Beloved actress Michelle Trachtenberg passed away on Wednesday, February 26th, 2025.
The star of Nickelodeon's first movie Harriet the Spy, Disney's Ice Princess, and television's Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Gossip Girl was found unresponsive in her New York City apartment.
Michelle Christine Trachtenberg was thirty-nine years old.
On March 2nd, the cause and manner of her death were reported as undetermined, by the Chief Medical Examiner of New York City.
[Source:
Numerous reports state that Trachtenberg had recently undergone a liver transplant. Coroners in New York told reporters at A.B.C. that complications from that liver transplant were the likely cause of death. It's possible that Trachtenberg's body rejected the organ transplant. Sepsis frequently accompanies this condition.
Despite widespread agreement that that failed liver transplant was the primary cause of Trachtenberg's ultimately death, social media posts that Trachtenberg made in 2022 have caused some internet users to speculate whether vaccination or over-vaccination may have contributed to her health problems, and potentially even to her death.
While we should undoubtedly engage this issue with respect - as Trachtenberg's family and friends are mourning - the possibility that vaccines weakened her immune system, should not be considered unquestionable, nor undebatable.
On March 21st, 2021, Trachtenberg made a post to Instagram consisting of a photograph of her facing slightly downward, along with a caption that began, "This is how I look down at people who don't want to get the vaccine."
On December 21st, 2021, Trachtenberg made a post to Instagram which read, "I smile cuz I'm fully #vaccinated."
It is regrettable that vaccination has become such a divisive issue. Unfortunately, many people view vaccination as a life-or-death issue. We should take this opportunity to reflect upon how we sometimes allow our opinions of what we consider life-or-death issues, to make us "look down" at others for having different views.
I also hope that those who are concerned that vaccination may have contributed to Trachtenberg's inability to survive her transplant, will show restraint, and be respectful if and when they feel that they need to criticize Trachtenberg's choice to get vaccinated.
Finally, I hope that people who support the use of vaccines, will look into the list of ingredients which have been included in vaccines (and some still are). These include thimerosal (mercury), formaldehyde (the preservative), tissue from human cadavers, tissue removed from Henrietta Lacks's tumor, cells from human aborted fetuses, and cells from green monkeys' kidneys.
The link below contains a list of documentaries about vaccines, several of which explain the process of manufacturing vaccines:
Trachtenberg's family has declined an autopsy, according to multiple sources.
It seems likely that potential factors contributing to the lack of autopsy could possibly have consisted of any or all of the following:
1) Trachtenberg's family may have considered an autopsy unnecessary, given the probability that the cause of death was the failed liver transplant;
2) Autopsies are currently in high demand, due to the death rate increasing over the last five years; which means that autopsies more likely to be expensive, and therefore coroners overburdened and autopsies more difficult to come by. Vaccine researcher Steve Kirsch recently said that autopsies are "rarely done" anymore.
3) Trachtenberg's heritage is Jewish (in addition to German and Russian). If her family observes Jewish customs, then burial of the dead within two or three days is recommended, and bypassing an autopsy could have been a way to expedite the planning of their daughter's burial and funeral.
People Magazine reported that Trachtenberg's liver transplant took place "months before" her death; although it's unclear exactly when this occurred.
People also reported that Trachtenberg shared a photo to social media in January 2024, to which some commenters responded with concern about her health. Sadly, Trachtenberg responded in a defensive manner, interpreting the comments as criticism of her gaunt appearance; as a suggestion that she looked old.
These facts seem to suggest it's likely that Trachtenberg didn't even know she was sick until recently. It's possible that fear that she may have been sick, caused her to go into denial.
Four days ago, NYU Web Publishing reported that Trachtenberg's weight dropped from 145 pounds in the early 2010s, down to 120 pounds a decade later.
Liver transplant and over-vaccination aside, there is another potential contributing cause to Trachtenberg's death which should not be overlooked. The reason Trachtenberg needed a liver transplant is because she had developed alcoholism.
Trachtenberg's small size would have made it more difficult for her - as compared to the average person - to ingest alcoholic drinks. That, coupled with living in urban environments (i.e., New York City and Los Angeles) would predispose her to drinking more than the average person does. The stress of working in the entertainment industry may have also been a factor. Actors frequently get up early in the morning to begin photography.
These factors could certainly have contributed to the development of Trachtenberg's self-medication with alcohol. But something else likely accelerated that process: Hollywood predators.
