CULTURE
Big Shoes to Fill
By: Lianna Gourmos Edited by: Mams Jagha
Children of celebrities, or “nepotism-babies,” are constantly shunned for having life handed to them, yet nobody seems to acknowledge the pressure they face in their personal and professional lives. Rising stars such as Lily-Rose Depp and young dreamers like Valentina Lima-Jaric are constantly compared to their talented, iconic parents, and struggle to maintain individual identities in their industries. While “nepo-babies” have a foot in the door because of their parents, it may actually be harder for them to make a mark than people believe.
“Nepo babies start off with an advantage–their parents’ connections–although many of them later claim their parentage is a burden when it comes to carving out their own names,” says Scottie Andrew for CNN Entertainment. One of Generation Z’s most idolized “nepo-babies” is Lily-Rose Depp, an actress and model—who also happens to be the daughter of Hollywood star Johnny Depp and French model-actress-singer Vanessa Paradis. Lily-Rose Depp has a number of successful projects under her belt, including Tusk (2014), The King (2019), and, most recently, the hit gothic horror Nosferatu (2025). Depp undoubtedly knows how to deliver a striking performance, with fans calling for her to be nominated for an Oscar for her lead role as Ellen in Nosferatu.
Despite Depp’s clear talent, her acting skills are constantly analyzed in comparison to her father’s. As she is judged under a microscope for every role she undertakes, Depp’s identity seems to be tied to her father’s impressive acting career. Before Depp could build a foundation for her own success, she was solely known as “Johnny Depp’s daughter.” In 2022, content creator AJ Krakovsy (@mizft on TikTok) posted a viral video discussing Depp’s nepotism privileges, especially in relation to her ambassadorship for Chanel fashion house, as her mother was once the face of the brand. One comment on the video reads “If her mother wasn’t Vanessa and her father wasn’t Johnny, she would’ve never walked for Chanel…” Today, with Depp’s name buzzing in the media more than ever as she continues to thrive in the world of stardom, it is difficult to determine if the media would still be attacking her acting and modeling skills if she had built her career from nothing rather than off her parents’ reputations.
While Lily-Rose Depp faces backlash in Hollywood’s spotlight, other nepo-babies are judged at a surface level before they have even established a career. Victoria’s Secret supermodel Adriana Lima is well known for her unique appearance and incredibly successful modeling career. Her 15-year-old daughter Valentina Lima-Jaric, however, has received hate from media trolls for expressing her desire to follow in her mother’s modeling footsteps. “[Valentina] is pretty, but what makes Adriana unique is her eyes—and [Valentina] doesn’t have that,” one user commented on a viral TikTok comparing Valentina Lima’s appearance to her mother’s. “Valentina Lima isn’t even symmetrical,” a comment on another TikTok about the nepo-baby’s potential modeling career read. Having a mother who is recognized worldwide for her beauty likely puts an enormous amount of pressure on Lima-Jaric to live up to society’s beauty standards. The Internet ridiculing young Lima-Jaric for what they deem as false hopes of a modeling career threatens her self-esteem, especially given she is still a teenager. In addition to comments about her appearance, there have been plenty of remarks regarding Lima-Jaric’s nepo-baby status, as there is no doubt that her mother has the connection and reputation to give Lima-Jaric a headstart into her modeling career. “[Parents] want to do all they can to help their child be happy and succeed,” says Dennie Jaffe for Forbes magazine. “The fact is that successful parents do offer their offspring advantages, and it is hard to see this as immoral or even bad for the community in general.”
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to celebrity parents giving their nepo-babies a career advantage. “According to psychologists, feeling the weight of parental influence is a common experience for the kids of all sorts of people: the wealthy, the notable, the successful and even those with larger-than-life temperaments,” says Ali Francis for BBC. Francis discusses how children who live in their parents’ shadows are at high risk of mental illness, and tend to have lower self-esteem as they navigate their future. “For instance, singer Willow Smith, the daughter of entertainers Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, has described growing up with famous parents as ‘absolutely, excruciatingly terrible,’” Francis says. “But beyond those in the bright lights, there’s a whole world of children…whose non-famous parents also cast large shadows over their lives.” Outside the world of nepotism, award-winning journalist and author Jennifer Breheny Wallace told the Harvard Gazette that academic pressure on today’s children has skyrocketed due to growing income inequalities and job market competitiveness. “This ‘never enough’ feeling is felt everywhere,” Wallace says. In a survey across the United States, Wallace found that seventy-five percent of parents somewhat or strongly agreed that they felt responsible for their children’s achievement and success. It is natural for parents to want the best for their children, yet especially amongst celebrities who worked hard for their status, this concern may come off as more pressure on a child than intended.
The pressure to live up to one’s parents’ success is prevalent amongst nepo-babies and regular people alike. The media finds entertainment in criticizing nepo-babies and doubting their abilities, failing to recognize that their targets are real people with real dreams, regardless of whether their goals align with their parents’ careers. No matter what the media thinks or says, nepo-babies like Lily-Rose Depp have persisted in working hard at what they love—and that is what makes them a candidate for true success.
