The “nepotism babies” genre of celebrities kicked off at the beginning of the year thanks to a viral TikTok trend. It highlighted some of the biggest stars in the entertainment industry born to famous parents. It may sound unfair to tag them “nepotism” babies, but these stars were born into privilege, giving them an edge over their peers.
Whereas some of these stars became public favorites after proving they deserve their positions, others consistently come under fire for riding their famous parents’ coattails. Here’s a list of ten top nepotism babies, the internet’s thoughts, and their opinions on the term.
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10. Brooklyn Beckham | Parents – Victoria & David Beckham
Brooklyn Beckham is another nepotism baby people don’t care about because he’s changed careers three times. Ordinarily, someone doing that without the necessary industry clout would hardly get anywhere, but the 23-year-old continues thriving.
First, Brooklyn was a model like his parents (David was a footballer and Victoria was a Spice Girls member). His current career is professional cooking, and that’s attracted negative criticism for his lack of experience. He could attend culinary school to perfect the craft – he can afford it!
9. Lily Rose-Depp | Parents – Vanessa Paradis & Johnny Depp
Lily-Rose Depp would star in the highly-anticipated TV series, The Idol alongside Abel “The Weeknd” Tesfaye. The 23-year-old made her acting debut in 2014. Then she started her modeling career a year after as the face of Chanel, just like her mother, Vanessa Paradis, before her.
8. Maya Hawke | Parents – Ethan Hawke & Uma Thurman
With a face that flits between her father, Ethan Hawke, and mother, Uma Thurman, Maya Hawke was a goldfish with no hiding place. She came onto the scene in the third installment of Netflix’s Stranger Things as Robyn in 2019.
At 21, that’s a late start in the movie industry, but with famous parents and a formidable talent to back it up, it’s not so late. Maya is also the star of the teen comedy-drama Do Revenge.
7. Maude Apatow | Parents – Leslie Mann & Judd Apatow
Maude Apatow got an early start in Hollywood as a child actress alongside her sister, Iris, in their parent’s movies, Knocked Up and This is 40. She returned to HBO’s Euphoria in 2019 thus starting the trend of nepotism babies when people found out about her parents.
6. Lily Collins | Parents – Jill Tavelman & Phil Collins
33-year-old Lily Collins started her career at 2 as a child actor no doubt due to her Rock star father’s influence. She has a boisterous resume having starred alongside heavyweights like Julia Roberts, Paul Bettany, and Sandra Bullock.
5. Kaia Gerber | Parents – Cindy Crawford & Rande Gerber
Kaia Gerber acknowledges her privilege as the daughter of one of the world’s best supermodels, Cindy Crawford . Last year, she recreated her mother’s iconic Elle cover, and this year she walked with Crawford at the Off-White Spring-Summer fashion show.
Kaia’s work outside modeling endears fans to her.
4. Zoë Kravitz | Parents – Lisa Bonet & Lenny Kravitz
Zoë Kravitz built a career for herself and started with small roles despite her parents’ popularity. She starred in X-Men First Class before moving on to bigger productions such as The Divergent Series and Big Little Lies.
Her latest achievement is starring as Catwoman in the 2022 remake of The Batman.
3. Kendall Jenner | Parents – Kris Jenner & Caitlyn Jenner
All it took for Kendall Jenner to get into modeling was one phone call to Wilhelmina Models in 2009 after expressing interest to her momager, Kris Jenner.
Of all the nepotism babies worldwide, she gets the most flak from the internet before people believe she’s not as hardworking as her peers, yet she’s the highest-paid model in the world.
Kendall hates being associated with the trend and emphasized that she works twice as hard because of her family name, contrary to popular belief.
2. Timothée Chalamet | Parents – Nicole Flender & Marc Chalamet
Timothée Chalamet ‘s parents aren’t directly involved with the industry, but his aunt and uncle are movie producers Rodman Flender and Amy Lippman. Fans believe his type of nepotism differs from the shoe-ins with direct access.
1. Bella & Gigi Hadid | Parents – Yolanda & Mohamad Hadid
We couldn’t mention Bella without her older sister Gigi who took after their mother Yolanda Hadid. The Hadid sisters are among the few Nepotism babies with massive fan love and public support especially Bella because they have the work ethic to back it up!
