn’t want to disappoint anyone.”
“I’d be overwhelmed by the amount of work on my plate. Sia always tells me you have to have time off, step back and appreciate the moment.”
How lucky is it that she met Sia then? So at least she has one person in her life how who’s telling her to take some time off from dancing to be a kid.
Will you be reading Maddie’s book? If only just for the subtle Abby Lee Miller shade?
Friday, December 18, 2015
Maddie Ziegler: OUT of Dance Moms After Season 6!
If you watch Dance Moms online, you may want to reach for the tissue box right about now, because a mainstay is about to depart.
No, not Abby Lee Miller. Maddie Ziegler will be leaving the Lifetime reality show after six seasons, according to a new report.
Ziegler, 13, has been one of the original cast members along with sister Mackenzie, 11, and their mom, Melissa Gisoni, since 2011.
Maddie began dancing at the Abby Lee Dance Company when she was just four years old and quickly rose to fame on Season 1.
Her pursuit of a bigger, better career is already in motion thanks in part to her frequent collaborator and mentor, pop singer Sia Furler.
The Australian has been a fan, and a friend, for awhile.
Sia – who cast Maddie i music videos for “Chandelier,” “Elastic Heart” and “Big Girls Cry” – will soon cast her in her feature film as well.
As for Abby Lee Miller’s future, it’s a little less bright. Or at the very least, it’s a lot more uncertain, thanks to legal wrangling she faces.
Miller was indicted on bankruptcy fraud charges in October. Miller’s fate on the show has yet to be determined, but things aren’t good.
The volatile studio owner also revealed in a December 7 Dance Moms newsletter that she even might be missing from a few episodes.
In the Dance Moms Season 6 trailer, she is seen freaking out about the case – even more than she normally freaks out about stuff.
Anyway, Lifetime has not confirmed if Dance Moms will be back for a seventh season after this, but if it is, Maddie Z. will not be on it.
Season 6 kicks off January 5. Brace yourselves.
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