Age: 23
female
Madison Nicole Ziegler (born September 30, 2002) is an American actress and dancer. She was initially known for appearing in Lifetime's reality show Dance Moms from 2011 (at age 8) until 2016. From 2014, she gained wider recognition for starring in a series of music videos by Sia, beginning with "Chandelier" and "Elastic Heart", which have in total attracted more than 5 billion views on YouTube. Ziegler has appeared in films, television shows, concerts, advertisements and on magazine covers. Ziegler was a judge on the 2016 season of So You Think You Can Dance: The Next Generation and toured with Sia in North America and Australia in 2016. Her 2017 memoir, The Maddie Diaries, was a New York Times Best Seller. Her film roles include Camille Le Haut in the animated film Ballerina (2016), Christina Sickleman in The Book of Henry (2017), the title role in Music (2021), Mia Reed in the high school drama The Fallout (2021), Velma in Steven Spielberg's 2021 West Side Story, Lindy in Fitting In (2023), and Ruthie in My Old Ass (2024). Ziegler was included by Time magazine on its list of the "30 most influential teens" in each year from 2015 to 2017. She was included in the 2023 Forbes 30 Under 30 list in the Hollywood & Entertainment category. Her social media presence includes an Instagram account with more than 13 million followers.
Maddie Ziegler
The Diarist/Carla
for The Diarist/Carla in Go Ask Alice
Suggested by nickienicks
In 1968, a fifteen-year-old girl begins documenting her life in a diary, capturing the fragile intensity of adolescence - crushes, insecurities, family tension, and a longing to belong. When her father’s new academic job forces the family to relocate, she struggles to adjust, finding brief comfort in a friendship with a girl named Beth. But a visit back to her hometown changes everything: at a party, she unknowingly takes LSD, igniting a spiral into experimentation. What begins as curiosity quickly deepens into dependence, as she chases escape through drugs, risky relationships, and a growing detachment from her former self. Her world fractures further when betrayal, exploitation, and trauma leave her unmoored, pushing her into a transient life drifting between cities, dangerous situations, and fleeting illusions of freedom. Despite moments of clarity - returning home, attempting sobriety, and reconnecting with her family - the pull of addiction and social pressure proves relentless. After a forced relapse and psychological breakdown, she is hospitalized, where she begins to piece herself back together. Upon release, she makes a genuine effort to rebuild her life, forming healthier relationships and choosing connection over isolation. For the first time, she imagines a future beyond her diary, deciding to stop writing and instead face the world openly. Yet in a haunting epilogue, that fragile hope is shattered: only weeks later, she is found dead from a drug overdose, its cause uncertain - leaving behind her diary as both a warning and a deeply personal record of a life consumed too soon.
