Lily Allen, A Nepo Baby, Says Nepo Babies Are Being ‘Scapegoated’ And ‘Have Feelings’

Lily Allen is best known for her audacious music and unruly personality. Her hit is literally titled “F*ck You” and the lyrics are even crasser. However, people often forget she is also the daughter of actor Keith Allen and movie producer Alison Owen. She doesn’t like being called a nepotism baby (or, for short, a “nepo baby”), though, and she shared her thoughts Tuesday on Twitter about how nepo babies are “scapegoated.”

“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.” She later quote-tweeted herself to add, “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.”

Of course, this sparked a lot of conversation about privilege and the industry at large. Why isn’t nepotism in the arts as important as in other realms of work? Allen went all-in with a lengthy Twitter thread that generally ended up making the situation worse. Read it below:

“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.”