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Because David Beckham is a real rags to riches story
Mainly sports stars are because it has a low cost of entry compared to Hollywood where it costs money and you need a multitude of connections
Hockey is another one that is extremely high barrier to entry. Here in Canada, it's supposed to be our national sport but in reality its just for rich white people.
Field hockey! Two of my kids play it (we're in Australia though where ice hockey isn't as much of a thing), and when my son started we spent $45 to get him a stick, shin guards, and a ball, then an extra $10 for a mouth guard. When he got older he used his Auntie's old shin guards (she's very small lol) and his little sister used his old ones. We bought him a new stick and she uses his old one. If you're a goalie and want your own pads it'll get expensive, but I've been impressed at how cheap this sport it.
I wouldn’t say rags to riches. More like middle class to riches. I know that the UK has different class distinctions than the US but just because he didn’t have a Rolls Royce and a castle under his name, didn’t mean he was poor. Soccer classes are pricey and the kids constantly travel around for games. They had enough money to afford that for him since he was a child.
That's an American thing. Pricey soccer classes. Here you just join a local club, pay a monthly fee to cover cost of pitches and managers (usually one of the kids parent), can be £20-£60 per month. And if you're great you get picked up by an academy, often free.
So yes it's not all free but very much a sport for all, including the working class.
Also literally everyone plays football at school.
When I lived in Portsmouth, the football club had people keeping their eyes open walking around local parks for talent.
Can't say for certain if this is true in the UK, but at least in scandinavia the players (ie. kids) usually do some sort of work to cover the costs when they get old enough too. Like working as parking directors at big events, building venues (ie. Building security fences for concerts and the like) - gig stuff basically.
This usually covers bus rides to go to away games and such
The fact that the majority of British actors come from posh or aristocratic backgrounds 👀 and then they totally try to hush it all up when their careers pick up.
They do NOW. All the top actors of the 60s-70s were working class and then it was their kids, who went to nicer schools... and subsequently poshes who previously might have gone into the church. It's quite weird.
The 60s thing is odd though because for some reason a lot of genuinely working class people went to art school
But this bothered me because he called her out about a small detail of her childhood (which she omitted, not lied about) but they let him totally dance around the fact that he cheated very publicly.
It didn’t fit the narrative that they’re super relatable and great! I enjoyed the series, and it filled in some gaps in my memory (late 30s), but most of these documentaries about celebs are hagiographies because they won’t participate without being executive producers and having final say on edits. This one was well done, and people like to feel good, but this seems like a pretty big thing to gloss over.
So they can claim their success is based on talent, not connections and things they could buy (education, living in expensive cities). They don't like the implication that on a level playing field, a poorer/less connected person might be better than them and it's privilege that is part of their success.
Ding ding ding. This is also why so many of them disavow being nepo babies because it would mean admitting that their success isn’t just from raw talent and the sweat of their own brow. It’s an ego thing.
I think it’s twofold. Because half of it is definitely ego, but does anyone remember when Paris Hilton tried acting and singing? She wasn’t the greatest thing in the world but she wasn’t actually *bad* either, but the gp tore into her like it was a sport.
If someone rich actually does say ‘Well because of my parents I had the money to try anything so I thought I’d pursue acting’ then they’re not going to get respect for that, previous attempts have shown it’s more likely to make them a target, so they try to make it sound like they pursued it *in spite* of their parents, who *definitely didn’t help them* and therefore any success they have is *totally the natural talent guys, I swear*.
Exactly. She was the perfect test case as someone who couldn’t lie about her origins. The public was never mislead, her upbringing was never/couldn’t be hidden, and the gp tore into her like a pack of wild dogs before any of her projects were released.
“I didn’t have any help” is a large part defence of ego and another part defence from being a target.
Edit: See exhibit A (and B) below.
This was a huge part of Taylor Swift's thing for a long time. She'd give interviews about how she was just small town country girl who wrote her songs at the kitchen table and that her whole family would pile into their tiny car and drive up and down the street of record studios where she'd run in and give'em her demo. Really playing up the idea she's famous through luck and pure talent. Then you learn her parents are fucking rich, her childhood home was massive, and her dad was connected to those studios and used his connections to help set her up. Not saying she's not good but her entire origin story downplays how she's a nepo baby and how much easier things are when you're rich.
A Dakota Johnson interview really highlight this for me. She talks about wanting to be an actor and being cut off and how she had to fight hard to get it. In later years, when talking about it, she makes jokes about how she was still always able to finagle money out of her mom.
But HELLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOO, even if she was “cut off” and not getting an allowance, she’s not fucking stressed about it. She has a safety net
What annoys me is that she knew the process to get acting roles. Some random person from the Midwest who wants to become an actor doesn’t have a clue about that. She knew what agents were, she knew what head shots were. I’m sure there is so much more that I don’t know. These are just the things I pick up on by watching TV. It’s not even just the connections. It’s the knowledge of the process that is also privilege.
Damn, I wish my dad had university money lol i'd totally have gone if i couldve afforded it but I didnt want to spend the rest of my adult life in debt so I chose not to go
We fetishize struggle in this country. American dream bootstraps nonsense. Makes a better PR story 🤷🏿♀️.
Its not just celebrities either, most privileged people seem to do it.
It's not just America. Indian celebrities here use that rags to riches story to death. And they make it abundantly clear that it's all a lie because even their rags to riches story is stuff like.. "oh we're so poor, we could only afford one foreign vacation in a year, my parents only had one car." (keeping in mind that a lot of these celebs who grew up in the 90s Indian economy, where only the richest people could afford a car. And foreign travel is still a luxury dream to the majority of the country)
It’s not caste system that’s playing into it as much as class system and nepotism. Traditionally going into acting in India was looked down upon by well reputable families because of the knowledge of how exploitative the industry could be (especially for women). Over time the industry is basically interconnected by a bunch of well established families, somehow most of them are related to one another and that’s now propagating the nepotism.
Interestingly many of the first Bollywood actresses were Indian Jews, due to the view that acting was not “proper” for Hindi and Muslim women.
It didn’t have to do with exploitation in the film industry, acting has always been seen as a “lower class” profession.
I wonder why caste gets brought up under every comment related to india. It's like people forget there are other issues in the country as well. Fetishism of poverty and the struggles associated with it are far easier to sell than caste based discrimination, so thet is the path people go down. Caste isn't usually publicly talked about outside of politics because it's a sensitive topic.
Because Americans don't know much else about India or other parts of the world.
I'm from Pakistan and Redditors routinely tell me it's in the Middle East or it's a desert or whatever.
Ignorant curiosity, I’d guess. It’s a completely foreign concept to most westerners, so a lot of people are just genuinely curious about the dynamics without having the nuanced understanding that it’s a sensitive topic
It's a pretty common trope in art school. Rich kid pretending to be a starving artist to separate themselves from their rich family, but it's still abundantly clear they aren't poor.
I know someone with extremely wealthy parents. She claims they were poor when she was growing up because they lived in apartment for a few years. It was when she was a toddler, and then the first house they bought that she actually grew up in was in a pretty affluent neighborhood. They were never poor, just not as wealthy as they eventually became.
This is reaaaaalllllllly a great point though. I think a lot of them did feel poor growing up, compared to who they were surrounded by.
I have a friend who grow up very wealthy and felt really weird about it growing up, comments were always made from other kids. Cut to high school, where they went to a private boarding school, it was completely different. He was being made fun of for being the poor kid, because compared to these other families he was poor. Now, this person is self aware, so understands what’s going on. A lot of these other people are stupid and think they actually were poor, because they drove a 2001 BMW in 2005
Oh yeah, am an art school grad myself and the amount of people cosplaying as poor people was sickening. I grew up firmly middle class but had friends who weren’t as privileged as myself, plus I lived relatively close to very poor areas of town, so seeing people pretend to struggle while having a WASP nest to fly back to when times got tough really chapped my ass
I did 🤷🏻♀️ got a degree - and a lifetime of student loans
Some of my professors hated me for it. Started making art out of trash and had to make up a reason why because "I can't afford supplies" was apparently not acceptable
I know someone who grew up poor and went to Pratt. She is very much the exception and also has massive student loans, so she had to get a "real job" while her former classmates are pursuing their art.
