Lourdes Leon says she was raised to be 'smarter' than a nepotism baby
Lourdes Leon may be Madonna’s daughter, but don’t call her a nepo baby.
Leon, 26, who goes by Lola, opened up about forging her own path despite the fact that some people might consider her a “nepotism baby” — slang for the child of a celebrity who succeeds thanks to their parent’s fame.
“I want to feel like I deserve things and not just like I’ve been given things,” Leon said in a new interview with The Cut. “And, yes, there’s undeniable privilege that I’d be stupid to not realize. Nepotism babies are pretty awful usually, and my mom and my father raised me to be so much smarter than that.”
Leon, who recently released her first EP, “Go,” is Madonna’s oldest daughter. Her father is actor and celebrity personal trainer Carlos Leon.
Leon said that thanks to her upbringing, she has set the bar high for her own creativity.
“I have such a high standard for visuals, audio, character, humor, style — everything — because that’s what I’ve been exposed to my whole life,” she said.
However, Leon tries not to compare herself to anyone.
“People that are doing well are not worried about other people,” she said.
While Leon acknowledged her privileged upbringing, she emphasized that she is financially independent, noting that she lives in a shared rental apartment with a friend in New York.
She also told The Cut that she studied dance at SUNY Purchase, a public liberal arts college in Purchase, New York, “in part because it was ‘way less expensive’ than other schools.”
Leon has opened up in the past about how her mom raised her to be self-sufficient.
“We don’t get any handouts in my family. Obviously, I grew up with extreme privilege. There’s no denying that,” she told Interview magazine last year. “But I think my mom saw all these other kids of famous people, and she was like, ‘My kids are not going to be like this.’”
She also shared some words of wisdom Madonna offered about fame and the true meaning of success.
“She said something to me recently that has really stuck with me. I’ve been so concerned with making a decent living, and wanting to live more luxuriously than I was when I first graduated and wasn’t earning a lot of money,” Leon said.
“She was like, ‘Remember, this s--- is not real. It’s not about the money or your face or how hot you look. It’s about what you’re bringing into the world and what you’re going to leave behind,’” she continued. “That always shakes me awake when I get too caught up in everything.”
This article was originally published on TODAY.com
