Alana 'Honey Boo Boo' Thompson Confesses Fans Still Think of Her as a 'Little Kid' After Growing Up in the Spotlight

Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson has been on television since she was 6 years old, but despite being 17 years old now, she admitted that many of her fans still seem to picture her as the young girl that she used to be on TLC's Toddlers & Tiaras.

"A lot of people still think like, 'Oh, you're not supposed to be this' and 'You got a boyfriend? Oh no, you're not supposed to have a boyfriend,'" she explained in a recent interview. "And it's like, I'm almost going to be 18. I've already graduated high school. I'm basically already grown. So I just don't understand it."

Along with finishing high school, the reality television personality is also preparing to head to college.

"I am ready. I think that it is definitely going to be a different journey, but I think I'm ready for it," she added. "I don't know if the cameras will be following me just yet. Y'all are just going to really have to wait and see what happens."

The topic of Alana's procrastination with her college applications was a regularly occurring argument between the 17-year-old and her older sister, Lauryn "Pumpkin" Effird, who has had full legal custody of her little sister since 2022.

Despite Alana eventually being accepted into a program, Pumpkin candidly confessed that being a parent and a sister to Alana, as well as raising her children she shares with husband Josh Effird, has been "tough to navigate."

"Me and Josh have four kids of our own and we're also trying to send Alana now off to college and stuff," the 23-year-old told the outlet. "And even before then, it was like we were trying to get Alana to graduate and we were trying to learn how to manage [four] kids under five and also a high school graduate."

"So that was always very, very complicated for me and Josh to figure out," she noted. "But some way and somehow, we always seem to manage all five of the kids."

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As OK! previously reported, Alana recently announced she'd received a $21,000 scholarship to attend Regis University in Denver, Co., where she plans to study to become a neonatal nurse.

"I have been on TV my whole life and I kind of just basically accepted that whether I want to go be a nurse or I want to go be an accountant, whatever I want to go be, that I will always be in the spotlight," she said earlier this year. "It doesn't matter what I do, I will always probably be known as, 'Oh my god, Honey Boo Boo's working on my baby when he was in the NICU.'"

Both sisters spoke with People about Alana growing up.