The term nepo baby isn’t a slur, and nepo babies need to stop treating it like one.
One certified nepo baby who seems to understand this is Hailey Bieber, daughter of Stephen Baldwin and wife of Justin Bieber, who recently wore her privilege with pride. On January 6, the model was recently photographed in Los Angeles wearing a white baby tee with the controversial phrase screen-printed on the chest.
She paired the crop top with a pair of straight-leg jeans, edgy black oxford shoes, and a black shoulder bag, proving the most fashion-forward way to fend off nepotism accusations is to simply acknowledge them.
Even since New York Magazine declared 2022 the Year of the Nepo Baby, the discourse surrounding Hollywood legacies had become inescapable, with everyone from Jamie Lee Curtis to Tom Hanks playing defense. “People are going to have preconceived ideas about you or how you got there, and I can definitely say that nothing is going to get you the part except for being right for the part,” Lily Rose-Depp (daughter of Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis) claimed in November. “It’s weird to me to reduce somebody to the idea that they’re only there because it’s a generational thing.”
Hailey Bieber’s own cousin Ireland Baldwin (daughter of Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger) shared an opposite perspective on TikTok, admitting she was treated “so differently than other models” when she was starting out.
Meanwhile, nepo baby Allison Williams (daughter of former NBC anchor Brian Williams) said it best in a recent interview with “All that people are looking for is an acknowledgment that it’s not a level playing field. It’s just unfair,” Williams said. “Period, end of the story, and no one’s really working that hard to make it fair. To not acknowledge that me getting started as an actress versus someone with zero connections isn’t the same—it’s ludicrous.”
True! But at least the merch is cute.