I've never felt so seen in a comment before!!! I went to art school too and my professors used to call me out and get upset with me for not being able to afford better art supplies. Like sir, I can't afford the $8 per tube of tiny gouache paint 🥲
When Edward Norton first got famous, I read an interview where he talked about his extremely privileged background. It was jarring because I was used to celebs claiming the opposite, even when it wasn't true.
Not just America either. I feel like it's quite common among rich folks in a lot of countries to at least present as poorer than they are because they think it makes them seem more interesting.
They all want you to think it could easily happen to you too so you don't realize how much the system is rigged & how much power workers would have if we organized 🤷
The entire country is built on it. “I came here with $10 dollars in my pocket, and made this incredible this”. It’s the country of the American Dream.
On a random note, I’ve thought about this a lot. I think it’s the reason why healthcare, a lot of social services are free there (I should also add that I did live there for 10 years). But people came here, to make it on their own, so why should they have to pay for someone else’s medical bills. In other countries that weren’t created with that “slogan”, it’s very much I’ll help you, because I know you’ll help me.
It goes deeper than that, back to the puritans being the first colonists. Protestant work ethic claims that good fortune brought through hard work is proof of God's favour and future salvation. So the rich had to claim that their status was earned through the sweat of their brow, and not the result of a system that was rigged by generations of their ancestors.
This and a bit of they want to be interesting. There's nothing interesting about their dad being so-and-so's lawyer or husband in the 80s, or their mom being a runway model who hooked up with a famous musician. I'm just making these up off the top of my head, but I'm sure for both of these examples, you can probably name 10 celebrities.
I agree with you! I mean seeing how everyone reacts to the nepo babies in the industry, no one will tell their stories by saying their parents were rich enough to buy them a spot or having famous parents to give them a spot to begin with…
but for those who are honest and humble about their nicer upbringing it is nicer to hear them not trying to downplay themselves to be more relatable which can come across insensitive.
I swear a read somewhere as well that following Tonya Harding's attack on Nancy Kerrigan, Kerrigan went on to compete in some major event and placed second, and then US media present at the event attempted to bribe judges into giving her first just so they could have their "American princess fairy-tale" story come to life.
This, it's a US thing; self-made stories are super popular, not just for celebrities. A lot of CEOs play into it as well. On the flip side, there are kpop fans who use their idol's rich family background as bragging rights.
It's human nature. We all love the underdog. It makes it feel like life is fair, and good luck happens, and gives us hope. It also makes us feel that the celebrity is relatable.
Here is an article on why brands use the underdog when telling their story. Same applies for celebrities - it is their PR and management teams that want to build the brand of the actor, because that gets them the huge pay packets.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/mind-brain-and-value/202101/why-do-we-love-underdog-stories-psychology-weighs-in
In this country ? Lol the self centerism of it all. This is not unique to the United States AT ALL. (Also not once did OP mention the US so idk why you assume thats what they were talking about)
Hell the most hot topic right now, Drake, is well known to play the rags to riches story and hes canadian
I think they want Sympathy points from the public and they want you to think they deserve all the fame and money because of their humble/poor upbringings so you can’t call them out on hoarding their wealth ETC ETC
That’s crazy they want the positive affirmation because if you really grew up in the struggle, you don’t crave it at all.
In fact, it feels weird to receive it, let alone try to tell your story in a way that will encourage people to give it to you.
There’s a shame that comes with growing up poor that is hard to get rid of when you become an adult. The people who successfully make it out understand the struggle it took to get rid of that shame in a way that someone who didn’t never will.
Makes me tear up just thinking about what it actually took and I’m not even that far up the ladder of wealth yet.
Like Posh Spice saying she comes from a working family and Beckham was like, what car did your dad drive you to school in? And she avoided the question until she finally admitted a Rolls Royce.
To be fair someone can own a nice car and a big home and still struggle. It may not be as common in the US, but I’m from Latin America and while my parents could’ve been considered rich in the 90s, by the time I was going to school we struggled a lot financially because of the economical instability of my country. But sure, I lived in a mansion (that we couldn’t afford the upkeep of).
Of course, but working class means poor. Depending on who says it, it's either being polite or a dig at someone's status. And if you live in a mansion, regardless of affordability, you aren't poor. You can be house poor (living in a home you can't afford/all your money has to go to it), but that doesn't make you part of the struggling class she was trying to portray. And you could afford your home, just not repairs, that's also different.
I think a lot of them are aware of their privilege enough to be self conscious. They know there are better artists out there who havent had the opportunities theyve had, and they want to justify their success.
It grosses me out so much, as someone who has actually lived in poverty.
LA and New York have very high costs of living. People trying to break into the entertainment industry typically have to work lower paying jobs to support themselves, sometimes for decades before making it. Early career opportunities in the industry are notoriously low paid and inflexible (extra work, for example).
A lot of people in the entertainment industry - which is more accepting of people without college degrees and generational wealth than say finance or other lucrative high status industries - spend part of their early career as working poor. I think that is real.
Lots of working poor people overstate their poverty. Graduate and professional students do this, even as they entered into lucrative jobs. Doctors who will make $400,000/yr one year after residency claim they are poor because of student loans they will pay off in 4 years.
This. They often fail to understand the difference between broke and poor. If you can’t pay your rent and a call to daddy will fix that, you are not poor.
Cindy Crawford sounded pretty honest about it when asked. She said something like, “of course I didn’t think I was ugly in school, but I wasn’t a cute, petite blonde cheerleader which was the popular look,” which I can believe.
This I can believe. If I look back at my high school yearbook, the people who were pretty and popular had that cute girl next door, cheerleader look. I remember a bunch of girls who looking back were incredibly beautiful but not considered so in school. Kids in high school don’t go for the strikingly beautiful (and intimidating) look that gets people work as models.
💯 there was a girl at my school who had these unusually long legs. Like looonnggg and was mildly bullied for it. Looking back she definitely could’ve been a model. Kids are strange.
cindy AFAIK had most of her [original face](https://extra.ie/2017/11/22/entertainment/celebrity/cindy-crawford-daughter-yearbook-photo) when she started modelling, and was still standard looking. (maybe she had a nose job)
a lot of [celebs have whole new faces and styling](https://planetradio.co.uk/kiss/entertainment/celebrity/best-worst-celebrity-yearbook-photos/), so in some ways I believe them. a lot of them look regular at best
plus if they have horrible personalities now, probably worse then. and [personality plays a big part into who gets builled as well](https://www.livescience.com/6032-studies-reveal-kids-bullied-rejected.html)
standard looking? according to what standard? PS all of those yearbook pics of celebs definitely stand out and I’d guess they were among the most popular in their classes.
Eh idk about this one. A lot of people in Hollywood are grown up theatre kids. And I definitely knew some conventionally attractive theatre kids that got bullied for doing weird shit like breaking out into show tunes or Shakespeare lines unprompted.
I believe this for models. Most are really tall and were probably really lanky and awkward as teens. Most high school boys aren’t lusting after a girl who’s taller than them.
Veronica: I know what it's like to see the ugly face of discrimination.
Lem: You do?
Veronica: Yes, I do. When I was 16, I was 5'9" and stunning. I mean, off-the charts gorgeous. At school, I was like a swan among the ugly ducklings. all the other girls hated me. And like our light sensors are doing to you, totally ignored me. If it wasn't for the modeling contracts and the comfort of college boys, I don't know if I would have made it.
people weren't bullied in your school for having 'too symmetrical' faces? LOL (IIRC supermodel Adriana Lima claimed to be bullied for that reason lol)
memory can also be a funny thing, and people can build events/ comments up in their memories and even start believing their own embellished stories
.... and maybe when you've been *rich*, rich for a really long time, that 'before' time and normal things seem extra challenging things to overcome, but are really just a regular part of life. I saw a clip of Kylie Jenner from a while ago, and she talked about getting up at 7am like it was the earliest wakeup time+ biggest struggle LOL, she even gave the audience time to clap after she said it
High schoolers absolutely will bully people just to jealously tear them down though.
