\u201cOver time, it felt weird. When you’re younger like that, you don’t imagine yourself in your life on TV and with cameras in your face,\u201d Aspen says. \u201cYou have no clue what’s going on. You don’t know if you can be yourself or what you should say. It’s definitely weird.\u201d<\/p>\n
Like Brown, they describe a roller coaster of feelings about having their young lives documented. At first, it\u2019s fun and exciting, then it becomes sort of uncomfortable \u2014 the awareness that someone (if not a large swath of America) is always watching, even in your worst moments. Then that awareness fades, cameras becoming second nature, and the cycle repeats.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s such a weird moment, but also, viewers love that stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
And, for Aniko and Aspen, being on TV meant opening up their personal lives not just to the world, but even more intimately to their community. The pair grew up in and were largely filmed in Middletown, Connecticut, a city of about 47,000 people that felt much more like a small town for the sisters.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere’s been so many moments where filming has both affected me and Ani because, first of all, our whole drama was on TV for kids to see our age, for parents to see,\u201d Aspen says. \u201cEspecially living in a small town. I think that it really affected us because it’s all our personal [business] aired online.\u201d<\/p>\n
Though it\u2019s been hard to face the judgments of viewers over their mother\u2019s love life (which Silva\u2019s reality TV show stints often focus on), the sisters like being able to watch their lives back. \u201cWe just see ourselves growing up over time,\u201d Aspen says. Over a recent break from college, they sat around with their friends and watched old episodes. But sometimes, the sisters find themselves questioning the motives of possible new friends and romantic interests. Are they interested in Aniko and Aspen themselves or in the possibility of being featured on reality television? Can a new partner handle meeting their mom, who the sisters say can be \u201coverwhelming\u201d? Will the glitter that prospective friends imagine comes with being on TV not turn out to be gold?<\/p>\n
![\"Noelle](\"https:\/\/assets.teenvogue.com\/photos\/6809407bc429ae9ce8551ea9\/master\/w_1600%2Cc_limit\/NoelleRobinson-TeenVogue-RealityKidsStars_2025-7.jpg\")
<\/span><\/div>\nNolle Robinson at home in Los Angeles, California.<\/p>\n
<\/span>Photo by Maiwenn Raoult<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n Noelle Robinson, 25, who started filming for Real Housewives of Atlanta when she was 8 years old, wonders the same. She says that, as a reality star, it\u2019s harder to make friends and navigate the waters of dating. \u201cThere are repercussions of being on television,\u201d she says. \u201cI think it did make me a lot more closed off and not as trusting. People like to be around celebrity. There\u2019s just so many things you have to be vigilant for.\u201d<\/p>\n As the daughter of model Cynthia Bailey and actor, singer, and producer Leon Robinson, Noelle Robinson was born into fame. Though Robinson would have had some of these considerations whether or not her mom went on reality TV, the Bravo show added another layer of visibility. Filming has even changed the milestone moments of her life, like her sweet-16 birthday party, which she feels was stilted by the presence of the cameras. \u201cI wasn\u2019t really able to just have fun and relax with the cameras there,\u201d she says. A few years later, when Robinson headed to college, the cameras followed. \u201cIt\u2019s something that I would have rather not shown because when you’re rolling into a university with huge camera crews, it is obviously going to alter your social experience. I never really feel like I got a fair shot to even see if college was right for me or not.\u201d She completed two semesters at Howard University, and never returned.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t really able to just have fun and relax with the cameras there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n But if not for the show, Robinson wouldn\u2019t have had the chance to provide meaningful representation. In 2019, she came out<\/a> as sexually fluid on The Real Housewives of Atlanta in a touching conversation with her mom. Showing that conversation and being open about her identity was important to Robinson. She says she wanted to write her own story, rather than having her sexuality speculated about if she were seen out on a date, so coming out was important in allowing her to explore freely. But she also knew it was a chance to model LGBTQ acceptance both for her peers, and for parents who might be struggling with their child\u2019s sexuality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n