Here are fourteen potential predators who were near Michelle Trachtenberg throughout her life, who may have been bad influences upon her.
[Notes:
1) None of this is to imply that Trachtenberg was intentionally murdered; only that she may have been driven to a spiral into alcoholism due to stress inflicted upon her by multiple boyfriends and actors who may have treated her in inappropriate manners.
2) The only person on this list who was specifically accused as predatory by Trachtenberg was Joss Whedon.
3) The only person on this list who is an admitted child rapist is Iggy Pop.
4) This list is arranged from least suspicious to most suspicious, beginning with the least threatening individuals first.
5) Individuals at the top of the list were not inappropriate towards Trachtenberg, but their inclusion here is necessary to clarify some rumors. Please read carefully before coming to conclusions.]
1. Sarah Michelle Gellar
Gellar was Trachtenberg's co-star in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
Gellar starred in the 1998 film Cruel Intentions with Ryan Phillippe (who later became her husband). Gellar and Phillipe portrayed a brother and sister who were in an incestuous relationship as adults.
However, no allegations of inappropriate treatment of minors have come out against Gellar. In fact, she backed Michelle Trachtenberg up when Trachtenberg reported that Buffy creator Joss Whedon had been inappropriate toward her.
2. Hugh Laurie / producers of House, M.D.
Trachtenberg appeared - and was nominated for an Emmy for her appearance - in the television show House, M.D., starring Hugh Laurie.
Some viewers have described a scene which depicted Laurie's character examining Trachtenberg as inappropriate. However, Trachtenberg has told reporters that she had a crush on Laurie. This suggests that Laurie and the show's creators did not treat Trachtenberg disrespectfully.
3. Josh Groban
Trachtenberg dated singer Josh Groban, who was four years older than she was.
No specific accusations of sexual impropriety have been made about Groban, but there are unconfirmed rumors that he made an unwanted advance towards a young adult woman. On the other hand, he invited a teenage girl onstage to sing, and was not inappropriate towards her. The lack of specific details about the rumor make it difficult to draw conclusions as to whether Groban is a predator.
4. Shawn Ashmore
Michelle Trachtenberg was nineteen years old when she dated actor Shawn Ashmore, who was six years older than she was. Some would find this objectionable on the grounds of Trachtenberg's only recently having become an adult when Ashmore began pursuing her. Although Ashmore did once play a porn actor in a movie, no allegations of impropriety have come out regarding Ashmore's behavior in real life.
5. Matthew Perry / producers of 17 Again
Matthew Perry starred alongside Michelle Trachtenberg and Zac Efron in the 2009 comedy 17 Again.
The film's plot resembles a cross between Back to the Future and Miracle on 34th Street. In the film, Matthew Perry's character - Mike, age 37 - has an encounter on a bridge, and then discovers that he is his 17-year-old self again. Mike goes by the name "Mark", and cannot tell his daughter - played by Trachtenberg - who he is. There is a scene in 17 Again in which Trachtenberg's character either falls in love with her father, or attempts to seduce him.
17 Again was written by Jason Filardi and directed by Burr Steers.
When Matthew Perry died, Nickelodeon creator Dan Schneider made a post memorializing him. The post included photographs of Perry and Dan Schneider with their hands on each other's shoulders. In 1993, Schneider and Perry co-starred together in the short-lived television show Home Free. Schneider is suspected to be a pedophile. More information about Dan Schneider follows below.
Additionally, Matthew Perry co-starred on the hit show Friends with Matt LeBlanc and David Schwimmer. LeBlanc and Schwimmer told at least two pedophilic jokes in their roles as Joey and Ross on Friends; these include a scene in which Joey discovers that the girl he is hitting on is not yet 18. Information about Ross follows below.
6. David Schwimmer
Several years ago, Michelle Trachtenberg posted to social media saying that she had recently hung out with actor David Schwimmer.
On Friends, David Schwimmer played "Ross", who works as a paleontologist. One episode featured a scene in which Ross offers to accompany a man's young son to a museum after hours. What Ross is saying begins to get concerning; when Ross offers to let the son "touch" things in the museum.
7. Joseph Gordon Levitt
Trachtenberg co-starred along with Joseph Gordon Levitt in the 2004 film Mysterious Skin.
