She was a child who had been everywhere in public and seen by almost no one for what she actually was.
## The Legal Mechanism: What Emancipation in California Actually Meant
California’s emancipation statutes — the legal framework under which Drew Barrymore would eventually seek independence from her parents — developed through the latter half of the twentieth century in response to a growing recognition that some minors existed in circumstances that made parental authority harmful rather than protective. The law acknowledged, in other words, what common sense had long suggested: that not all parents are safe guardians, and that some children are better served by the state recognizing their ability to act on their own behalf.
In California, by the period in question, a minor between fourteen and seventeen could petition the court for emancipation under certain conditions. The petitioner had to demonstrate the capacity to manage their own financial affairs, to live independently, and to make decisions about their own life in ways that a court could reasonably assess as in their best interest. Parents were typically notified and could attend the hearing.
The rights that emancipation granted were significant but not unlimited. An emancipated minor could enter into contracts that would be legally binding. She could apply for her own work permits and manage her own earnings. She could establish credit, sign leases, and be sued in her own name. In the vocabulary of the law, she was treated as an adult for many practical purposes.
What emancipation did not do was equally important to understand. An emancipated minor could not vote. She could not legally drink alcohol. She was, in principle, still required to attend school — California law maintained the school attendance requirement for emancipated minors, a provision that created a meaningful tension with the practical circumstances of many young people seeking emancipation. She could not marry without parental consent, though the specifics varied. She did not acquire, in other words, all the attributes of legal adulthood; she acquired enough of them to enable independent life.