Honey Boo Boo star is all grown up and living completely new life as she turns 21
Alana Thompson, who found childhood fame as Honey Boo Boo, is now 21 years old and has shared her ambitions for the future.
Thompson was thrust into the spotlight on TLC's Toddlers & Tiaras which looked child beauty pageants in the US, and would go on to have a spinoff series called Here Comes Honey Boo Boo, which began in 2012, with the catchphrase 'a dolla makes me holla, Honey Boo Boo child.'
Since then, the former child star has revealed how she, like many thrust into fame as children, had struggled with the resulting pressures.
Now 21 years old, Thompson opened up to PEOPLE in 2025, revealing that she now has aspirations to become a nurse.
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“When I graduate I’ll be the only one in my family with a degree,” she told the outlet. “I love that I’ve persevered past who people thought I was.”
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She added: “I just always told myself you know that you want to do something better with your life and bigger with your life than just being on TV, so you’ve got to get up and go, you’ve got to graduate so you can make it to college and be the nurse that you want to be."
The interview with PEOPLE came ahead of a documentary I Was Honey Boo Boo which looked at some of the difficulties that Thompson experienced.
Her mom June 'Mama June' Shannon had faced struggles with substance abuse, and in 2022, Thompson's sister Lauryn 'Pumpkin' Efird was granted legal custody of her.
The synopsis of I Was Honey Boo Boo focuses the 'forced smiles, silent tears and the lingering sense of uncertainty' faced by Thompson and her family 'behind closed doors'.
Now, Thompson is focusing on her new life as a college student studying nursing at Regis University in Colorado, US, as she reflects to PEOPLE: “Looking back it’s like, 'Dang, I really went through all that s**t? That’s crazy'.”
Of her mum, who suffered from a crack cocaine addiction, she said: “I noticed something was off about her. She started locking her doors which really made me think, ‘Oh, what is she doing?’”
Back in 2019, Shannon and her then-boyfriend Eugene 'Geno' Doak were arrested and charged with felony possession of drugs.
“People were like, ‘I saw your mama on the news with a busted tooth, strung out,’” she added. “I’m like, 'Great, like I didn’t see that too'.”
When it came to the biopic addressing her and her sisters' experiences on and off the camera, Thompson said the intention of the film was not to make her mum appear like 'the bad guy', adding: "But I didn’t hold back and if she gets mad, at the end of the day it’s the truth."
After her elder sister gained full custody of her in 2022, Thompson was able to refocus on school and graduate a year later.
I Was Honey Boo Boo, was narrated by Thompson, premiered on Lifetime on May 17.
Topics: Celebrity, US News, TV, Documentaries
Anish Vij