Nepo Baby

Gracie Abrams. Lily Allen. Maya Hawke. Ben Platt. Maude Apatow. Chances are, you’ve heard these names floating around the entertainment industry recently. What might they all have in common? They’re nepotism babies.

For those unfamiliar with the term, nepotism babies, or nepo babies, are people that have achieved success in their profession with the privilege of either one or both parents who are famous, usually in the same or an adjacent industry.

The buzzworthy term has taken the internet by storm and has influenced many of these nepo babies to make a public statement. Their reactions? Typically, celebrities accused of being a nepo baby defend themselves, sometimes even taking offense to being called out as someone with privilege in their industry.

Lily Allen, the daughter of film producer Alison Owen and actor Keith Allen, took to Twitter to respond to the allegations. “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, if we’re talking about real world consequences and robbing people of opportunity. BUT that’s none of my business,” she tweeted.

The replies are flooded with users like @the_mod_ woman, who, with 30.5k likes, simply states “we can multitask.” Allen’s initial response to the nepo babies drama seems to shift the focus from talent in the entertainment industry to typical office jobs. Privilege in fields like banking and law exist, but there seems to be a greater priority and emphasis on calling out nepo babies in the entertainment industry.

Self-described, “OG nepo baby” Jamie Lee Curtis took somewhat of a different approach to the conversation. The 64-year-old actor is the daughter of Tony Curtis (Some Like It Hot), and Janet Leigh (Psycho). Curtis took to Instagram to write that, “The current conversation about nepo babies is just designed to try to diminish and denigrate and hurt. For the record, I have navigated 44 years with the advantages my associated and reflected fame brought me, I don’t pretend there aren’t any, that try to tell me that I have no value on my own.”

The original nepo baby discourse has also sparked a Tiktok trend — users are making one video after another about how they’re nepotism babies. Of course, most of these are curated in a sardonic tone, ranging from health conditions that run in the family, to getting free haircuts because a family member is a hairdresser.

Cultural awareness of the nepo baby has led to discussions about the validity and talent of such entertainers. Perhaps the argument isn’t that they are talentless, but that they’ve been able to build their careers with the privilege of having rich and famous parents.

So, does the general public hate nepotism babies?

The tension may be there, but at least as of now, their reactions to the accusations have been the source of more strife than anything. At the end of the day, there are so many talented nepo babies who deserve recognition, but calling them out for their privilege and them acknowledging that it got them in the door is just as important.

WRITTEN BY PEYTON HALL

PHOTOGRAPHED BY ELIJAH MILLER

ART DIRECTOR KATERINA TRIANTAFILLOU

MODEL SALLY FINNIN

DESIGNER MEGAN LEE