Top 20 Child Stars Who Grew Up to Be Total Hotties

Everyone loves adorable child stars, they liven up any TV show or movie you put them in, and make us all go, “Awwwwww!” But no one ever suspects the total tens these celebs can morph into. We tried to focus our list on serious ugly duckling candidates—the ones you never thought would turn into anything other than faded memories in our collective childhood. Instead, these ladies and gentlemen have serious WOW power and we can’t get them off our minds.

Here are the top child stars who grew up to be total hotties:

20.) Joseph Gordon-Levitt

• Known for: 3rd Rock From the Sun
• Birthday: February 17, 1981

3rd Rock From the Sun is a cult classic. Gordon-Levitt was just an awkward child star on this show.

Now he is a respected actor that is also a hottie!

19.) Matthew Lewis

• Known for: Harry Potter
• Birthday: June 27, 1989

Neville Longbottom was Harry’s awkward and chubby friend.

When he appeared on the red carpet for the last Harry Potter movie, everyone was shocked that he turned into a total hunk! Bye baby weight, hello abs!

18.) Dylan and Cole Sprouse

• Known for: The Suite Life of Zack and Cody
• Birthday: August 4, 1992

Dylan and Cole Sprouse were the cute twins from the Disney Channel. Since leaving the company, they graduated college and went their separate ways.

Cole is an actor in the series, Riverdale; Dylan is opening a brewery in Williamsburg, New York!

17.) Abigail Breslin

• Known for: Little Miss Sunshine
• Birthday: April 14, 1996

Breslin first gained fame when she played the little girl in Little Miss Sunshine.

Now in her 20’s, she grew up to be stunning and successful.

16.) Alyson Stoner

• Known for: Missy Elliott’s music videos, Camp Rock, Cheaper by the Dozen
• Birthday: August 11, 1993

Remember the young girl with the awesome movies in older Missy Elliott videos? Well, Stoner gained fame for doing this!

As she is not a child star anymore, her social media says she is still in the entertainment industry. We can’t wait to see what is next for her.

15.) Jonathan Lipnicki

• Known for: Stewart Little
• Birthday: October 22, 1990

How can you not love Lipnick as the cute kid with glasses and spiky hair? When he got older, the younger actor stepped away from Hollywood.

Recently, Lipnicki has been acting more.

14.) Josh Peck

• Know for: Drake and Josh
• Birthday: November 10, 1986

When this actor first started out, he was known as the chubby funny kid on Nickelodeon.

Since then, Peck has gotten into shape, got married, and now has a kid! He went from a funny childhood star to hottie!

13.) Nicholas Hoult

• Known for: About a Boy, Skins
• Birthday: December 7, 1989

An awkward and chubby kid turned hunk is what happened to Nicholas Hoult.

Now he is acting more and gaining popularity from his looks.

12.) Miranda Cosgrove

• Known for: School of Rock, Drake and Josh, iCarly
• Birthday: May 14, 1993

Cosgrove was just a simple child star.

After her stint on iCarly, she left Hollywood to pursue a degree. She has been gaining popularity recently because she has been more active on social media.

11.) Michelle Trachtenberg

• Known for: The Adventures of Pete & Pete, Harriet the Spy
• Birthday: October 11, 1985

From an awkward kid to a grown beautiful adult, Trachtenberg is almost unrecognizable.

She is more popular on TV shows, hopefully moving to movies soon!

10.) Justin Berfield

• Known for: Malcolm in the Middle
• Birthday: February 25, 1986

Berfield was the kid on Malcolm in the Middle known for his odd behavior.

Even though he has not appeared in the spotlight recently, he has still aged well!

9.) Miley Cyrus

• Known for: Hannah Montana
• Birthday: November 23, 1992

Cyrus was an awkward childhood star.

Now that she has gotten older, she has completed shed her good girl image and wants to be taken seriously as an adult.

8.) Anna Chlumsky

• Known for: My Girl
• Birthday: December 3, 1980

Chlumsky was most notably in My Girl, one of the saddest movies in Hollywood.

She left acting for a while. She is now back and on the popular TV show, VEEP.

7.) Daniel Curtis Lee

• Known for: Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide
• Birthday: May 17, 1991

Known to be the nerd friend on this Nickelodeon show, Lee has shed is a goofy child star image.

We cannot even recognize him.

6.) Alex D. Linz

• Known for: Max Keeble’s Big Move
• Birthday: January 3, 1989

Max Keeble’s Big Move was adored by kids and tween everywhere in the 2000s.

Since this hit, Linz has been out of the spotlight.

5.) Jurnee Smollett

• Known for: Full House, Jack and Eve’s Bayou
• Birthday: October 1, 1986

One of the most unique and talented child actors making the rounds on 90s children’s shows (Full House, Hangin’ with Mr. Cooper, etc.) as well as staring in Jack and Eve’s Bayou, no one really thought that Smollett would look anything except interesting when she grew up.

Fortunately, she grew into her exotic look and blossomed into a bombshell by the time she hit Friday Night Lights in 2009. Look for her to get hot-blooded on the sixth and current season of True Blood.

4.) Elizabeth Berkley

• Known for: Saved by the Bell
• Birthday: July 28, 1972

This one’s pretty much a gimme. After playing nerd bird Jessie Spano for four seasons on Saved by the Bell, Berkley tried to shake her saccharine sweet persona as quickly as possible.

Two years later, she shed that image and a lot more in the NC-17-rated Showgirls, which we all remember for her respectable acting assets. The movie was a smoldering mess, but Berkley is still a scorching hottie, though she tends to stay out of direct limelight these days.

3.) Alexa Vega

• Known for: Spy Kids
• Birthday: August 27, 1988

In 2001, the world was introduced to the Spy Kids franchise and, more importantly, its unassuming young star Alexa Vega. Though we might have gotten a hint how viciously hot she would become if we’d known that she’d performed most of her own stunts.

Turns out that training wound up paying off for her, earning her a leading kick-ass role in the music video for Aerosmith’s “Legendary Child”—where she rides around a warehouse on roller skates beating up bad guys. It’s pretty much as titillating and corny as it sounds.

2.) Soleil Moon Frye

• Known for: Punky Brewster
• Birthday: August 6, 1976

Even with such an exotic sounding name, most people assumed that Soleil Moon Frye would never amount to more than Punky Brewster, the spunky orphan who won our hearts.

So much, in fact, that she had to get a breast reduction due to a condition called gigantomastia. When she resurfaced in 2000 for the last three seasons of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch, she didn’t seem to have lost that much, though.

1.) Alyssa Milano

• Known for: Who’s the Boss, Melrose Place, Charmed
• Birthday: December 19, 1972

So Alyssa Milano was always cute—the perfect elementary school crush. But COME ON! In the five years between Who’s the Boss? ending and Melrose Place beginning she must have been taking gorgeous-pills at a much higher dosage than any respectable doctor could prescribe.

By the time Charmed started, she was a full-blown hottie, worthy of being a poster on anyone’s wall. And have you seen the picture of her dressed up as a mermaid? Interspecies love never looked so appealing. With a new series (Mistresses) in the works, look for Milano to grace our small screens and over-active imaginations again.

Did you enjoy that walk down memory lane? We sure did! Click the button to see the most beautiful vintage photos of famous women!