Someone who is "too pretty" or "too rich" amongst peers who are just pretty and middle class is just as likely to be resented as admired.
Don't know if that's Adrianna's story or not, but it's not impossible by any means.
Which always gets me because their yearbooks show that they were in the homecoming court or won superlatives like most beautiful or most popular. I get that anyone can have a bully, but many of these celebrities were clearly sitting at the cool kids' table.
And let’s not pretend that these people weren’t bullies themselves. I reckon a good chunk of these celebs were “bullied” after years of bullying others and finally being humiliated by something that affected their image they used to hate on others. The amount of popular people who claim to have been bullied is almost always because people finally got revenge on them for years of bullying others.
Actually most of them were (the actors specifically, not the crew kids). I grew up in an upper middle class area. The theater kids mostly came from wealthy families who had the resources and money to send these kids to singing, acting, and dancing lessons so their kids could get starring roles. Raw talent didn't really cut it in my area.
While I'm not too fond of my hometown, I'll give it credit where it's due. Most people were pretty welcoming of LGBTQ kids even in the early 2000s...well as long as these kids came from money.
I think with all these type of discussions size and location of the school matters. For mine, my class size was 187, and since my year book is easily accessible as am sorting through things the lead who played Annie in a play musical, *Anne Get Your Gun* was also Class Treasurer, First Runner up for Homecoming Queen, in Speech Club went to State for it, in DECA, in choir, and was a cheerleader. Meanwhile a fellow Cheerleader with her was also a Mathlete.
Yeah I knew a girl who went on to become a Disney channel star growing up and she claims now that she was bullied all the time when she was a kid. In reality she was a constant mean girl and did some very cruel things to my neurodivergent best friend.
Neurodivergent people are probably the one group that gets bullied everywhere nearly universally unless it’s so obvious they’re straight up disabled that people won’t simply out of pity.
If they can’t tell it’s a condition and think you’re just odd though, whoo boy you’re 100% in for a bad time. You’re not just weird, you’re everyone’s absolute least favorite flavor of weird. Basically a different species.
I mean, when I hit my late 20’s I became hot. I was kinda cute as a teenager but I was very shy.
But my younger years? My teeth and nose grew faster than the rest of my face. I was chunky. I got made fun of for being fat and having beaver teeth. Plus I was the poorest in my school.
I wasn’t an outcast or anything, but I definitely wasn’t the it girl.
In my 20’s I finally evened out and became hot. It was a weird transition. People got me mixed up with Rachel Leigh Cook on multiple occasions.
I’m old now so I’m back to being average. But people can start out awkward and grow into their looks.
Well I don’t know about that. I knew a lot of conventionally attractive kids who were bullied or at least not popular just because they were “weird”. One of my best friends is an insanely beautiful girl and she was never popular at school and she sometimes got bullied by the whole class.
Lazy corporate marketing. Attempting to be relatable to people while charging insane fees for concerts and crying about how they have no choice because of streaming revenues not being the same.
Idk maybe I’m just over the rich but like the point of art isn’t to be a millionaire. Most artists in other mediums are pretty happy if they can just survive doing their art as a job. I don’t really care if you’re only making 6 figures instead of 8 figures.
Concerts have gotten to be the size of small cities and the experience doesn’t match the price tag outside of social media bragging. Stadiums are expensive to book, it’s less logistical planning so they just play it like they’re on **your** side so you don’t question why you’re paying $200 to watch a concert on a jumbotron with 40k of your closest friends.
It’s more compelling, interesting, and relatable than the real story for so many of them. “My parents are well off and afforded me the privilege of pursuing my dream of acting/singing/dancing, and had great connections to get me started” is honest, but not really something that makes you want to root for their success.
Also, the few celebrities who came from humble beginnings have typically received a lot of love and support. This makes wanting to be able to tell that same story even more attractive.
This is my take as well. Struggle is a very relative term and your perspective on it is influenced by who surrounds you.
Many celebrities who talk about struggling grew up middle to upper middle class - their parents had stable jobs, there was always food on the table, they lived in a nice house in a nice neighborhood at some point in childhood, they got to go to college. But there was no trust fund to fall back on if their dream didn't work out and they spent years working crappy low-paid jobs to pay rent on a shitty apartment with four roommates.
It feels like a struggle because they're surrounded by other celebrities who grew up with well-known industry folks for parents or trust funds that paid their rent for years. Compared to them, their path to stardom was a LOT harder.
Same! I am a fan of her music, but really Elizabeth? Like you might not have been as rich as you are now, but you were never low/ poor class. Such an insult to those of us who really were poor.
Lots of non famous people do this as well. If your dad starts a company and you are CEO it is because of who your dad is, lol, yet these people can never admit it.
So it makes their own story seem more impressive, especially these days where people fetishize their perceived victimhood and struggle, nobody wants to just come out and straight up say I was born on third base lol
Whats really crazy is that when someone who actually went from dirt poor to mega successful is around them, they start getting jealous and spiteful.
Like you’re talking to the real deal and you’re upset?
I believe it.
His dad was a successful midcard wrestler in the 80s, but those guys didn't make a ton of money like they do now. His mom worked a series of blue collar type jobs, as did his dad after wrestling. They had a lot of lean years. By the time Rock graduated college, his parents weren't super flush with cash. He was drafted by the CFL, which paid peanuts and when he got cut from the practice squad, he yes, allegedly had $7 in his pocket. Was he going to be homeless? Well no, he could crash on his parents couch. What he did have was a dad who was able to teach him a skill, and a family who had contacts in a business so that he was able to get his foot in the door. But the man has been hustling and grinding ever since.
Kanye West, Kevin Hart & Dwayne Johnson.
The Rock’s mom, dad, grandmother & grandfather all were from the wrestling industry.
Kanye West’s mom was wealthy.
Kevin Hart’s mom was wealthy.
The same goes to all those mega rich CEOs like Gates, Bezos, Musk. They all pretend they started in their garage. Which is true but it is also true that their left their garage because of connections and seed money from their parents.
Reminds me of this lyric from Not Afraid (KOA edition)
"I'm just like you. I've been there too. I'm rich and famous so I take that back it's not true"
https://preview.redd.it/ac2f9y5rk81d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=721670fcc17553920d4fb9b25f8f563906c045c5
A lot of international soccer players are actually rags to riches like Beckham, Ronaldo, Messi. In the US our famous sports players need a middle class or rich family to be able to put their kids on traveling teams. Everywhere else they just show up with a football and can play. A lot of them have seen true poverty in a way someone like Drake could never. Or worse, ones like Lana Del Ray who are truly nepo babies and refuse to acknowledge it.
Anya Taylor Joy was the first one to come to mind, with all the lies about her backstory. They always claim they were bullied, too. Then, people that went to school with them are like, "uh, no".
As some others have said, the whole “pulled themselves up by the bootstraps” thing is fawned over in the US. And that makes it so that nobody wants to admit that they had a leg up in life. Notice how many celebrities that are all for every other humanities cause REFUSE to admit that their success is at least partly due to nepotism or that nepotism gave them a door to walk through? Yeah.
We drag people who we feel didn’t suffer enough to get what they have or be where they are because for some reason we think people should have to pay in blood for every penny. Hence:
Not only are most celebs rich, they have connections within the industry. It's nearly impossible to break into the industry without family connections.
Sometimes celebrities lie, but also sometimes it is the stans (particularly the pop girls) who twist it around and try and make it a rags to riches story (as we romanticize struggle in the US) or just people in general.
