"Childhood fame is always some mix of the child’s dream and the parents," writes Joanna Weiss in The Boston Globe. And sometimes, as in the case of 16-year-old Abby Sunderland — whose father endorsed her risky plan to become the youngest person to sail solo around the globe — or Jessica Dubrof, "the 7-year-old who died in 1996, trying to pilot a plane across the country," the mix is seriously imbalanced. Abby survived her ordeal at sea, and is being hailed as an inspirational role-model, but her father, who's revealed that he's shopping a Reality TV series about his family, should realize that his daughter is not a hero, she's just "very, very lucky." Here's an excerpt:
"So this is the definition of bravery now? Embarking on unnecessary risk that jeopardizes the lives of rescue workers? When I thought of a 16-year-old bobbing alone in the Indian Ocean, surrounded by 25-foot waves, I didn’t feel inspired. I felt sad. And when I thought about her parents, I felt furious.
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