Nepo Babies Are the Most Well Equipped People to Be Famous

The order of young people who are best positioned to handle fame as adults goes like this:

1. Nepo babies (the children of famous people). 
2. Average people who become famous as adults. 
3. Child stars (the children of not-famous people who become famous as kids). 

Child stars thrust into the industry by their non-famous parents are at the biggest disadvantage—there are several tragic documentary series like Quiet on Set and Pretty Baby detailing the numerous reasons why. People who push their young children on television and movie sets are callous, cruel, or stupid (sometimes all three), and even with allegedly improved industry standards, any child who is a primary source of income for their parents begins 1,000 yards behind life’s starting line. 

Sometimes, a child star is also a nepo baby. Drew Barrymore, for example. Barrymore made it out on the other side, but it’s pretty clear that any benefits she gained  as a nepo baby were negated by being an 11-year-old star with access to cocaine. 

When fully formed adults become famous, they have the advantage of having lived a normal life, with normal jobs and normal responsibilities as an anchor to reality. Even as celebrity seeps into their pores like an opiate, they've had a degree of normalcy and a firm foot in the “real world” as a reference. It can often mean they are equipped with a bit more humility or grounding in the untethered world of Hollywood. 

Obviously, nepo babies have the clearest advantage due to being born rich & with connections. There's also people in their lives who understand the business side of the industry. But there’s also another way that nepo babies really benefit: they get a front row seat to how fame can absolutely corrode a person, and just how much a career in Hollywood can fluctuate.

People like Ben Stiller, Dakota Johnson, Jack Quaid, and John David Washington got to watch the famous adults in their lives be shaped by major success and excessive public scrutiny. They were more privy to closed-door meltdowns and the various insecurities of their famous parents and their parents’ famous friends. There was never the mystique or fantasy to fame that many of us outside of those realities imagine. 

They know that red carpet glamour is preceded by hours of tedious plucking, squeezing, folding, padding, pushing, grunting, and pulling. That the beautiful gowns are loaned, the jewelry is borrowed. They know which producers are handsy, which actors egos’ outsize their talent, and what happens when your movie bombs at the box office. 

You see this knowledge come across in the way nepo babies navigate their fame. Maya Hawke is a natural in press appearances. Actor Lily-Rose Depp was able to chase meaty, memorable roles early in her career. Zoe Kravitz has firmly cemented herself not only as one of the era’s preeminent ‘It Girls’; she’s also already helmed major studio releases as a director. 

Gwyneth Paltrow spent decades as one of the most sought after actors in Hollywood, racking up high brow films and the hefty Marvel paychecks, while also hedging her bets outside of the industry as well. Her lifestyle brand Goop had an estimated worth of $250 million back in 2023. 

It’s not that being a child of a famous person is a golden ticket in all aspects. As many of these stars have stated or shown over the years, fame takes an exhaustive toll. Even the best prepared will still have to navigate the noxious realities of stardom. 

But at the end of the day, if you’re the child of someone famous and seeking fame yourself, being called a nepo baby is a small price to pay for the playbook it provides.