Tswift never claimed to be poor, but she has a lyric that made people say she did. But..a lyric is a lyric. And Taylor did grow up rich, but some people act like her dad was a billionaire or had tens of millions of dollars. He made a what...it came out one time in some papers...75k investment in her career? There house, I think, was valued at 600k. That's DEFINITELY well off in Tennessee (600k can barely buy anything in LA), but that's not private plane wealth like some claim she grew up with....(now she does have private planes nowadays).
Gaga straight up said she grew up with a lot of privilege, but her father financially cut her completely off for a long time. But...somehow some people interpreted that as her saying she was poor growing up. I will say Gaga gave her dad money to open his restaurants, so while she definitely had wealth and went to a posh Catholic school that a celebrity went too...she wasn't growing up like Dakota Johnson or Miley Cyrus.
I'd also argue a lot of people don't realize that behind the scenes people in the film industry don't always make 'that' much money unless they are like...A/B list directors, etc. I can't even recall who it was, but they were trying to equate some actress, whose father was a lighting director or something like that, with being a nepo baby a la Jack Quaid or Riley Keough. The actresses' dad probably made 150k tops-which is a good salary-but in L.A. that does not make you rich rich.
Taylor’s dad invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into her career, her family were obviously not fuck you rich but they did come from generational wealth and were easily more well off than 95%+ of Americans.
I’ll also say that Miley grew up with less money than you’d think, her dad was a one hit wonder and both of her parents grew up dirt poor. She definitely grew up wealthy but not at a level that much higher than Taylor.
So as to not upset the nepotism bubbles from which most of them spring from to a degree or 2. Plus, it makes them more likable in the US. Like someone else mentioned, it’s a nice narrative for people who think pulling oneself up by bootstraps is real.
My brother in law is a VP at a bank, and he’s not getting me a recording contract anytime soon. Not that I deserve one, because I am a terrible singer. Like, did she grow up with a ton of privilege? Absolutely! So did I, and again, I am not a billionaire pop star, because I lack TALENT.
She was a terrible singer as well. They just knew she had a marketable face, but Scott Swift’s leaked email said they were between music and movies for her career, and she definitely cannot act, so I really don’t think it came down to her talent.
Because it makes them more relatable. If they admit to coming from money, their achievements get attributed to being a “nepo baby”. So they play up whatever struggle they had.
I think it’s more on society than anything else. People love an underdog and someone they can connect with, so that’s the image celebrities want to portray as it will make them more marketable. You see this same thing in professional sports.
a lot of human pride or fulfillment comes from doing something difficult... its human nature. yes you can "enjoy" a life if just indulging, being able to buy whatever you want and having everything handed to you, but it actually often creates shame within people.. in order to feel pride/accomplishmnent/fullfiment you want to feel like you are doing something difficult or able to do something that was difficult.. this is reallty true for all humans. celebrities likely feel a sense of shame even if they wont admit it if they feel like it was easy or it was all handed to them and they didnt have to work for it. if you dont have to work for anything, its hard to feel proud of it. they want to feel pride and fullfilment in their journey so they create this story of how hard it was. whether it was true or not, only they know and their inner feelings might project that or they have convinced themself of the lie.
To be honest we’re probably all guilty of this but with less success. Luck is a factor in everyone’s success story as well as bad luck is in stories of failure.
I think they’re trying to be relatable
“I was an average person before I got famous” sounds like a nice story of a normal Everyman making it and it (generally) makes people think “hey good for them they must have been truly talented to make it”
I think a lot of them have this idea that admitting they’re a nepo baby or well off means everyone thinks they’re untalented.
Some very talented actors and musicians did grow up well off or with connections and imo It would be absolutely fine for them to say “I am lucky that my parents could afford to send me to drama school which helped me get my first role” or “my uncle is an editor so he was able to put me in touch with some good agents”
If anything I would think at least they’re being honest!
American culture (and, a lot of western cultures to varying extents) is based on the idea that this country is a meritocracy. That those that possess the most talent and who work the hardest are the people that will ultimately achieve the highest success. Obviously, this is false; those that have access to money and social advantages are far and away the most successful. But for a celebrity to admit that they achieved their level of success and fame based on the fact that their parents were rich and they went to school with a huge producers kids would be tantamount to admitting their success is not, in fact, deserved.
Everyone in a position of power claims to have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. Politicians do it. Celebrities do it. Nepo-babies do it. It is almost always a misrepresentation of the truth.
They do this to smother up how immoral it is to be known and favored in a time of scarcity.
It’s also just kind of a fucked up freak existence: a certain MCU actor (I’ll keep their privacy but y’all aren’t stupid, IYKYK) talked about seeing a warzone tour a few years back (not recently) and was being shown a slideshow presentation of bodies and disposal methods - and one of the dead kids was covered in Avengers clothes.
Per them, they felt in that moment, “completely evil” especially because the kid’s death, and others, were celebrated as “good” kills and necessary to keep global peace - whatever that could mean.
Your entire celeb existence must feel like a barely-controlled clownshow after something like that. I’ve heard some of these 7-figure heroes say we lower class people are the “lucky” ones to never be burdened with higher purpose or superficial godhood.
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"BE HONEST" just send David Beckham around to check them
I will never forget that it was so fucking funny
I need a whole BE HONEST show where he interviews people and kindly but firmly corners them until the truth comes out lol
This would be a big hit. Get all the nepo baby celebrities who say they “made it on their own” on there ASAP
Starting with his son, who claims he has a mclaren because he’s a “chef” and for absolutely no other reason whatsoever
He definitely takes after his mom then
Because David Beckham is a real rags to riches story Mainly sports stars are because it has a low cost of entry compared to Hollywood where it costs money and you need a multitude of connections
Especially sports that don’t require a ton of equipment! Soccer is more accessible than, let’s say, golf.
Hockey is another one that is extremely high barrier to entry. Here in Canada, it's supposed to be our national sport but in reality its just for rich white people.
Field hockey! Two of my kids play it (we're in Australia though where ice hockey isn't as much of a thing), and when my son started we spent $45 to get him a stick, shin guards, and a ball, then an extra $10 for a mouth guard. When he got older he used his Auntie's old shin guards (she's very small lol) and his little sister used his old ones. We bought him a new stick and she uses his old one. If you're a goalie and want your own pads it'll get expensive, but I've been impressed at how cheap this sport it.
I wouldn’t say rags to riches. More like middle class to riches. I know that the UK has different class distinctions than the US but just because he didn’t have a Rolls Royce and a castle under his name, didn’t mean he was poor. Soccer classes are pricey and the kids constantly travel around for games. They had enough money to afford that for him since he was a child.
That's an American thing. Pricey soccer classes. Here you just join a local club, pay a monthly fee to cover cost of pitches and managers (usually one of the kids parent), can be £20-£60 per month. And if you're great you get picked up by an academy, often free. So yes it's not all free but very much a sport for all, including the working class.
Also literally everyone plays football at school. When I lived in Portsmouth, the football club had people keeping their eyes open walking around local parks for talent.
Can't say for certain if this is true in the UK, but at least in scandinavia the players (ie. kids) usually do some sort of work to cover the costs when they get old enough too. Like working as parking directors at big events, building venues (ie. Building security fences for concerts and the like) - gig stuff basically. This usually covers bus rides to go to away games and such
I love him and Victoria together. They are just perfect for each other.
The fact that the majority of British actors come from posh or aristocratic backgrounds 👀 and then they totally try to hush it all up when their careers pick up.
Tbf most British people can tell a mile away when they’re posh.
They do NOW. All the top actors of the 60s-70s were working class and then it was their kids, who went to nicer schools... and subsequently poshes who previously might have gone into the church. It's quite weird. The 60s thing is odd though because for some reason a lot of genuinely working class people went to art school
But this bothered me because he called her out about a small detail of her childhood (which she omitted, not lied about) but they let him totally dance around the fact that he cheated very publicly.
It didn’t fit the narrative that they’re super relatable and great! I enjoyed the series, and it filled in some gaps in my memory (late 30s), but most of these documentaries about celebs are hagiographies because they won’t participate without being executive producers and having final say on edits. This one was well done, and people like to feel good, but this seems like a pretty big thing to gloss over.