Mysterious Skin was directed by Gregg Araki, and based on a book by Scott Heim. The film depicts two male characters who survived sexual abuse as children; one of them played by Levitt. The film has been praised for its accurate depiction of the long-term effects of child sexual abuse. However, the film contains a scene in which a man inserts his fist into a young boy, so the choice to depict such an extreme and heinous sex act, in a manner as close and as intimate as the scene was filmed - combined with the casting of an adorably handsome young boy with freckles as the victim - arguably make the film objectionable.
Although Levitt has not been accused of sexual impropriety, he did make a guest appearance on That 70s Show, in which he played a gay teenage boy who was attracted to Eric Foreman. Several male actors on That 70s Show are suspected rapists and statutory rapists. These include Wilmer Valderrama (who dated at least three actresses below the age 18), Danny Masterson (who was jailed for rape), and Ashton Kutcher (who works for anti-child-trafficking organization Thorn, which some suspect is not only doing child trafficking, but possibly also with the help of the C.I.A. and/or the Clintons).
Joseph Gordon Levitt became well known as a teenager when he was on the long-lived television show Third Rock from the Sun. In that show, Levitt portrayed an alien who was disguised as a teenage boy named "Tommy Solomon", For part of that show, Tommy dated a teenage human girl, played by Larisa Oleynik. Some episodes reveal that Tommy is the oldest of all the people in his family, all of whom are played by adult actors. This suggests that Tommy may be much, much older than his girlfriend.
8. Pete Wentz
Michelle Trachtenberg dated musician Pete Wentz of the band Fallout Boy. He was six years older than she was.
Pete Wentz was suspected of statutory rape against a 15-year-old girl. Some sources say the person in question was seventeen years old, which is the legal age for sexual consent in Illinois, where the sexual activity took place. Other sources say that the girl really was fifteen when it happened, and that she said so on the Ayahuasca Podcast in 2020. It's not clear whether the girl made formal complaints to the police.
Wentz is a friend of musician Joel Madden of the band Good Charlotte. Madden was sexually involved with actress Hilary Duff when she was sixteen years old and Madden was 24 and/or 25. It's unclear where that sexual activity occurred, but at the time, the age of consent was 17 in New York and 18 in California, so it's likely that Madden committed statutory rape against Duff early in their relationship.
9. Jay Cohen
At the time of her death, Michelle Trachtenberg was dating her former agent, Jay Cohen. She made a post to social media, featuring her wearing a comically large fake engagement ring, joking that Cohen had proposed to her. They did not marry.
Jay Cohen is sixty-three years old; twenty-four years Trachtenberg's senior.
Although it would be disrespectful to question the romantic choices of a grown woman who has departed us, I would be remiss if I neglected to note that twenty-four years is longer than one generation (which many consider to be approximately 21 years). Cohen's history with Trachtenberg shows that she had progressively wider age gaps between herself and her boyfriends.
10. Dan Schneider
Trachtenberg co-starred in the 1996 Nickelodeon film Good Burger, directed by Dan Schneider.
Schneider - creator of iCarly and The Amanda Show - dragged teenage actress Jenette McCurdy by her feet to scare her, bragged on the red carpet about putting teenage girls into ridiculous situations in the sketches he wrote, and appeared in a hot tub with 13-year-old Amanda Bynes in an Amanda Show sketch.
He is also suspected of getting Bynes pregnant when she was underage, and also of molesting actress Lori Beth Denberg. Brian Peck and several other men were also caught up in pedophilic scandals while working at Nickelodeon.
Trachtenberg is not known to have made any specific allegations against Schneider.
11. Seth Green
Michelle Trachtenberg provided the voice of a gummi bear who gets caught in a bear trap, in the Cartoon Network show Robot Chicken.
Seth Green - well-known for his roles as "Scott Evil" in the Austin Powers film series and "Chris Griffin" in Family Guy - created Robot Chicken, and provided the voice-over in the gummi bear sketch. Green also starred alongside Trachtenberg in Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
In 2016, Seth Green attended a party hosted by Dane Cook. Actor Isaac Kappy was present as well. Seth Green appeared to have a female guest; a young adult white woman. Multiple people involved, referred to Cook's parties as "game night". Instagram posts by Cook and someone with the username "mikaela" included pizza symbols in their messages; a possible allusion to pedophilic attraction to underage girls (being that pizza slices and vaginas are both commonly depicted as triangle-shaped). Dane Cook was later revealed to have been dating a girl who was 15 or 16 years old.
