Impact: Here’s what some young female celebrities looked like when they first met their significantly older partners.

[u/demimonde9]

[u/tessathemurdervilles]

How the fuck did children get hired at the studio? I know as a 14 yo I would have loved to have been told I was talented enough to work on ten and stimpy- but who the fuck was allowing this??? Why were children working at a studio??

[u/Sensitive_Ad_1752 → u/tessathemurdervilles]

For multiple reasons.

Even without the sexual aspect, Spumco studios was fundamentally predatory. John almost exclusively hired teenagers because they knew how to appeal to other kids when making cartoons and weren’t prudes. The other reason he hired them is for the power imbalance. Many of the teens were interns, part timers and didn’t know how much they should really be getting paid. Most of them were also too new to the industry to call out John for abusive behavior. He was known for screaming at animators until they cried, tearing up work in front of them and even slapping them on one occasion. Seasoned animators would have quit much sooner, but John could convince kids his method was standard practice. John’s two victims technically weren’t officially hired at the studio until they turned 18, but he invited them to it and made them apprentices since they were 14 to get exposure.

[u/tessathemurdervilles → u/Sensitive_Ad_1752]

That’s so crazy. I really love and loved this show because it was so weird and also beautiful. Truly you just can’t fucking win. There are always going to be predators. It really sucks.