Tori Spelling Defends Decision To Bleach Her 7-Year-Old Daughter Stella’s Hair

Tori Spelling is finally explaining why she bleached her 7-year-old daughter Stella’s hair last summer. In August, Spelling made headlines after she posted photos of her two older kids, Liam and Stella, with obviously bleached hair. Stella’s hair was bleached blonde with blue streaks in it, and Liam’s hair was more of a neon yellow-green color. The children’s darker roots even showed in the photos. Some critics even accused Tori of trying to make her children into mini versions of herself.

But in an interview with People, Tori Spelling explains that it was a mutual decision between her and her daughter Stella to lighten the child’s naturally brown locks.

“It was a choice I made that I made with my daughter. That was a personal choice. It was something she wanted to do. It was something I agreed to do with her during the summer break.”

While Tori admitted she wasn’t surprised by all of the backlash, she acknowledged it comes with the territory.

“Everything we do, I feel like, there’s some people that are like, ‘Great!’ and some people, ‘Not so great.’ That’s just part of being in the public eye.”

In the interview, Tori said the controversial bleach job was a one-and-done. The actress and reality star believes that the more parents tell children they can’t do something, the more curious they will become, so she decided to let Stella do what she wanted with her hair.

“Stella did it. She was 7 and she got it out of her system.”

While Tori Spelling received plenty of flak for coloring her kids’ hair, she didn’t seem to be rattled by the comments. Some haters chastised the star for exposing her children to toxic chemicals at such a young age, but the mom of four had no problem posting multiple pictures showing her kids with their obviously bleached hair.

Tori Spelling has been vocal about the fact that parenting gets harder as her kids — Liam, 8, Stella, 7, Hattie, 4, and Finn, 3 — get older. In an interview with Parenting magazine, Spelling said she struggles with setting boundaries for her older children.

“I’m scared of screwing up my kids… I thought that once we were out of the baby stage, parenting would be a breeze. But it’s an even bigger challenge now that Liam and Stella are older. They understand things. You just feel at every turn like, whoa, am I making the right decisions, setting the right boundaries?”

Tori has had a volatile relationship with her mother, Candy Spelling. In an interview with Lenny, Spelling admitted she was nervous when she first found out she was having a daughter. Tori said she was afraid she would repeat her mother’s parenting mistakes.

“When I found out I was pregnant with a daughter, I thought, F*ck. I am screwed. I cried when I found out I was carrying a daughter. I didn’t know what to do. I thought, I’m going to repeat the past. This is just the way it goes.“

But Spelling said she is much more affectionate with her daughter than her mom was with her, and clearly they communicate on topics like hair dye. In fact, it sounds like mom and daughter are extremely close.

“I feel like Stella and I have this amazing relationship where we’re just always holding hands and we’re holding each other and touching, and I love it. I have no fear anymore.”

Take a look at the video for more on Tori Spelling talking about being a mom in Hollywood.

[Photo by Michael Kovac/Getty Images for Feld Entertainment]