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Being born into a wealthy family comes with innumerable perks, like a robust safety net, a massive, elite professional network, and an effortlessly glamorous lifestyle. But nepotism babies aren’t a new phenomenon: they’ve been around for longer than Hollywood itself. The earliest moving images captured by the Lumiere Brothers featured their own kids, the first literal nepo babies. And the child actors of the silent film era were often related to industry insiders – take “The Solax Kid” Magda Foy, who was the daughter of two stock actors at the Solax studio. Even some modern day nepo babies can trace their roots back to early Hollywood: Drew Barrymore is the grandchild of silent film star John Barrymore, and Zoe Kazan is the granddaughter of Elia Kazan, a legendary director from the Classical Hollywood era. So the nepo babies of today are part of a long tradition of successful artists lifting up their relatives to create Hollywood dynasties. People like Maude Apatow, Sam Levinson, Billie Lourd, Kate Hudson, Jake and Maggie Gyllenhaal – these stars are all genuinely talented, but it’s impossible to separate their success from their family.

Perhaps one of the biggest benefits of being a nepo baby is the informal education these kids get from being raised by parents who are at the absolute top of their field. Maude Apatow grew up on film sets and cut her teeth as an actress in Hollywood movies directed by her dad – that’s a kind of learning environment most kids can only dream about. Euphoria creator Sam Levinson’s knowledge of cinematography and storytelling is no doubt informed by the fact that his father is the Academy-Award winning director of Rain Man, Barry Levinson. Most film students have to pay an arm and a leg for top-notch training in the craft and even when they do, if they’re not Sofia Coppola, they’d never get access to the knowledge and insights of a Francis Ford Coppola. Jennifer Lopez’s child is a naturally gifted singer, and it’s great that they get to share their love of music with their mom – but for most kids, that means singing together at a talent show, and for Emme Muniz, that means singing on stage at the Super Bowl. Zoe Kazan didn’t just benefit from the Kazan name; she learned about the craft of acting from her screenwriter parents.

So many opportunities in life are about being at the right place at the right time – so it can be frustrating to see nepotism babies who are born in the right place and constantly provided with the right times. Especially when they refuse to admit they were put on a path to success by their families. Some nepo babies are aware of and acknowledge their leg up, along with the responsibilities that brings, but others try to sell a misleading image that hustling and working hard alone got them where they are today. This amplifies that feeling of being let down when a fan discovers their role model has nepo baby origins – when someone has been presenting an image of themselves climbing up a pure meritocracy, it can change your whole view of them to discover they were actually born at the top.

People also feel betrayed by nepo babies if they don’t consider those people talented or hardworking enough to deserve their level of success.It can also seem like nepo babies get endless chances to try and fail before they find their groove – another thing that’s great for them but exceedingly rare for everyone else. The nepo baby may feel they can’t take risks and make mistakes without being subject to hyperintense criticism. In fact, some genuinely talented nepo babies have changed their names to distance themselves from their famous relative and avoid the constant comparisons.

The deeper reason critics of the nepo baby feel betrayed is because nepotism shatters the illusion of the American Dream – America is supposed to be the land of opportunity, where anyone can be anything if they work hard enough. Nepo babies are proof that isn’t true. But perhaps it was pretty naive that we ever expected it to be true in the first place. Even when they’re not Hollywood nepo babies, lots of celebrated talents in our culture today came from social and economic privilege. Taylor Swift’s father was a wealthy financial adviser at Merrill Lynch and he invested $300,000 in the label that Taylor was signed to at the start of her career – that’s an investment that is impossible for most families. Ariana Grande and Lady Gaga came from similarly affluent backgrounds – their families didn’t have a direct tie to the music industry, but Gaga’s family sent her to a famous private school known for its well-connected alumni, and Ariana’s parents could afford to let her live in Los Angeles to pursue her dreams at the age of 14.
Hollywood dynasties may be a particularly visible instance of inequity, but they’re far from the only reason the entertainment industries aren’t meritocracies. The American Dream has never been real – success in America has always been tangled up in race, gender, and generational wealth. So if nepo babies are the latest example shattering an out-dated illusion about equality in America, maybe that means it’s time to update our American Dream – to fixate less on taking down a few high-profile individuals, and focus more on evaluating the broader system around them. It should matter less if a few particular nepo babies deserve their success – and matter more what they do with it.