I have been reading the book "Child Star" by Shirley Temple Black, (autobiography). This book is about her relationship with her family, and her journey in Hollywood.

In the beginning of the book, Shirley Temple's mother frequently tells her to sit on somebody's lap. She says this because she thinks that if Shirley listens to her, more people will think she is sweet and cute, but really, people just become uncomfortable. From what i've read so far Shirley Temple's mother is very confusing and competitive. In one scene, Shirley Temple and her mother are running to a movie set from lunch. While they run down a flight of steps, Shirley falls and cuts her forehead. Instead of worrying about her daughter's health and pain, she worries about the movie. How will she be in the movie with a big bump on her head? So she creates a spit curl to cover it up.

Frequently, Shirley gets injured. Every time something happens to her and she gets a scrape, bruise, bump, or cut, her family worries about her image, rather than her feelings. I think that her health is more important than getting a movie filmed in time. Although in the beginning of the book, her family is more careful about her movies and career than small injuries, they change later. 

In another scene towards the middle of the book, Shirley Temple and the man who takes care of her horses, where riding in a cart, and he let Shirley drive. During the time she was driving, she cut a corner to short and the cart was about to tip over, before the cowboy who took care of the horses grabbed the reins out of her hands, accidentally knocking her out of the cart. Even though Shirley agreed with the cowboy that it was an accident, her parents fired the cowboy, because they wouldn't take another chance for Shirley to get injured worse. Her parents changed from worrying about the movies more than her health, to worrying about her health more than the movies. If she got injured, her career would be over. 

Until she was about 7 years old, the directors for her movies made her costars pick her up at least once in the movie. They thought that by having her get lifted up, people would think she was still young and cute. Keeping Shirley seem young was very important to the movies, and her fans. Once Shirley Temple began to get more fans and viewers, she found out that somebody told the public that she was one year younger than she really was. So, in 1934, on New Years day, the public thought she was 5 instead of 6. People would do anything to keep Shirley Temple's image youthful and fun.