10 Actresses From Your Childhood Who Take on Trump

Fans of '80s and '90s sitcoms and movies might be surprised to know that if they wander over to the wild west of Tweetdom, some of the most beloved teen actresses of those decades are deeply political and mixing it up with members of Congress and Donald Trump. For instance, Alyssa Milano, who rose to fame as many a young queer girl's crush as the adorable tomboyish Samantha Micelli on Who's the Boss? is outspoken on issues of race, immigration, women's equality, LGBT rights, and so on. In fact, as of this Friday, she was one of the voices leading a charge demanding that Trump fire his "deputy assistant" Sebastian Gorka, an unrepentant Islamophobe with ties to neo-Nazis.

Beyond tweeting on the politics of the day and often in response to or at Trump, these actresses, beloved to many who grew up in the era of their initial fame, also fight for causes near and dear to them. While Martha Plimpton and Annabeth Gish are ardent supporters of Planned Parenthood, Holly Marie Combs often tweets about animal rights while Jennifer Beals tweeted about her experience traveling to Standing Rock earlier this year.

There are plenty of famous people who get called out for being problematic, but there's something really refreshing about this group of women who've stood up for what they believe in and against the Trump administration.

Martha Plimpton

A child star who began her career in beloved '80s films including The Goonies, Running on Empty, The Mosquito Coast, and Parenthood, Martha Plimpton has enjoyed a storied career in television as of late. Her turn as an attorney who used her pregnancy and children against opposing counsel as a recurring character on The Good Wife earned her an Emmy Award in 2012, and most recently she starred in the excellent, criminally short-lived LGBT-themed sitcom The Real O'Neals. But despite her busy work life, Plimpton finds time to tweet at the Trump administration, often with humor, but always with a searing rebuke for the man who sits in the White House.

Holly Marie Combs

A teen star who made TV history on Picket Fences when her character kissed another girl way back in 1993, Combs is best known for her role as Piper in the witch-themed Charmed while younger TV audiences know her as Ella Montgomery, cool mom to Aria, on Pretty Little Liars. Since Trump announced last month that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military, Combs's Twitter feed has been on fire! She railed against the trans ban in a series of tweets that went right for Trump. And she really hasn't stopped calling out the injustices under this administration since then.

Jennifer Beals

A long-devoted ally to LGBT people, Beals is famous to younger generations for portraying everyone's favorite power lesbian Bette Porter on The L Word for six seasons. But she became America's sweetheart overnight as the gorgeous welder with aspirations of becoming a serious dancer in 1983's Flashdance. It may not be quite accurate to call Beals a "Maniac" on Twitter, but she was incredibly active earlier this year standing up for Standing Rock. Recently, she railed about Trump's dangerously cavalier attitude toward nuclear war and North Korea (in the tweet above), and just this weekend she also demanded that Trump fire Gorka.

Justine Bateman

Eighties sitcom fans will best recall Bateman as Mallory, the sassy younger sister to Michael J. Fox's buttoned-up young Republican brother Alex on Family Ties. More recently Bateman (Jason Bateman's sister) has starred in Men in Trees and Desperate Housewives as well as appearing on Modern Family and a number of other series in guest roles. She also keeps busy with her Twitter feed, calling out hypocrisy when she sees it, especially when it comes to the Trump family. In the tweet above she was responding to Ivanka Trump tweeting after the violence in Charlottesville that "there should be no place in society for racism, white supremacy and neo-Nazis."

Alyssa Milano

While Alyssa Milano got her start on Who's the Boss? with Tony Danza and Judith Light, she's also well known for her turn as Phoebe on Charmed as well as more recently for her role on Mistresses. Arguably one of the most active celebrities on Twitter, Milano does not back away from her keyboard when there is a cause for which she can fight. By the end of last week, she was calling for Gorka's firing and Trump's impeachment.

Lea Thompson

Star of one of the most popular movie franchises of the '80s, Back to the Future, Thompson also appeared in the John Hughes film Some Kind of Wonderful before landing her own sitcom, Caroline in the City, in the '90s. Recently she starred in Freeform's Switched at Birth. But Thompson also has a lively Twitter account where she retweets from accounts like the Women's March but also lands poignant condemnations of the Trump administration like a recent one where she tweeted a photo of her childhood memorabilia with the caption "A collection. Of stuff. From my childhood. When all of our presidents condemned racism."

Annabeth Gish

While Gish rose to fame in indie movies like Mystic Pizza and Shag, she's really never stopped working. In the past decade or so she's starred on series including Brotherhood, Pretty Little Liars, The Bridge, Sons of Anarchy, Halt and Catch Fire, and The X-Files. Gish is an ardent activist for women's reproductive rights, and she often tweets her support for Planned Parenthood. Last month she spoke out against the draconian health care bill Republicans put forth.

Rose McGowan

Another Charmed alumna, who got her start in indie flicks like The Doom Generation and Jawbreaker, McGowan does not mince words on her Twitter feed, which is not surprising considering she's always been outspoken and political. When Paul Ryan finally decided to speak out against white supremacists in the wake of Charlottesville, her simple quoted tweet in response to him was "Fuck you."

Valerie Bertinelli

The actress who rose to fame in the '70s as the adorable Barbara Cooper on One Day at a Time and who recently starred in Hot in Cleveland, Bertinelli keeps her Twitter feed fairly light and funny. But she speaks out against injustice and stands up for herself when Trump supporters try to flip the script on her by calling her hateful for standing up for what's right. When one Trump supporter recently called her "clueless" and threatened to unfollow her she tweeted, "boy, bye" and punctuated the sentiment with the hand-waving emoji.

Christina Applegate

As a teen, Applegate became an overnight sensation as the lovable ditz Kelly Bundy on Married With Children. Recently she starred as the uptight PTA mom from hell in Bad Moms. But Applegate also keeps busy on Twitter. She's spoken out for LGBT people like she did in the above tweet when Trump announced he was banning transgender people from the military. Earlier this month Applegate fired off a series of tweets at "potty-mouthed" short-lived Sean Spicer replacement Anthony Scaramucci.