Child Stars Who Were Born Filthy Rich

Plenty of celebrities have rags-to-riches stories, but when it comes to becoming rich and famous, not all of our favorite stars have struggled with the "rich" part of that equation. Hollywood has quite the group of "legacy" child stars that were born filthy rich or to famous parents who gave them a leg up when it came time to read a script or go after that business deal. Let's be real, do you think Shiloh Jolie-Pitt, North West, or Blue Ivy are going to struggle with college loan debt? We'll have to wait and see, but if history repeats itself, these celebrity kids will get a fastpass to easy street.

The real question is: Does growing up with a nice bank account guarantee professional and personal success, or do child stars struggle just like everyone else to earn fame based on their own merits? We'll let you decide as we take a closer look at some stars who found success at a young age in movies, TV, music, or modeling, but may have had a little help from that proverbial silver spoon.

Rumer Willis attained instant celebrity status when she was born to one of Hollywood's former power couples — actor Bruce Willis and actress Demi Moore. According to the Inquisitr, Rumer debuted in the 1995 film Now and Then when she was just a kid, and went on to land roles with her parents in 1996's Striptease (where she plays Demi's on-screen daughter); 2000's The Whole Nine Yards (snagging an uncredited part with her pops); 2005's Hostage (where she plays Bruce's on-screen child); and 2018's Airstrike (though Bruce and Rumer reportedly didn't even know they'd both auditioned for that flick.) 

Though Rumer has pursued a career in the spotlight, she told People magazine that her parents never pushed her to follow in their footsteps. "I have been very, very blessed with not having stage parents," she said. In fact, she certainly didn't get every role she wanted. The musician and Dancing with the Stars Season 20 winner competed for the role of Serena Van Der Woodsen on the CW's hit show Gossip Girl but told People she bombed. "I felt like I did an awful audition back then. I was so young, and it was, like, one of the first things I'd ever auditioned for," Rumer said. Blake Lively landed the part instead. 

While "xoxo" Gossip Girl didn't work out for Rumer, she did find fame starring in the hit Fox show Empire and headlining as Roxie Hart in Chicago on Broadway.  

It's no secret the youngest Kardashian-Jenner kids, Kendall and Kylie, grew up financially comfortable. The famous daughters of Olympian Caitlyn Jenner and reality matriarch Kris Jenner were catapulted into fame with the success of the family's reality show, Keeping up with the Kardashians. The girls grew up in front of television cameras and have both found success in their own lanes. Adidas Ambassador and model Kendall actually predicted her own future fame. Reading a letter she wrote to herself as a kid in a clip from The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Kendall said, "My goal in life is to become a big time model." And that she did. 

But big sister Kim Kardashian told Vogue she thinks being a member of the Kardashian family actually "worked against" Kendall initially. "Coming from a reality show, people look down on that — a lot of people in the fashion industry don't respect that world," Kim said. Kendall revealed that she had her own qualms about transitioning from reality television into modeling. "...when I first started this, I thought: This is going to be so embarrassing. No one is going to accept me, and it's going to be a complete failure," she told the fashion mag. Luckily for Kendall, designer Marc Jacobs disagreed, casting her in his Fall 2014 fashion show and "thereby giving the rest of the fashion world permission to think of her as cool," according to Vogue. 

The kids of actor and music star Will Smith and actress Jada Pinkett Smith are no stranger to success. Both have followed in their parents' footsteps pursuing careers in the spotlight. Willow has dabbled in singing and starred in films such as Kit Kittredge: An American Girl and I am Legend (playing her dad's on-screen daughter). She also co-hosts the Facebook series Red Table Talk alongside her mom and grandmother. Jaden Smith starred in Pursuit of Happiness (playing — you guessed it — his dad's on-screen kid) and pursues modeling, singing, and songwriting. Both siblings have also been counted among Time magazine's most influential teens. 

Though these two currently reside squarely in the spotlight, Jaden says he has plans to ghost the public. "You will no longer know where I am, who I spend my time with, the clothes that I wear, if I have kids, if I don't have kids, you will not know," he told Time. "By the time I turn 30, I will be completely gone, and it will be a 100 percent mystery of where I am and what I'm doing." 

Fifty Shades of Grey actress Dakota Johnson didn't exactly grow up poor. That's right, the real-life Anastasia Steele had no need for a real-life Christian Gray. Dakota is third-generation Hollywood royalty. She's the daughter of Hollywood stars Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson, and the granddaughter of Tippi Hedren — who was Alfred Hitchcock's muse and the star of his thriller The Birds. "I just assumed that what I would be doing is making films, because I grew up around people making films, making art, making music," Dakota told Vogue. She added, "Being on a film set is the most comforting thing in the world to me. Seeing a catering truck feels like home."

Dakota's pedigree probably played a role in her being named Miss Golden Globe in 2006 and, oh yah, her cinematic debut occurred when she was just a kid acting alongside her mom in 1998's Crazy in Alabama. But even with her Hollywood background, snagging that huge role in the Fifty Shades franchise was a game-changer for Dakota. "They said, 'You got the offer!' and I couldn't speak," she told Entertainment Weekly. "I was just so relieved. I was crying and crying. Water was literally squirting out of my eyes because I had been so stressed out..."

Chanel, Balmain, Versace ... sisters Gigi and Bella Hadid have racked up a long list of high fashion and beauty campaigns between them — and their fame began to skyrocket when they were just teens. While the two grew up filthy rich, they say their parents had to work from the bottom up for everything they have — and that's not lost on these superstar siblings. In an interview with Vogue, Gigi said their mom, Yolanda Hadid — who once starred on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills — "was a farm girl from Holland who started modelling and sending money back from New York." Bella told Harper's Bazaar Arabia that their dad, real estate tycoon Mohamed Hadid, came to the United States as a "refugee" from Palestine. "They built what we were given in our childhood from nothing, so we work hard and be kind to honour our parents," Gigi told Vogue. "I hope that others can see that we're good people and can't just judge because [we] come from privilege.

When Gigi was dismissed by some modeling heavyweights in 2016 as being nothing more than a social media star and one of the "b*tches of the moment," Bella came to her defense. "You just have to let your success speak for itself ... because at the end of the day, we're making our money," she told Glamour magazine.  "If you're a powerful woman and you're confident in yourself, you want other people to succeed."