Sure, moaning about ‘nepo babies’ is fun – but we’re missing the bigger problem | Rebecca Shaw
So much of the media we consume comes from people who have no idea what it’s like to be working class. We’re missing out
If you’ve been on Twitter lately (and huge congrats if you haven’t), you would have seen a lot of discussion about “nepo babies”. No, a nepo baby is not the strange cousin of a Cabbage Patch Doll nor a cool slang name for “nephews”. Rather it’s a term used to describe the children of celebrities who follow in their famous parents’ footsteps. Classic nepotism, you’ve heard of it.
The nepo baby spectrum also covers those who get a leg-up from family industry connections, or the children of the very rich, all of whom have doors opened for them from the time they arrive through their very first door (the vagina). There have always been nepo babies and there will always be nepo babies but that doesn’t mean it’s not frustrating. For example, while watching the new season of Amy Schumer’s sketch show last week, I noticed that one of the writers is Jerry Seinfeld’s 21-year-old daughter. As a sketch writer myself, I found this a bit annoying! But all the focus on nepo babies and famous people is obfuscating a more important and insidious problem.
