‘The Glee Project’ Contestants Say ‘a Lot of Trauma’ Came From Reality Series: ‘It Was Abuse, Whether They Thought It Was or Wasn’t’

thewrap.com:

Insider, former winners and runners-up of “The Glee Project” — including Damian McGinty, Samuel Larsen and Lindsay Pearce — admitted that the reality show was pretty emotionally damaging at times, saying that the producers “manipulated” the young contestants into storylines they wanted to see on screen.“It was abuse, whether they thought it was or wasn’t,” Pearce, who had a brief arc as Harmony “the Gerber baby” on the show, said. “They made a successful reality television show, but the cost was high for some of us.” Pearce recalled two specific moments on the show, in which she was involved directly.

One involved “Vulnerability Week” on the show, where “they sat us down and essentially asked us to tell them our deepest, darkest secrets.”Pearce discussed being sexually assaulted, and how she felt that, to process that trauma and the emotions around it, “I had to put on a front.” But, the actress says that the whole story didn’t end up making the show.“The cut is me saying people like me because I’m pretty, which makes me feel fake.

That was gut-wrenching, ’cause I wouldn’t have shared my experience if I knew how it’d be edited,” Pearce said. “It didn’t fit the narrative that they were trying to make.” That said, Pearce told Insider that she doesn’t “hold any hatred or harbor any resentment” for the show or its creators.

Former contestant Cameron Mitchell was also unhappy with some of how his story was edited, after the show claimed he quit because of his religious values.