Isaac Kappy died mysteriously in 2019, three years after revealing this information about Seth Green and Dane Cook (as well as other information about Oprah, Tom Hanks, and Steven Spielberg).
12. Rosie o'Donnell / producers of Harriet the Spy
Michelle Trachtenberg played the lead role of Harriet in the 1996 Nickelodeon movie Harriet the Spy (based on the novel by Louise Fitzhugh). Harriet's nanny, Golly, is played by actress-comedienne Rosie o'Donnell.
In 2000, while on the red carpet, Rosie o'Donnell made a joke that Diddy would go to prison. It was a play on words referencing Sing Sing prison and the act of singing. It's not clear of which crimes o'Donnell suspected Diddy (formerly "Puff Daddy") back then - twenty-four years before his arrest - but it's possible that she knew he was raping people (and, as it turns out, at least 25 minors) and chose to make a joke about it on the spur of the moment rather than taking the issue more seriously and going to press and/or police about it.
On November 27th, 2011, Rosie o'Donnell's television show The Rosie Show featured two transgender individuals: Jazz Jennings and Chaz Bono (the daughter of Cher and Sonny Bono who attempted to transition to male). Jazz Jennings was 14 years old when this episode aired. During their interview, Jazz and Jazz's mother Jeanette tell Rosie that Jazz had a dream that a fairy told Jazz that the fairy would turn Jazz's penis into a vagina. Jazz allegedly came to Jeanette with this tale when Jazz was just two or three years old. Rosie o'Donnell did not push back against Jeanette's narrative about how this happened one bit; it perhaps would have been appropriate for o'Donnell to ask why Jazz was talking about penises and vaginas at such a young age, and whether Jeanette ever - for example - snuck into her child's room and whispered into Jazz's ear that she would turn Jazz's penis into a vagina.
The Learning Channel show I Am Jazz later showed Jeanette Jennings threatening to insert a dildo-shaped stretching device into Jazz's post-operation "neo-vagina" if Jazz wouldn't do it. Some critics interpreted that threat as essentially a threat of medical rape against a minor.
In the best-known scene in Harriet the Spy, the other children devise a cruel plan to douse Harriet with blue paint. This causes her to need a bath, and a scene follows in which Golly bathes Harriet. While nothing inappropriate happens, Trachtenberg's feet are shown in this scene. While one shot of the child's feet would not be suspicious, there is another scene in which Harriet uses a black pen to draw a temporary tattoo on the foot of her male friend. While there is nothing intrinsically inappropriate about either of these scenes, taken separately, the fact that the film contains multiple shots of children's feet, suggest a possibility that somebody involved in the production of the film may have a thing for children's feet.
Curiously, Dan Schneider does not appear to have been involved in the production of the film.
Harriet the Spy was directed by Bronwen Hughes, and written by Doug Petrie and Theresa Rebeck. Greg Taylor and Julie Talen adapted it from the book version.
13. Joss Whedon
Joss Whedon created and wrote for
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, in which - for three seasons - Michelle Trachtenberg played Buffy's younger sister, Dawn.
As noted above, Trachtenberg accused Whedon of impropriety. Supposedly, when Trachtenberg was 16, Whedon called Trachtenberg into his office, some sort of inappropriate verbal exchange ensued, and Trachtenberg left the office "distraught" or "shaken". According to an article by
Vulture, after this happened, there was an "informal rule", on the set of
Buffy, that Whedon was not to be alone with Trachtenberg anymore. Reportedly, Whedon was not aware of such a rule.
[Source:
http://www.vulture.com/article/joss-whedon-allegations.html]
14. Iggy Pop / producers of The Adventures of Pete & Pete
Musician Iggy Pop played the father of Michelle Trachtenberg's character Nona, on the Nickelodeon show The Adventures of Pete and Pete. Trachtenberg was six or seven years old when filming of Pete and Pete began, and was nine or ten when it ended.
Iggy Pop - real name James Osterberg, Jr. - became known as the singer of the band The Stooges. In his song "Look Away", he confessed, "I slept with Sable when she was thirteen, her folks were too rich to do anything".
This was a reference to Sable Starr, one of the so-called "baby groupies"; the severely underage girls who "chased" rock stars in the early 1970s. These rock stars included Randy California, Jimmy Page, Rod Stewart, Keith Moon, Alice Cooper, one or more members of the New York Dolls, and others. The "groupies" - teenage runaways who were likely supplied with alcohol and/or drugs by these musicians - included Sable Starr, Lori Maddox, Queenie Glam, Shray Mecham, and others.
