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Soap opera fans know Kirsten Storms as Maxie Jones on General Hospital. She has starred on the daytime drama since 2005, and her character is a fan favorite.
Soap acting was a dream come true for Storms, whose mom watched the daytime drama The Bold and the Beautiful while she was growing up. Before General Hospital, she starred on Days of Our Lives as Belle Black.
Storms wanted to act as a young girl growing up in Orlando, Florida. Her parents enrolled her in acting classes at the age of five, then a talent agent discovered her.
Kirsten Storms was told she wouldn’t make it as an actor
Storms was lucky because her parents always believed she would be a successful actor. The Florida native’s dad was a sportscaster at a local station. When she went to work with him, it was immediately apparent she loved being in front of the camera.
As a child, Storms appeared in commercials and landed a lead role in Disney’s Sing a Story with Belle. When she was 12 years old, her family moved from Orlando to LA. The first few years in the city were tough for Storms as she struggled with auditions.
She told Maurice Benard on his State of Mind podcast, “I had agents tell me I wasn’t gonna make it … I didn’t have ‘it.’”
She explained that it was a bit of a shock for her to come to LA from Florida and that the auditions were “crazy.” There was enormous pressure to do well. By the time she turned 14, she “got her groove back.”
Kirsten Storms starred in ‘Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century’
When Storms was 14, she had a recurring role on the WB’s 7th Heaven. She says that the part gave her the confidence to audition for a new Disney Channel movie. She went through seven or eight callbacks before she was cast in the title role in Zenon: Girl of the 21st Century.
The film is about a girl named Zenon (Storms) who lives on a space station with her family. After getting into trouble, she is grounded to living on earth with her aunt.
The movie was the most popular on Disney Channel and produced sequels Zenon: The Zequel and Zenon: Z3.
Kirsten Storms’ dream came true
Not only did Storms become a successful working actor, but she also became a soap star, just like she dreamed of when she was a child. Right after the first Zenon came out, the actor signed with Days of Our Lives.
“People questioned why I made the choice to immediately go to daytime,” the General Hospital star said to Benard. “I’ve never made choices for what other people thought was best for me.” She went on to say that her choices led her to have a schedule where she could spend time with her daughter.
Those agents were wrong. Kirsten Storms made it just the way she wanted.
