Lily Allen Speaks Out On Behalf Of Nepo Babies

Nepotism isn’t necessarily a new concept, but it has always been one of those things that people who aren’t nepo babies give much thought to because we’re too busy working hard. And not that we needed any further explanation, we’re now getting an unauthorized stamp of approval from Lily Allen, who is an out and proud nepo baby, and she doesn’t care how you take it. In fact, Lily states that the nepo babies have it harder because of their broken family dynamic. And somewhere in her kitchen, straining minced organic pheasant into a holiday pate’ Gwyneth Paltrow is beaming with pride at Lily’s response.

Variety reports Lily took to Twitter after New York Magazine declared 2022 the Year of The Nepo Baby:

Nepo babies are not only abundant — they’re thriving. How could two little words cause so much conflict? Writes @kn8 in our (over)analysis of the phenomenon: "We love them, we hate them, we disrespect them, we’re obsessed with them." https://t.co/WA22qhdS29 pic.twitter.com/nmWXlrIMNS

— New York Magazine (@NYMag) December 19, 2022

In a sacrifice as tribute on the topic, Lily wanted to share a few thoughts of her own. Lily’s parents, actor Keith Allen and director Alison Owen, are famous and because of that, Lily and her brother Alfie Allen have enjoyed having the kind of access most people would have to sell their souls to receive. And Lily knows this, but she also realizes that nepo babies aren’t just running rampant in Hollywood. And those are the ones people should be more concerned with.

“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,” Allen tweeted. “BUT that’s none of my business.”

In response to her own tweet she added: “And before you come at me for being a nepo baby myself, I will be the first to tell you that I literally deserve nothing.”

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.

— Lily A (@lilyallen) December 19, 2022

Married life must be boring Lily to tears if she thinks she’s the authority on this situation. But Lily continued by admitting the price she and all the other silver spoon sires of Hollywood contend with is a broken family structure.

Allen…went on to imply that life isn’t always perfect for the offspring of entertainment industry figures given the industry is “not parent friendly.” “In childhood we crave stability and love, nurturing,” she tweeted. “We don’t care about money or proximity to power yet. Many of the nepo babies are starved of these basic things in childhood as their parents are probably narcissistic.”

“[A]nd entertainment business is not parent friendly eg. Touring/ months away shooting. It can be hard to see one’s own privilege when you’re still processing childhood trauma, and a lot of these kids haven’t figured that out yet.”

After Lily got some backlash for defending showbiz nepo babies, she got back on Twitter to try to clarify things. Lily is aware of her privilege but is a little sick of nepo babies getting shit and wants us to know that they have feelings too.

“Look, I seem to have riled people up with my comments about nepo babies. I am nearly 40 years of age and am more than happy, in fact I think it’s important to disclose what a privileged upbringing I’ve had and how that has created so many opportunities for me.

I mention my age because I haven’t always been able to have that conversation, in my twenties I felt very defensive about it, I felt like I worked extremely hard and that I deserved the success that I had, that people connected to my songs and that the songs came from me, I also had quite a fraught relationship with some of my family members so it felt difficult for me to attribute my successes to them, at the time.

But we all know it’s more complicated than that. It is quite clear that there is a severe lack of representation in the industry where class and race are concerned. Everyone loses as a result. I do feel that nepo babies are being somewhat scapegoated here though, there is a wider, societal conversation to be had about wealth inequality, about lack of programs and funding, and I guess that was the point I was trying to make, maybe badly.

I promise you I’m not rooting for an industry full of people that had childhoods that looked like mine.I just really think that we can’t get to a real solution without identifying the real problem, as fun as it is to laugh at the kids of famous people. Nepo babies have feelings.”

Okay, well, I’m not sure anybody asked for it, but thank you, Lily, for reminding us to THINK OF THE NEPO BABIES with your Ted Talk.

Pic: INSTARImages