As fresh accusations concerning Jay-Z and the alleged sexual assault of a thirteen year old girl hit the headlines yesterday, his daughter found herself stepping out for her new movie Mufasa amid a media frenzy. Instead of being a celebration of her film debut, the event, instead, became a photo op for the Knowles-Carter family to show their unity in the face of harrowing allegations. As a nepo baby with experience on stage, Blue Ivy is hardly a stranger to the limelight, but the weight of these claims would be a heavy burden for anyone to bear - let alone a child. In times like these, as we have North West appearing on magazine covers, Chicago West in her father’s music video, and Penelope Disick getting a shout-out in Aubrey Plaza’s newest movie, it seems like we are surrounded by the pint-sized pre-teens of the mega-rich and famous. But, should we, as a society, be shining the spotlight on children so young? And what are the long-term ramifications for doing so?
Nepo babies, as we have come to realise, are omnipresent. They are in every movie, top 50 chart, magazine, and probably even - in your office. It makes sense - if there’s a family business, it’s tempting to join. It’s just that their family business isn’t flogging concrete or selling translation services, it’s in the razzle dazzle of the silver screen. They aren’t a new thing - Charlie Chaplin, Charles Darwin, and Oscar Wilde were all the offspring of parents who first succeeded in the industries that they later flourished in. I’m sure that in the times of cavemen, it wouldn’t have been a surprising sight to find the lead hunter dragging around his scrawny, lazy, teenager, trying to teach him the tricks of the trade while the rest of the group rolled their eyes and made comical little cavemen drawings about him behind his back. Bosses the world over have been sneaking their children into upper management positions they have no right being in, cramming in the often inept and ill-equipped into every senior nook and cranny. And don’t even get me started on the monarchy.
