Most known for her roles as Kim Baker in the "Cheaper by the Dozen" movies, Lulu Palmer in "The Pacifier" and Sarah on "Hanna Montana," former child-actress Morgan York is now leading a very different life.
The now 23-year-old left the acting world in 2010 after "Hanna Montana" wrapped up. On her website, in a lengthy blog page dedicated to the question of why she stopped acting, York explains,
“If you didn't already know, I stopped acting. I don't want to say I "quit" acting--"quit" implies that I wanted to continue and gave up, or felt like I couldn't find success. In all honesty, I feel like if my heart had really been in it and I worked my ass off for every audition I went to, I could have gotten more work. If it was what I really wanted to do, I would have found a way to get some more roles. But the older I got, and the more I felt like writing was my true calling, the less interest I had in acting. Whenever I got an audition, I saw it as an obligation rather than a privilege (which is horrible, considering how many people would kill to be getting auditions! Now that I'm older and better understand how viciously difficult it is to break into an industry, especially the entertainment industry, I realize how lucky I was to have the chance to take part in it in the first place. But I'm getting ahead of myself here). I didn't take the auditions seriously because I no longer cared about them. So I asked my agents to stop sending me out.”
York also touches on the darker side of child acting, and relates her former career to her new one: writing.
“For me, acting was all about creating characters, about bringing them to life. When I started writing, I found a medium that allowed me more flexibility with character creation. As an actress, I'm limited to my own demographic -- teenage to young adult girl, Caucasian, 5'3". Sure, I'll get older, and that demographic will change a little, but it's still limited (I'm not criticizing the acting profession here, by the way. It's a wonderful profession. I'm just explaining why it's not for me). As a writer, I can get into the head of any character I want. I can be an adult black man. I can be a toothless old lady with one eye. I can be a Native American woman who's six feet tall. And you know what the best part is? I can be all three of these characters at the same time, include them in the same story, and have them interact with one another.”
York recently graduated from the University of Redlands with a Bachelor’s in Writing Fiction: Listening, Absorbing, and Creating (a self-designed major combing literature, creative writing, and psychology through the Johnston Center of Integrative Studies). She tentatively plans to pursue a Master's in publishing and has been working on a Young Adult series for a few years now.
On her website, York posts about her active social media life as well as opinion pieces about literature, as a passionate defender of Young Adult fiction and lover of Russian literature; current events, touching on feminist issues and post-actor news; and queer issues, as York herself is a demisexual pansexual and engaged to nonbinary cutie, Danny.
Congratulations to Morgan York for following her heart and passions throughout her life and good luck to her sure-to-be successful future!