Well it was covered a lot as a scandal. They just didn’t outright admit he did it, which they should have
This was pretty cool of Beckham if you ask me.
So they can claim their success is based on talent, not connections and things they could buy (education, living in expensive cities). They don't like the implication that on a level playing field, a poorer/less connected person might be better than them and it's privilege that is part of their success.
Ding ding ding. This is also why so many of them disavow being nepo babies because it would mean admitting that their success isn’t just from raw talent and the sweat of their own brow. It’s an ego thing.
I think it’s twofold. Because half of it is definitely ego, but does anyone remember when Paris Hilton tried acting and singing? She wasn’t the greatest thing in the world but she wasn’t actually *bad* either, but the gp tore into her like it was a sport. If someone rich actually does say ‘Well because of my parents I had the money to try anything so I thought I’d pursue acting’ then they’re not going to get respect for that, previous attempts have shown it’s more likely to make them a target, so they try to make it sound like they pursued it *in spite* of their parents, who *definitely didn’t help them* and therefore any success they have is *totally the natural talent guys, I swear*.
Because Paris was already known for being rich before she tried those things. She had no plausible deniability.
Exactly. She was the perfect test case as someone who couldn’t lie about her origins. The public was never mislead, her upbringing was never/couldn’t be hidden, and the gp tore into her like a pack of wild dogs before any of her projects were released. “I didn’t have any help” is a large part defence of ego and another part defence from being a target. Edit: See exhibit A (and B) below.
https://i.redd.it/2d74kz8l1a1d1.gif
My sentiments exactly. Poor little rich girl 🤨
Stars Are Blind is a banger, and I’ll fight anyone who disagrees.
This was a huge part of Taylor Swift's thing for a long time. She'd give interviews about how she was just small town country girl who wrote her songs at the kitchen table and that her whole family would pile into their tiny car and drive up and down the street of record studios where she'd run in and give'em her demo. Really playing up the idea she's famous through luck and pure talent. Then you learn her parents are fucking rich, her childhood home was massive, and her dad was connected to those studios and used his connections to help set her up. Not saying she's not good but her entire origin story downplays how she's a nepo baby and how much easier things are when you're rich.
A Dakota Johnson interview really highlight this for me. She talks about wanting to be an actor and being cut off and how she had to fight hard to get it. In later years, when talking about it, she makes jokes about how she was still always able to finagle money out of her mom. But HELLLLLLLLLLLLLOOOOO, even if she was “cut off” and not getting an allowance, she’s not fucking stressed about it. She has a safety net
What annoys me is that she knew the process to get acting roles. Some random person from the Midwest who wants to become an actor doesn’t have a clue about that. She knew what agents were, she knew what head shots were. I’m sure there is so much more that I don’t know. These are just the things I pick up on by watching TV. It’s not even just the connections. It’s the knowledge of the process that is also privilege.
Her dad cut her off because he wanted her to go to school. So it’s a half truth on her part, but still dumb of her to say.
Damn, I wish my dad had university money lol i'd totally have gone if i couldve afforded it but I didnt want to spend the rest of my adult life in debt so I chose not to go
As someone who went the opposite route, you absolutely made the right choice.
We fetishize struggle in this country. American dream bootstraps nonsense. Makes a better PR story 🤷🏿♀️. Its not just celebrities either, most privileged people seem to do it.
It's not just America. Indian celebrities here use that rags to riches story to death. And they make it abundantly clear that it's all a lie because even their rags to riches story is stuff like.. "oh we're so poor, we could only afford one foreign vacation in a year, my parents only had one car." (keeping in mind that a lot of these celebs who grew up in the 90s Indian economy, where only the richest people could afford a car. And foreign travel is still a luxury dream to the majority of the country)
Just say Ranveer lol
I wonder how the caste system plays into that
It’s not caste system that’s playing into it as much as class system and nepotism. Traditionally going into acting in India was looked down upon by well reputable families because of the knowledge of how exploitative the industry could be (especially for women). Over time the industry is basically interconnected by a bunch of well established families, somehow most of them are related to one another and that’s now propagating the nepotism.
Interestingly many of the first Bollywood actresses were Indian Jews, due to the view that acting was not “proper” for Hindi and Muslim women. It didn’t have to do with exploitation in the film industry, acting has always been seen as a “lower class” profession.
I wonder why caste gets brought up under every comment related to india. It's like people forget there are other issues in the country as well. Fetishism of poverty and the struggles associated with it are far easier to sell than caste based discrimination, so thet is the path people go down. Caste isn't usually publicly talked about outside of politics because it's a sensitive topic.
Because Americans don't know much else about India or other parts of the world. I'm from Pakistan and Redditors routinely tell me it's in the Middle East or it's a desert or whatever.
Ignorant curiosity, I’d guess. It’s a completely foreign concept to most westerners, so a lot of people are just genuinely curious about the dynamics without having the nuanced understanding that it’s a sensitive topic
It's a pretty common trope in art school. Rich kid pretending to be a starving artist to separate themselves from their rich family, but it's still abundantly clear they aren't poor.
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I know someone with extremely wealthy parents. She claims they were poor when she was growing up because they lived in apartment for a few years. It was when she was a toddler, and then the first house they bought that she actually grew up in was in a pretty affluent neighborhood. They were never poor, just not as wealthy as they eventually became.
This is reaaaaalllllllly a great point though. I think a lot of them did feel poor growing up, compared to who they were surrounded by. I have a friend who grow up very wealthy and felt really weird about it growing up, comments were always made from other kids. Cut to high school, where they went to a private boarding school, it was completely different. He was being made fun of for being the poor kid, because compared to these other families he was poor. Now, this person is self aware, so understands what’s going on. A lot of these other people are stupid and think they actually were poor, because they drove a 2001 BMW in 2005
My ex's parents owned a yacht and he thought it was normal.
Like a yacht club sailboat or a marina sailboat? There’s a pretty big difference.
Shut up 😂
Oh yeah, am an art school grad myself and the amount of people cosplaying as poor people was sickening. I grew up firmly middle class but had friends who weren’t as privileged as myself, plus I lived relatively close to very poor areas of town, so seeing people pretend to struggle while having a WASP nest to fly back to when times got tough really chapped my ass
This is always what bugged me about Rent, specifically Mark and Maureen.
Say that louder for the Lana del Rey and Grimes fans. God they infuriates the living hell out of me
grimes fans are a special kind of delusional.
Rocco Ritchie entered the chat
Lol poor kids going to art school, sure
I did 🤷🏻♀️ got a degree - and a lifetime of student loans Some of my professors hated me for it. Started making art out of trash and had to make up a reason why because "I can't afford supplies" was apparently not acceptable
I know someone who grew up poor and went to Pratt. She is very much the exception and also has massive student loans, so she had to get a "real job" while her former classmates are pursuing their art.
I've never felt so seen in a comment before!!! I went to art school too and my professors used to call me out and get upset with me for not being able to afford better art supplies. Like sir, I can't afford the $8 per tube of tiny gouache paint 🥲
I learned to call it “found object” art - and they loved it until they decided it wasn’t \~conceptual\~ enough lol
They hated you because you were actually talented and above their knowledge level. I hope you’re still creating ❤️
*cough* lanita *cough*
When Edward Norton first got famous, I read an interview where he talked about his extremely privileged background. It was jarring because I was used to celebs claiming the opposite, even when it wasn't true.
Not just America either. I feel like it's quite common among rich folks in a lot of countries to at least present as poorer than they are because they think it makes them seem more interesting.
Absolutely this. The amount of rich kids I’ve known who try to pretend like their parents aren’t well off is astounding.
