From the age of five she was the idol of naughty children everywhere, feigning illnesses such as the measles by painting her face with red dots so she could stay home from school.

Puberty, however, marked the end for Babs’ career and, like countless other child actors before her, she was cast in her new role as a has-been. As a result Babs was a little (OK, very) bitter and loved True Hollywood Stories. Her favourite episodes were those exposing other former child stars. ‘‘Find me the dirt, Molinsky,’’ she’d snap as she headed off to an audition, deluded she could still make a comeback.

Nothing was ever enough. If I’d discovered that Cindy from The Brady Bunch was recovering from crack addiction and was now baking cakes for local school kids, she would scream: ‘‘Dig deeper, I’m sure the bitch is using it as a cover to sell crack to those kids.’’

I have to admit that for a while I did enjoy discovering what had happened to some of the people I too had worshipped as a child. But after a while I saw a pattern emerge. Children who’d been held up as examples of perfect kids to a generation had lost their shine, much like the lunchboxes their faces had adorned, abandoned cruelly by the same people who once lined up for their autographs.

Nothing’s changed over the years – idols come and go. And if anyone knows the curse of being one, it’s Casey Donovan. But as she tells CW in this week's special feature, she hasn’t lost her passion for singing and she’s not going anywhere.

Follow me on Twitter @ontvrick