"Look Away" was included in Osterberg's album Naughty Little Doggie. That album came out in March 1996, four months before the debut of Trachtenberg's Harriet the Spy. The third and final season of The Adventures of Pete and Pete concluded that same year.
It is also worth noting that Pete and Pete had an underage character who had a tattoo. Danny Tamberelli played the younger Pete (whose older brother, also named Pete, was played by Mike Maronna). Tamberelli went on to appear on Nickelodeon's All That, where Dan Schneider worked between 1994 and 2005.
It's not clear whether having an eight-year-old character with a tattoo of a sexy lady named Petunia (whom he can make dance when he wiggles his arm) was an attempt to groom children into wanting a tattoo. But there are other inappropriate things about the show. The boys have a friend who calls himself "Artie, the Strongest Man in the World" (played by Toby Huss, of Office Space and King of the Hill fame). This character is always depicted with a noticeable bulge in his pants, wearing his underwear on the outside like a typical superhero. The show also did an episode where Pete and Pete and their parents get into a rivalry with another family while on vacation. The episode ends with the family stripping naked, while in their car, in order to lighten their load, so they can win some sort of race or challenge against the other family.
Pete and Pete became known for its random guest spots by famous musicians. These included Michael Stipe of the band R.E.M., who was photographed with artist Marina Abramovic, a suspected pedophile and suspected Satanist. Actress Heather Matarazzo also appeared on Pete and Pete as a child; she went on to star in the 1995 film Welcome to the Dollhouse, in which Matarazzo plays a twelve-year-old girl named Dawn who is threatened with rape by an older boy, and then falls in love with a boy named Steve who is about seventeen years old. The film contains references to masturbation, and to a "blow-up doll" that "looks like" a "little girl". Dollhouse was directed by Todd Solondz, who has alluded to pedophilia in several other films.
The Adventures of Pete and Pete was created by Will Robb and Chris Viscardi.
In light of the fact that no autopsy on Michelle Trachtenberg's remains will occur, the information contained herein should suffice as a sort of "social autopsy" reviewing the social factors which potentially increased risk of developing an alcohol abuse issue.
Therefore, 1) being surrounded by predators; 2) alcohol abuse; 3) complications from liver transplant; and 4) possibly weakened immune response from over-vaccination, should all be considered as likely factors which contributed to the loss of Michelle Trachtenberg.
I have written this article because - as someone who, like Trachtenberg, has made an accusation of sexual impropriety - I feel that I owe it to her to determine who might have had a bad influence upon her; or worse, could have attempted to abuse her. I worry that she may have known that people other than Joss Whedon were dangerous, and for that reason refrained from accusing them of anything; or if not, then I at least would like to know who other dangerous people were, who may have been around her.
I first became interested in this topic when I discovered that Iggy Pop was a child rapist. I made the connection, soon after learning that, that he was near Michelle Trachtenberg on Pete and Pete (which I had grown up watching, as the show aired when I was ages six to nine).
Michelle Trachtenberg was two years older than I am, when she died. She was - as S.N.L. and All That star Kenan Thompson tweeted in his memorial to her - the star of the first Nickelodeon movie, even before Goodburger. She was the first child star I saw on screen in theaters; as the titular role in Harriet the Spy.
Some American public schools tried to ban the book version of Harriet, on the basis that it supposedly encourages children to spy. Moreover, according to a 2005 report by C.N.N.'s David Ensor, Central Intelligence Agent Lindsay Moran said that the book series inspired her to pursue her career in the C.I.A..
Problematic though the books by Louise Fitzhugh may have been, Trachtenberg's Harriet teaches kids an important tool: If you see something suspicious, tell someone, or at least write it down.
This film was crucial in helping me detect suspicious behavior of adults at age nine. When I was twenty-seven years old, I began to recover memories of sexual abuse at the hands of my father. Several years later, I realized that I had lost access to these memories some time between age ten and age thirteen, and that the abuse had happened when I was eight and/or nine years old.
I was eight in 1995, and nine years old in the summer of 1996, when Harriet the Spy came out in theaters. My parents had taken me to see it. This was right around the time that my father stopped abusing me (aside from the one last attempt he made when I was 13, which failed, because I had finally become big and strong enough to fight him off).