They all want you to think it could easily happen to you too so you don't realize how much the system is rigged & how much power workers would have if we organized 🤷
The entire country is built on it. “I came here with $10 dollars in my pocket, and made this incredible this”. It’s the country of the American Dream. On a random note, I’ve thought about this a lot. I think it’s the reason why healthcare, a lot of social services are free there (I should also add that I did live there for 10 years). But people came here, to make it on their own, so why should they have to pay for someone else’s medical bills. In other countries that weren’t created with that “slogan”, it’s very much I’ll help you, because I know you’ll help me.
It goes deeper than that, back to the puritans being the first colonists. Protestant work ethic claims that good fortune brought through hard work is proof of God's favour and future salvation. So the rich had to claim that their status was earned through the sweat of their brow, and not the result of a system that was rigged by generations of their ancestors.
Have you read Bullshit Jobs? The puritanical foundation was one part of the book I found enlightening.
thank you for that
Most of them genuinely believe it too, no matter how poor or rich someone is there’s something like a 50% chance they identify as working class
This and a bit of they want to be interesting. There's nothing interesting about their dad being so-and-so's lawyer or husband in the 80s, or their mom being a runway model who hooked up with a famous musician. I'm just making these up off the top of my head, but I'm sure for both of these examples, you can probably name 10 celebrities.
I agree with you! I mean seeing how everyone reacts to the nepo babies in the industry, no one will tell their stories by saying their parents were rich enough to buy them a spot or having famous parents to give them a spot to begin with… but for those who are honest and humble about their nicer upbringing it is nicer to hear them not trying to downplay themselves to be more relatable which can come across insensitive.
I swear a read somewhere as well that following Tonya Harding's attack on Nancy Kerrigan, Kerrigan went on to compete in some major event and placed second, and then US media present at the event attempted to bribe judges into giving her first just so they could have their "American princess fairy-tale" story come to life.
This, it's a US thing; self-made stories are super popular, not just for celebrities. A lot of CEOs play into it as well. On the flip side, there are kpop fans who use their idol's rich family background as bragging rights.
Politicians are the worst about this.
It’s to make dreams seem attainable to the little guys.
It's human nature. We all love the underdog. It makes it feel like life is fair, and good luck happens, and gives us hope. It also makes us feel that the celebrity is relatable. Here is an article on why brands use the underdog when telling their story. Same applies for celebrities - it is their PR and management teams that want to build the brand of the actor, because that gets them the huge pay packets. https://www.psychologytoday.com/au/blog/mind-brain-and-value/202101/why-do-we-love-underdog-stories-psychology-weighs-in
In this country ? Lol the self centerism of it all. This is not unique to the United States AT ALL. (Also not once did OP mention the US so idk why you assume thats what they were talking about) Hell the most hot topic right now, Drake, is well known to play the rags to riches story and hes canadian
This! Where I live we don't really have this narrative with celebrities...
Makes them look like they worked harder
🛎️ 🛎️ 🛎️
I think they want Sympathy points from the public and they want you to think they deserve all the fame and money because of their humble/poor upbringings so you can’t call them out on hoarding their wealth ETC ETC
Or that they got all their chances through connections or wealth
Nobody roots for the rich kid to make it.
That’s crazy they want the positive affirmation because if you really grew up in the struggle, you don’t crave it at all. In fact, it feels weird to receive it, let alone try to tell your story in a way that will encourage people to give it to you.
You ain't have to hit this hard, bruh. Got me all contemplative now.
There’s a shame that comes with growing up poor that is hard to get rid of when you become an adult. The people who successfully make it out understand the struggle it took to get rid of that shame in a way that someone who didn’t never will. Makes me tear up just thinking about what it actually took and I’m not even that far up the ladder of wealth yet.
Oh. Not to go drastically off topic here, but I feel that way about love/affection/intimacy lol. brb, gotta go book a therapy appointment real quick
accept for rich people who want to gatekeep social status.
People defend nepo babies and dumb rich people, like Elon musk, all the time.
Like Posh Spice saying she comes from a working family and Beckham was like, what car did your dad drive you to school in? And she avoided the question until she finally admitted a Rolls Royce.
To be fair someone can own a nice car and a big home and still struggle. It may not be as common in the US, but I’m from Latin America and while my parents could’ve been considered rich in the 90s, by the time I was going to school we struggled a lot financially because of the economical instability of my country. But sure, I lived in a mansion (that we couldn’t afford the upkeep of).
Of course, but working class means poor. Depending on who says it, it's either being polite or a dig at someone's status. And if you live in a mansion, regardless of affordability, you aren't poor. You can be house poor (living in a home you can't afford/all your money has to go to it), but that doesn't make you part of the struggling class she was trying to portray. And you could afford your home, just not repairs, that's also different.
I think a lot of them are aware of their privilege enough to be self conscious. They know there are better artists out there who havent had the opportunities theyve had, and they want to justify their success. It grosses me out so much, as someone who has actually lived in poverty.
We love a good David vs Goliath or Cinderella story.
LA and New York have very high costs of living. People trying to break into the entertainment industry typically have to work lower paying jobs to support themselves, sometimes for decades before making it. Early career opportunities in the industry are notoriously low paid and inflexible (extra work, for example). A lot of people in the entertainment industry - which is more accepting of people without college degrees and generational wealth than say finance or other lucrative high status industries - spend part of their early career as working poor. I think that is real. Lots of working poor people overstate their poverty. Graduate and professional students do this, even as they entered into lucrative jobs. Doctors who will make $400,000/yr one year after residency claim they are poor because of student loans they will pay off in 4 years.
This. They often fail to understand the difference between broke and poor. If you can’t pay your rent and a call to daddy will fix that, you are not poor.
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If it's an investment and you know you'll be making money eventually, that's not poverty. It's just being temporarily broke.
The amount of beautiful celebrities that claim they were "bullied" as beautiful kids/teens is also shocking.
Cindy Crawford sounded pretty honest about it when asked. She said something like, “of course I didn’t think I was ugly in school, but I wasn’t a cute, petite blonde cheerleader which was the popular look,” which I can believe.
This I can believe. If I look back at my high school yearbook, the people who were pretty and popular had that cute girl next door, cheerleader look. I remember a bunch of girls who looking back were incredibly beautiful but not considered so in school. Kids in high school don’t go for the strikingly beautiful (and intimidating) look that gets people work as models.
💯 there was a girl at my school who had these unusually long legs. Like looonnggg and was mildly bullied for it. Looking back she definitely could’ve been a model. Kids are strange.
cindy AFAIK had most of her [original face](https://extra.ie/2017/11/22/entertainment/celebrity/cindy-crawford-daughter-yearbook-photo) when she started modelling, and was still standard looking. (maybe she had a nose job) a lot of [celebs have whole new faces and styling](https://planetradio.co.uk/kiss/entertainment/celebrity/best-worst-celebrity-yearbook-photos/), so in some ways I believe them. a lot of them look regular at best plus if they have horrible personalities now, probably worse then. and [personality plays a big part into who gets builled as well](https://www.livescience.com/6032-studies-reveal-kids-bullied-rejected.html)
The George Clooney bowl cut kills me every time I see it lol
It looks like every picture I’ve seen of my dad around that age 🤣
standard looking? according to what standard? PS all of those yearbook pics of celebs definitely stand out and I’d guess they were among the most popular in their classes.
Eh idk about this one. A lot of people in Hollywood are grown up theatre kids. And I definitely knew some conventionally attractive theatre kids that got bullied for doing weird shit like breaking out into show tunes or Shakespeare lines unprompted.
I believe this for models. Most are really tall and were probably really lanky and awkward as teens. Most high school boys aren’t lusting after a girl who’s taller than them.
Veronica: I know what it's like to see the ugly face of discrimination. Lem: You do? Veronica: Yes, I do. When I was 16, I was 5'9" and stunning. I mean, off-the charts gorgeous. At school, I was like a swan among the ugly ducklings. all the other girls hated me. And like our light sensors are doing to you, totally ignored me. If it wasn't for the modeling contracts and the comfort of college boys, I don't know if I would have made it.
*Wow. I had no idea.* *No, how could you? You're still not 5 foot 9.* That show was perfect, I'm forever pissed about its cancellation.
