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Topics: Celebrity
Ali Condon
The phrase of 2022 is 'Nepo Baby', and most people are on-board - except for the actual nepo babies.
If you're not familiar with the term, short for nepotism baby, it's a popular term used to describe notable figures in entertainment - whether it be models, musicians, actors, etc - who have well-known parents that might have been able to give their careers a leg-up.
Think Maude Apatow and her parents Leslie Mann and Judd Apatow, Robert Downey Jr and his dad Robert Downey Sr, Maya Hawke and her parents Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, and Laura Dern and her dad Bruce Dern.
The list is endless.
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The phrase has been swirling about the internet for some time now, and it's not like the nepotism is exactly a new thing in the entertainment industry - or any industry.
But it all finally got too much for some celebs when New York Magazine published their latest issue, titled 'The Year of the Nepo Baby', complete with a full spreadsheet of popular singers, actors, models, and influencers who have famous connections.
Once the exhaustive guide to nepo babies was published, some celebrities began to lash out.
First, there was model and influencer Lottie Moss, who is the half-sister of supermodel Kate Moss.
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In a post to Instagram this week, she wrote: "I understand I have come from a very privileged position being the sister of someone very famous but believe it or not that person never really supported me, my parents were amazing but could not relate to what I was going through and did not know the full extent of what I was going through most of the time.
"I was pretty much on my own so I had to navigate this by myself and do the best I could which I feel I have."
Then there was singer Lily Allen, who is the daughter of Keith Allen.
"The nepo babies y’all should be worrying about are the ones working for legal firms, the ones working for banks, and the ones working in politics,” she tweeted on Monday (19 December).
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“If we’re talking about real world consequences and robbing people of opportunity. BUT that’s none of my business."
People didn't exactly warm to her tweet, but, swerving in a different direction, she continued: "In childhood we crave stability and love, nurturing, we don’t care about money or proximity to power yet. Many of the nepo babies are starved of these basic things in childhood as their parents are probably narcissistic."
And O'Shea Jackson Jr, whose dad is rapper and actor Ice Cube, tweeted that he 'had to get my a** up and make it work' to earn the role of his father in the film Straight Outta Compton, insisting it wasn't just handed to him.
However, some took it all with a pinch of salt. Like Eve Hewson, the eldest daughter of U2 frontman Bono, who initially thought that she hadn't made it into the original article.
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Taking to Twitter, she joked: "Gonna get Nepo Baby tattooed on my ass."
She added: "Actually pretty devastated I'm not featured in the nepo baby article like haven't they seen my hit show Bad Sisters??? The NERVE."