After I saw Harriet the Spy, I wanted to be a spy (as, I'm sure, millions of other kids who saw it, did as well). I got myself a black-and-white journal - just like Harriet (and all the other Harriet the Spy fans) had - and I began to write down suspicious things about the adults around me. And all this, while in a state of momentary memory loss about that molestation and rape by my father, due to a combination of partial asphyxiation during that molestation, the stress of which led to cortisol release, preventing the formation of new memories.
I began to enjoy writing when I began to take "language arts" classes at school, where - at times - I was required to come up with one or two pages of original material per week. In 2010 - when I was twenty-three years old - I posted about ten or twelve of my college essays onto a blog, on the Blogger / Blogspot website, and started The Aquarian Agrarian political blog. That weblog now contains over seven hundred articles (including my first two reports to the police about my father).
It's possible that remembering my state of mind after watching Harriet the Spy helped me recover memories of the abuse.
Harriet's inspiration for my freelance writing career outside, what stuck out to me the most about the film, is a scene towards the beginning, when Harriet sees a child on a leash, and writes it in her journal.
To quote the film:
"Boy with ringlets. Man with tattoos. Girl on... a leash? Man, if my parents ever tried putting me in one of those things, I'd trade them in. This kid looks like she can roll over and fetch. I learn everything I can, and I write down everything I see. Golly says if I want to be a writer, then I'd better start now. Which is why I am a spy."
Several years ago, I made a video explaining my objections to putting children on leashes. The main pushback against stopping the leashing of children seems to be coming from parents of autistic children, who use "harnesses" to prevent potential accidents that could result from their children "eloping" (running off). Types of leashes used on children include cloth-covered cuffs which resemble a soft form of handcuffs.
While I do not object to reasonable parents doing what it takes to prevent their children from getting into accidents, I would strongly urge them to consider reviewing the wide variety of alternatives to harnessing and leashing, and consider using a combination thereof. These include holding the child's hand as they walk, putting them in a stroller, letting them walk free when they're old enough but staying close beside them at all times, and holding the child in one's arms.
I do not say this in order to tell people how to raise their children. It's not that extreme cases of autism, eloping, or clumsy or accident-prone children in general, shouldn't be subjected to soft forms of restraint, if repeated incidents show that they are dangers to themselves.
I'm saying this because: 1) the children don't like it, I wouldn't like it, and the character of Harriet didn't like it; 2) nobody likes being tied to people or things; and 3) I believe that ending the leashing of children will help make child trafficking easier to detect.
For one, if we say that any parent may leash any one of his children that he pleases, then the mother or father of a multiracial household would be free to leash his or her half-black children, but not the fully white children. The reader may consider this an unlikely possibility, but I had debates about the leashing of children with other Facebook users, and a white woman told me that she had been using a leash on her half-black child.
Second, all reasonable people should question why it is necessary to attach a child to something which being attached to makes them easier to get a hold of, or potentially even tie down.
But - thirdly and most importantly - in the hands of abusive parents, the potential for misuse of leashes is simply too high.
Think about the epidemic of children in public schools who think they are animals. This epidemic is certainly overstated, as there are probably no real cases of litterboxes in schools. But the wearing of cat ears and collars is allowed in some schools, and children are occasionally allowed to act like cats and dogs and chickens. This all sounds like normal child's play, but Australia's Sky News reported that this is a "societal problem".
A potential problem associated with children behaving like animals, is the potential that children could come to identify as animals, and/or get involved in the "furry" sub-culture, a significant portion of whose members have sexual interest in dressing up like animals. Photographs have circulated, in the last several years, of parents allowing their children to stand next to (appropriately clothed) adults in furry costumes.
Whether there's a clear and present danger of sexual abuse to a child, posed by "furries" or not, the key question we should be asking - in regard to the leashing of children - is this: How long can your child pretend (or think) he is an animal, until you should become concerned that the child is mentally ill?
I do not ask this in order to bully or shame any child. I ask this because it happened to me. In 1996 - the same year that the sexual abuse against me ended, and the same year that Harriet the Spy came out - I told a girl at my school, named Veronica, that I was a cat. This happened at the bus stop before school one day. I am allergic to cats, and I told her that, and also made up a story that a cat came into the room in the hospital in which I was born. I told her that those facts meant that I was really a cat. So she started calling me "cat boy" for at least a year afterwards.