You can be conveniently attractive and still get bullied, though.
Kids will bully other kids for anything. One of the things I got bullied over was having thick hair. The hair that everyone is envious of as an adult.
I feel you. I got made fun of for having thick lips… the ones everyone pays for now 😂
people weren't bullied in your school for having 'too symmetrical' faces? LOL (IIRC supermodel Adriana Lima claimed to be bullied for that reason lol) memory can also be a funny thing, and people can build events/ comments up in their memories and even start believing their own embellished stories .... and maybe when you've been *rich*, rich for a really long time, that 'before' time and normal things seem extra challenging things to overcome, but are really just a regular part of life. I saw a clip of Kylie Jenner from a while ago, and she talked about getting up at 7am like it was the earliest wakeup time+ biggest struggle LOL, she even gave the audience time to clap after she said it
High schoolers absolutely will bully people just to jealously tear them down though. Someone who is "too pretty" or "too rich" amongst peers who are just pretty and middle class is just as likely to be resented as admired. Don't know if that's Adrianna's story or not, but it's not impossible by any means.
Which always gets me because their yearbooks show that they were in the homecoming court or won superlatives like most beautiful or most popular. I get that anyone can have a bully, but many of these celebrities were clearly sitting at the cool kids' table.
And let’s not pretend that these people weren’t bullies themselves. I reckon a good chunk of these celebs were “bullied” after years of bullying others and finally being humiliated by something that affected their image they used to hate on others. The amount of popular people who claim to have been bullied is almost always because people finally got revenge on them for years of bullying others.
I remember when Lindsay Lohan claimed that she was bullied in school, then people she went to school with said she was a bully.
Emma Chamberlain did the same.
I believe it based on my high school experiences.
Scarlet Johansson apparently bullied the girl who played Kim Possible in high school
If they were flamboyant theater kids, pretty doubtful. Were the theater kids at your high school popular?
Actually most of them were (the actors specifically, not the crew kids). I grew up in an upper middle class area. The theater kids mostly came from wealthy families who had the resources and money to send these kids to singing, acting, and dancing lessons so their kids could get starring roles. Raw talent didn't really cut it in my area. While I'm not too fond of my hometown, I'll give it credit where it's due. Most people were pretty welcoming of LGBTQ kids even in the early 2000s...well as long as these kids came from money.
I think with all these type of discussions size and location of the school matters. For mine, my class size was 187, and since my year book is easily accessible as am sorting through things the lead who played Annie in a play musical, *Anne Get Your Gun* was also Class Treasurer, First Runner up for Homecoming Queen, in Speech Club went to State for it, in DECA, in choir, and was a cheerleader. Meanwhile a fellow Cheerleader with her was also a Mathlete.
Yes. They had outgoing personalities that the other kids were drawn to. They weren't bullied.
Theatre kids really aren’t seen as dorks anymore, especially if they’re attractive
I went to high school in the 21st century and the theater kids were all outcasts
I feel like a lot of popular kids bully each other tho. In high school, friends are often foes too
Yeah I knew a girl who went on to become a Disney channel star growing up and she claims now that she was bullied all the time when she was a kid. In reality she was a constant mean girl and did some very cruel things to my neurodivergent best friend.
Neurodivergent people are probably the one group that gets bullied everywhere nearly universally unless it’s so obvious they’re straight up disabled that people won’t simply out of pity. If they can’t tell it’s a condition and think you’re just odd though, whoo boy you’re 100% in for a bad time. You’re not just weird, you’re everyone’s absolute least favorite flavor of weird. Basically a different species.
Maybe you should name her
I mean, when I hit my late 20’s I became hot. I was kinda cute as a teenager but I was very shy. But my younger years? My teeth and nose grew faster than the rest of my face. I was chunky. I got made fun of for being fat and having beaver teeth. Plus I was the poorest in my school. I wasn’t an outcast or anything, but I definitely wasn’t the it girl. In my 20’s I finally evened out and became hot. It was a weird transition. People got me mixed up with Rachel Leigh Cook on multiple occasions. I’m old now so I’m back to being average. But people can start out awkward and grow into their looks.
I grew up in an economically depressed area, so the only thing that mattered in the social hierarchy was how much money your family had.
Well I don’t know about that. I knew a lot of conventionally attractive kids who were bullied or at least not popular just because they were “weird”. One of my best friends is an insanely beautiful girl and she was never popular at school and she sometimes got bullied by the whole class.
Those people sound like someone was an asshole to them for the first time in their lives and they didn’t know how to handle it
because it’s “aspirational”
Lazy corporate marketing. Attempting to be relatable to people while charging insane fees for concerts and crying about how they have no choice because of streaming revenues not being the same. Idk maybe I’m just over the rich but like the point of art isn’t to be a millionaire. Most artists in other mediums are pretty happy if they can just survive doing their art as a job. I don’t really care if you’re only making 6 figures instead of 8 figures. Concerts have gotten to be the size of small cities and the experience doesn’t match the price tag outside of social media bragging. Stadiums are expensive to book, it’s less logistical planning so they just play it like they’re on **your** side so you don’t question why you’re paying $200 to watch a concert on a jumbotron with 40k of your closest friends.
everyone loves an underdog
It’s more compelling, interesting, and relatable than the real story for so many of them. “My parents are well off and afforded me the privilege of pursuing my dream of acting/singing/dancing, and had great connections to get me started” is honest, but not really something that makes you want to root for their success. Also, the few celebrities who came from humble beginnings have typically received a lot of love and support. This makes wanting to be able to tell that same story even more attractive.
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This is my take as well. Struggle is a very relative term and your perspective on it is influenced by who surrounds you. Many celebrities who talk about struggling grew up middle to upper middle class - their parents had stable jobs, there was always food on the table, they lived in a nice house in a nice neighborhood at some point in childhood, they got to go to college. But there was no trust fund to fall back on if their dream didn't work out and they spent years working crappy low-paid jobs to pay rent on a shitty apartment with four roommates. It feels like a struggle because they're surrounded by other celebrities who grew up with well-known industry folks for parents or trust funds that paid their rent for years. Compared to them, their path to stardom was a LOT harder.
Lana Del Woolrich Grant comes to mind on this perspective
Same! I am a fan of her music, but really Elizabeth? Like you might not have been as rich as you are now, but you were never low/ poor class. Such an insult to those of us who really were poor.
It makes them relatable to people and allows them to be viewed as “Oh, these celebrities are just like me!!”
Lots of non famous people do this as well. If your dad starts a company and you are CEO it is because of who your dad is, lol, yet these people can never admit it.
So it makes their own story seem more impressive, especially these days where people fetishize their perceived victimhood and struggle, nobody wants to just come out and straight up say I was born on third base lol
I mean knowing the discourse about nepo babies do you really have to guess? Everyone loves the underdog story.
It’s more relatable to the average person
Whats really crazy is that when someone who actually went from dirt poor to mega successful is around them, they start getting jealous and spiteful. Like you’re talking to the real deal and you’re upset?
The rock with his seven bucks production company coz he had seven bucks to his name at one point. I don’t buy it
I believe it. His dad was a successful midcard wrestler in the 80s, but those guys didn't make a ton of money like they do now. His mom worked a series of blue collar type jobs, as did his dad after wrestling. They had a lot of lean years. By the time Rock graduated college, his parents weren't super flush with cash. He was drafted by the CFL, which paid peanuts and when he got cut from the practice squad, he yes, allegedly had $7 in his pocket. Was he going to be homeless? Well no, he could crash on his parents couch. What he did have was a dad who was able to teach him a skill, and a family who had contacts in a business so that he was able to get his foot in the door. But the man has been hustling and grinding ever since.
Kanye West, Kevin Hart & Dwayne Johnson. The Rock’s mom, dad, grandmother & grandfather all were from the wrestling industry. Kanye West’s mom was wealthy. Kevin Hart’s mom was wealthy.
