A list of 'nepo babies' in Hollywood is going viral. And it has everyone talking.

This week, everyone is talking about nepo babies thanks to a now-viral article from Vulture.

They decided to publish a list of well-known figures in Hollywood who have very famous parents and let's just say the list was *huge*. 

And it spoke to the fact that so many of them have been reduced to two polarising words: 'nepo baby'. 

We love them, we hate them, we disrespect them, we’re obsessed with them. On the latest @nymag cover, @kn8’s extremely-overly-analyzed story on Hollywood’s nepo-baby boom: https://t.co/DV1Tx4k9Ks pic.twitter.com/bO4pPYDDAt

— Vulture (@vulture) December 19, 2022

Recently, Lily-Rose Depp – an actor, model and the daughter of Johnny Depp – did an interview with Elle Magazine about her status as a 'nepo baby'. And it's something she is determined not to be associated with.

"It's weird to me to reduce somebody to the idea that they're only there because it's a generational thing," she said in the profile.

First, some quick background on the term 'nepo baby'. It's shorthand for a nepotism baby – speaking to the privilege of being the offspring of the wealthy, rich and famous elite. It's a term that has popped up in the mainstream recently and has been used specifically to refer to kids of celebrities – think Brooklyn Beckham, Kendall Jenner, Jaden and Willow Smith, Dakota Johnson, Kate Hudson, Nicola Peltz Beckham and Hailey Bieber.

Some corners of the internet suggest many of these figures have had their successes handed to them and the hard yards taken away thanks to their famous parents.

Reflecting on this argument, Lily-Rose Depp said: "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. The internet cares a lot more about who your family is than the people who are casting you in things. Maybe you get your foot in the door, but you still just have your foot in the door. There's a lot of work that comes after that."

Image: Elle/Instagram.

When Depp's comments came to the forefront, there was one figure in particular who provided a critique of sorts – not directly towards Depp, but more widely to the bigger group of nepo babies that permeate Hollywood.

Italian model Vittoria Ceretti, 24, wrote on her Instagram about the impact of nepo babies in the modelling industry. For Ceretti, she didn't grow up with a famous parent or someone whose mother had a staple role on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Instead, she came from humble beginnings and slogged her way to the top.

"I get the whole 'I'm here and I work hard for it,' but I would really love to see if you would have lasted through the first five years of my career. Not only being rejected, because I know you have an experience with it and you can tell me your sad little story about it (even if at the end of the day you can still always go cry on your dad's couch in your villa in Malibu)," she wrote on her Instagram stories.

For Ceretti when she was in the trenches of casting calls, she couldn't afford a flight back to see her family. So she would go for even more castings, waiting hours and hours in a line, only to see a nepo baby walk past and secure the job on the spot.

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"You have no f**king idea how much you have to fight to make people respect you. It takes years. You just get it by free day one. I know it's not your fault, but please, appreciate and know the place you came from."

And this is fundamentally what the world asks of nepo babies. To give those less fortunate than them the decency to graciously acknowledge that they come from a position of power, and that this position provides them more chance for opportunity.

Think of it as a running race of sorts – the nepo babies often getting a head start in the race and the rest of society is running behind, trying somehow to catch up.

As Mamamia's Head of Entertainment and podcast co-host said on The Spill: "Just acknowledge the privilege. We're having the same sort of celebrities, people from the same sort of background - we're not really having those interesting people break through as much. The industry needs to be more inclusive, more vibrant and that's not going to happen if we're only seeing people become models and actors if they all grew up together in one suburb in Malibu."

Depp certainly isn't the only star to try and push away from the nepo baby title. But then there are other celebrities who do the complete opposite. One example in action is The Simple Life with Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie. 

It's a show that documents two socialites doing an honest day's work in middle America – sometimes reflecting on the bigger picture but mostly depicting Hilton and Richie complaining about 'normal life' along the way. But there's an underlying message that permeates the entire show: That these nepo babies – and perhaps those cut from the same cloth – are beneath the grind of the working class.

Now of course, Hilton and Richie have gone on to do incredible things in their careers, build brands and multiple businesses – and that should be congratulated. But it should also be acknowledged that they did it all on the back of their parent's wealth, and a massive class division in America. The class system that time and time again proves how status and privilege can dictate opportunity.

Watch Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie on The Simple Life. Post continues below.

Just last month, Ronan Keating's daughter Missy was in the news after it was revealed that she is now working at a local cafe in Sydney's eastern suburbs after relocating to Australia to build a career for herself in acting and modelling.

One thing for certain is that Missy doesn't need that cafe salary for financial survival. Her father is worth a significant amount of money, and that wealth and privilege no doubt extends to his family as well. 

But in a day and age when nepo babies keep trying to start new hobbies and suggest that's their major source of income (I'm looking at you chef/photographer Brooklyn Beckham), it's refreshing to see that hospitality work isn't 'beneath' a celebrity's offspring. 

As Keating explained on the Kyle and Jackie O Show: "We keep it real in the Keating household. People don't go straight into stardom, they've got to work and got to graft.

"We're so proud of her. She's gone off her own back for a year in Australia and she's working hard. She's straight in there, and she wants to earn a few quid and find her feet. We back her big time."

As conversations on nepotism continue to push their way into the mainstream, the pressure on Hollywood's generational elite to acknowledge their privilege will remain the same. Whether or not they actually do so, we'll have to wait and see.

Feature Image: Vulture.

This article was originally published on November 24 2022, and was updated on December 20, 2022 with new information.