Later, when I was a young teenager, I was joking with my friends about how our school's cheerleaders' uniforms were labeled "cats" (after our team, the Lake Bluff Middle School Bobcats). The joke involved describing the "cats" as sexy.
A boy my age making such jokes - I was probably thirteen - was the result of bad parenting. No boy raised by a child molester would be likely to have the fortune of being taught to speak about peer girls in a respectful manner. It took decades of self-reflection to understand that these comments were made in a state of memory loss from abuse, resulting in unhealthy and age-inappropriate forms of talking to my male friends about sex.
So, to repeat and rephrase my key question: How long can your child pretend he's an animal, believe he's an animal, and/or express sexual interest in animals, before you begin to suspect mental illness, sexual abuse, or both? After all, if a child is really a cat, then they can't possibly be a human child who got sexually abused.
Whether abuse is occurring or not, a good parent should think about it, and look into it. If parents don't do this, then some unreasonably restrictive - or maybe even bizarre - forms of parenting, are going to be practiced, and will be perceived as abuse by the child, yet still go undetected. And children will, as Harriet said, "roll over and fetch".
It's because of Harriet the Spy that I know why it would be not just weird but suspicious if a parent kept a child on a leash. I would consider it weird whether the child was wearing a dog mask at the time, or not; and I would consider it weird whether it happened at a gay pride parade while the child was wearing tight gold shorts and no shirt, or not. I am not happy with the fact that it is probably legal, in most places, for a child dressed like that to dance at such a parade while wearing a dog mask.
That is why I believe that - in order to make child abuse easier to detect - we must end the leashing of children who lack repeated history of eloping and self-harm.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled, in the 2000 case Troxel v. Granville, that there exists a "fundamental" right of a parent to oversee the care of a child, but also that the privilege of taking care of a child is conditional upon refraining from abusing the child.
All parents must know this; their right to raise their children being "fundamental" is not absolute. You cannot truly take care of a child without refraining from abusing them.
This article is dedicated to the memory of Michelle Trachtenberg, and to her friends and family, and all accusers (whether child or adult) of sexual impropriety.
Police investigators and internet researchers owe it to the young actors and actresses of Hollywood to report any and all dangerous people who may be around them.
I hope that this article will inspire others to begin writing - and reporting suspicious behavior - just as Trachtenberg's Harriet inspired me to start doing the same, when I was just nine years old. Inspiring another person to begin writing would be the best way I can think of, that I could honor Michelle's memory.
I wish the best of luck to any and all of you, whom I may have inspired; and the same to all those who loved Michelle. Do not hesitate to reach out to me - my emailing me at jwkopsick@gmail.com - if you have anything to say about (or add to, or edit) the content above.
With solidarity to our sisters.
Rest in Peace
Michelle Christine Trachtenberg
October 11th, 1985 - February 26th, 2025
Post-Script, Added on March 12th, 2025:
On March 7th, the Vigilant Citizen published an article titled, "Michelle Trachtenberg: A Mysterious Life Surrounded by the Occult Elite".
In that article, there are screenshots taken from Trachtenberg's Instagram post - as well as images from her early life and career - which show her in close contact with then-President Bill Clinton and Sean "Diddy" Combs (a/k/a "Puff Daddy" and "Puffy"). Clinton and Combs are suspected pedophiles.
Trachtenberg is also shown wearing black bunny ears and holding a menu labeled "33", an apparent reference to Disney's exclusive (and probably secret) club "Club 33". Critics of Disney have speculated that "33" is a reference to the number of degrees in the membership structure of the secret society of Freemasons. As supporting evidence that the Disney company is entangled with Masons, they cite Walt Disney's membership in DeMolay International, a Masonic youth organization.
That article can be accessed at the following link:
http://vigilantcitizen.com/latestnews/michelle-trachtenberg-a-mysterious-life-surrounded-by-the-occult-elite/?fbclid=IwY2xjawI88jlleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHfvXPzf9iIGFcHBxaVCTqlzIQPTSlEOECfrn5sd0l10ZqyM1KohJJSLhjg_aem_gIFXQnB5_w0Te0jVBiRSQw&sfnsn=mo
Written and published on March 3rd, 2025.
Edited and expanded on March 6th and 12th, 2025.
Post-Script added on March 12th, 2025.
Based on research included in
TikTok videos that were posted on March 1st and 2nd,
and then deleted on March 3rd, 2025,
when Joe Kopsick's second TikTok account was shut down.
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