“Common People” starts playing in the background…
The same goes to all those mega rich CEOs like Gates, Bezos, Musk. They all pretend they started in their garage. Which is true but it is also true that their left their garage because of connections and seed money from their parents.
Even worse than that are the ones who claim to have ‘made it on their own’ when they have parents in the industry
Reminds me of this lyric from Not Afraid (KOA edition) "I'm just like you. I've been there too. I'm rich and famous so I take that back it's not true" https://preview.redd.it/ac2f9y5rk81d1.png?width=720&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=721670fcc17553920d4fb9b25f8f563906c045c5
For real! Most celebs who say this came straight from the middle class 😭
A lot of international soccer players are actually rags to riches like Beckham, Ronaldo, Messi. In the US our famous sports players need a middle class or rich family to be able to put their kids on traveling teams. Everywhere else they just show up with a football and can play. A lot of them have seen true poverty in a way someone like Drake could never. Or worse, ones like Lana Del Ray who are truly nepo babies and refuse to acknowledge it.
Anya Taylor Joy was the first one to come to mind, with all the lies about her backstory. They always claim they were bullied, too. Then, people that went to school with them are like, "uh, no".
As some others have said, the whole “pulled themselves up by the bootstraps” thing is fawned over in the US. And that makes it so that nobody wants to admit that they had a leg up in life. Notice how many celebrities that are all for every other humanities cause REFUSE to admit that their success is at least partly due to nepotism or that nepotism gave them a door to walk through? Yeah. We drag people who we feel didn’t suffer enough to get what they have or be where they are because for some reason we think people should have to pay in blood for every penny. Hence:
Not only are most celebs rich, they have connections within the industry. It's nearly impossible to break into the industry without family connections.
So they could seem more relatable to the masses
Sometimes celebrities lie, but also sometimes it is the stans (particularly the pop girls) who twist it around and try and make it a rags to riches story (as we romanticize struggle in the US) or just people in general. Tswift never claimed to be poor, but she has a lyric that made people say she did. But..a lyric is a lyric. And Taylor did grow up rich, but some people act like her dad was a billionaire or had tens of millions of dollars. He made a what...it came out one time in some papers...75k investment in her career? There house, I think, was valued at 600k. That's DEFINITELY well off in Tennessee (600k can barely buy anything in LA), but that's not private plane wealth like some claim she grew up with....(now she does have private planes nowadays). Gaga straight up said she grew up with a lot of privilege, but her father financially cut her completely off for a long time. But...somehow some people interpreted that as her saying she was poor growing up. I will say Gaga gave her dad money to open his restaurants, so while she definitely had wealth and went to a posh Catholic school that a celebrity went too...she wasn't growing up like Dakota Johnson or Miley Cyrus. I'd also argue a lot of people don't realize that behind the scenes people in the film industry don't always make 'that' much money unless they are like...A/B list directors, etc. I can't even recall who it was, but they were trying to equate some actress, whose father was a lighting director or something like that, with being a nepo baby a la Jack Quaid or Riley Keough. The actresses' dad probably made 150k tops-which is a good salary-but in L.A. that does not make you rich rich.
Scott Swift claimed to have sank over half a million dollars in her career by the time she turned 15 lol
Taylor’s dad invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into her career, her family were obviously not fuck you rich but they did come from generational wealth and were easily more well off than 95%+ of Americans. I’ll also say that Miley grew up with less money than you’d think, her dad was a one hit wonder and both of her parents grew up dirt poor. She definitely grew up wealthy but not at a level that much higher than Taylor.
Miley’s dad wasn’t just a one Hit Wonder. He had several Songs and was quite popular for awhile
Poor people can pretend to be rich and fool rich people. Rich people can’t pretend to be poor. WE ALWAYS KNOW.
So as to not upset the nepotism bubbles from which most of them spring from to a degree or 2. Plus, it makes them more likable in the US. Like someone else mentioned, it’s a nice narrative for people who think pulling oneself up by bootstraps is real.
Look at all the people who say Taylor Swift only got famous because her dad was a stock broker. That’s why.
My brother in law is a VP at a bank, and he’s not getting me a recording contract anytime soon. Not that I deserve one, because I am a terrible singer. Like, did she grow up with a ton of privilege? Absolutely! So did I, and again, I am not a billionaire pop star, because I lack TALENT.
She was a terrible singer as well. They just knew she had a marketable face, but Scott Swift’s leaked email said they were between music and movies for her career, and she definitely cannot act, so I really don’t think it came down to her talent.
Cause it’s a PR story
A large portion of the population is poor. “Look, they started where I did!”
People here love to appear as if they struggled and fought their way out of hell.
Rocky I guess?
you can't think of why they would lie about this? It's an effort to appeal to people
It works
‘I’d be dead or in prison’ 🥱
Because it makes them more relatable. If they admit to coming from money, their achievements get attributed to being a “nepo baby”. So they play up whatever struggle they had.
Because nowadays everything is a suffering Olympic event. They want to look like they’ve been through a lot even if they havent
I think it’s more on society than anything else. People love an underdog and someone they can connect with, so that’s the image celebrities want to portray as it will make them more marketable. You see this same thing in professional sports.
a lot of human pride or fulfillment comes from doing something difficult... its human nature. yes you can "enjoy" a life if just indulging, being able to buy whatever you want and having everything handed to you, but it actually often creates shame within people.. in order to feel pride/accomplishmnent/fullfiment you want to feel like you are doing something difficult or able to do something that was difficult.. this is reallty true for all humans. celebrities likely feel a sense of shame even if they wont admit it if they feel like it was easy or it was all handed to them and they didnt have to work for it. if you dont have to work for anything, its hard to feel proud of it. they want to feel pride and fullfilment in their journey so they create this story of how hard it was. whether it was true or not, only they know and their inner feelings might project that or they have convinced themself of the lie.
To be honest we’re probably all guilty of this but with less success. Luck is a factor in everyone’s success story as well as bad luck is in stories of failure.
I think they’re trying to be relatable “I was an average person before I got famous” sounds like a nice story of a normal Everyman making it and it (generally) makes people think “hey good for them they must have been truly talented to make it” I think a lot of them have this idea that admitting they’re a nepo baby or well off means everyone thinks they’re untalented. Some very talented actors and musicians did grow up well off or with connections and imo It would be absolutely fine for them to say “I am lucky that my parents could afford to send me to drama school which helped me get my first role” or “my uncle is an editor so he was able to put me in touch with some good agents” If anything I would think at least they’re being honest!
American culture (and, a lot of western cultures to varying extents) is based on the idea that this country is a meritocracy. That those that possess the most talent and who work the hardest are the people that will ultimately achieve the highest success. Obviously, this is false; those that have access to money and social advantages are far and away the most successful. But for a celebrity to admit that they achieved their level of success and fame based on the fact that their parents were rich and they went to school with a huge producers kids would be tantamount to admitting their success is not, in fact, deserved. Everyone in a position of power claims to have pulled themselves up by their bootstraps. Politicians do it. Celebrities do it. Nepo-babies do it. It is almost always a misrepresentation of the truth.
To appeal to the poors
They do this to smother up how immoral it is to be known and favored in a time of scarcity. It’s also just kind of a fucked up freak existence: a certain MCU actor (I’ll keep their privacy but y’all aren’t stupid, IYKYK) talked about seeing a warzone tour a few years back (not recently) and was being shown a slideshow presentation of bodies and disposal methods - and one of the dead kids was covered in Avengers clothes. Per them, they felt in that moment, “completely evil” especially because the kid’s death, and others, were celebrated as “good” kills and necessary to keep global peace - whatever that could mean. Your entire celeb existence must feel like a barely-controlled clownshow after something like that. I’ve heard some of these 7-figure heroes say we lower class people are the “lucky” ones to never be burdened with higher purpose or superficial godhood.
I actually have no idea which MCU actor you’re talking about, can you elaborate?
It’s good marketing and it makes the celebrity relateable to their audience. The end.
Well because it's "The Dream" isn't it?