Kristy McNichol, you may remember her from such shows as ‘Family’

I remember her as this cute seventeen year old, 110 pounds, beautiful brown eyes. “Star power” is a strange thing. I’m not sure if its a matter of some people have it and some people don’t, or maybe the others just never got a chance to show it. Kristy is an interesting case study. She had star power in spades. She was troubled by health issues, keeping her sexuality a secret, and all the other problems of being a teen/young person in Hollywood. If nothing else she was a ‘celebrity’. Hollywood liked her, they kept her employed. She made the difficult transition from child actor to adult.

A friend had sent me a ‘look at her now‘ photo. Once she told me who it was I said, “Oh yeah! Kristy McNichol!” I could see it then. All I had in my mind was the lithe teen on the cover of Tiger Beat magazine in terrycloth shorts and a crop top from forty years ago. 3 years apart, I had watched her pretty close back then. I remember thinking it was kind of odd in her late teens and early twenties when they tried to make this obvious tomboy into a sex kitten. One of the strangest was the pairing with Tatum O’Neal in ‘Little Darlings’. Just remembering a doe-eyed cutie.