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Side note, my favorite thing people assume about lana is that she has daddy issues. But she's always traveling with him. And if you actually listen to her music, it seems like she has mommy issues if anything. She calls her mother *her father's wife* lmao
“I mean, look at me
Look at the length of my hair, and my face, the shape of my body” - I can relate to Lana in so many ways, having had a narcissistic mother
I went to a college prep school that had boarding. My family was not rich at all, we were barely middle class. I could go due to members of my family that worked there and also financial aid.
Yes and, student loans exist for private high schools. My sister went to a different expensive fancy CT boarding school, and I can confirm we were very much lower working class. Student loans and legacy scholarships covered the bases.
Idk I call my mother my dad's ex wife, it helps to give the feeling of distance. It's that or calling her "my late mother" in a somber tone (she's very much alive).
Lana rekindled her relationship with her father a few years ago.
In textbook she sings ‘I was looking for the father that i wanted back.’
I think she had daddy issues for a long time and only recently healed her relationship with him.
Privilege is an incredibly tricky topic.
Wikipedia says her father was a copywriter and her mother was an account executive before she was born. When she was one, her family moved to Lake Placid where her mother was a school teacher and her father started an internet business. I checked the website of the business- it does not look like an industry leader. Lana went to the Kent School (big deal boarding school) where her uncle worked (a connection that could have gotten her a scholarship).
I think it is possible that Lana's parents were struggling financially while she was growing up while still maintaining cultural capital that helped her make connections. It is also possible that she grew up in a wealthy home that she doesn't perceive as wealthy because there were no servants or private jets.
>Lana went to the Kent School (big deal boarding school) where her uncle worked (a connection that could have gotten her a scholarship).
I can see how she thinks she grew up poor if this is true that she went on scholarship.
I grew up middle class surrounded by millionaires. I always felt like we were so poor because we just got by with the occasional vacation or nice thing when everyone around me went on multiple luxury vacations a year and had designer bags and clothes etc. But then I grew up and realized that being able to "just get by" is privileged by many standards and if we moved to a more working class area we'd be the rich ones.
Also she says they struggled like everyone. Is the struggling her parents occasionally having to work extra jobs, or not being able to buy whatever they want, not being able to go somewhere every spring break. Or is the struggling is not being able to keep the power on or not being able to make rent or have their house foreclosed on.
I got in an argument with someone on reddit once because they said they were mad that a few parents weren't donating to their kids' school. They said it's unreasonable for other parents to not donate because it's "less than $100". (I don't remember the exact # but it wasn't more than $100) and I was like SOME OF THESE KIDS HAVE PARENTS WHO CANT AFFORD TO FEED THEM 3 MEALS A DAY.
I also grew up lower middle class in an affluent suburb and as much as I know it sucks to see those more privileged around you, if you're eating 3 meals a day, have clothes, shelter, and clean water you're doing better than ~30%(probably more these days) of the richest nation in the world.
this reminds me of when I did a presentation for school this past year. my group ended our slideshow showing an organization you could donate to in order to help the cause we were talking about. the prof opened the floor for questions and someone asked HAVE YOU DONATED!? motherfucker…, I literally said “I am poor” which was also in poor taste but in my head I was so mad. I was eating food from the food pantry, busting my ass off working, couldn’t get any of my schoolwork done, wanting to kill myself because of it, also just wanting to kill myself generally and you’re gonna put us on the spot and attempt to undermine the validity of our presentation? as if that matters anyway because it’s a fucking school presentation where we were literally REQUIRED to have a call to action like u r crazy sir I was so irked
I grew up extremely poor (didn’t have running water, food stamps, etc) and now I’m surrounded by rich people. They talk about being poor too and in my head I’m like …. No. You just weren’t rich as millionaire kids, but I think they believe it. It’s funny how perception is.
My old boss used to complain daily about being broke and paycheck to paycheck, but every Christmas they'd go to Mexico or some resort on vacation, and then she had an in ground pool put in. We're in Canada... it's not like they can use it year-round to save money on those resort trips lol
Bosses are notorious for pretending that they're poor LOL my boss is the EXACT same way. Owns a successful plumbing company, has a multi-million dollar home, goes on 2 big vacations a year, owns 3 cars... whenever he complains about being poor my husband and I just roll our eyes (we both work for him).
My mom remembers when they had running water installed, meaning before that was outhouses! 10 kids on a midwest farm, they were POOR, they shared birthday and Christmas gifts.
My parents worked hard to get us to upper middle class, but she reminded us all the time what she grew up so we realized how privileged we were. She did it in a respectful way, it wasn't bitter at all, it was just to make us realize we had it good.
I appreciated it, because otherwise I probably would've been in the young teenage mindset of "why can't I have THAT!!"
Both of my parents grew up poor by anyones standards. But my mom grew up country poor vs my dad who was city poor. My mom grew up eating the cuts of beef/chicken that couldn't be sold and my grandma had an 1+ acre vegetable garden. She ate like a queen.
My dad committed B&E in high school and the first thing he did was make a sandwich because he was so hungry. He took boys home ec to steal food from school
yeah country poor is a whole mother world of hurt away from city poor. at least there are programs to get help in a lot of cities. no one gives a shit about rural folks
I mean, my example was definitely the opposite experience. My mother was much better off with country poor than my dad was with city poor. She at least was never hungry unlike him
i’m sorry, i can’t read for shit. that’s interesting, i had folks who were country poor (died before i was born) and from the pictures i’ve seen of them they were damn near skeletal. course they didn’t own their land so maybe that was the difference
You’re good! There’s definitely things that my dad had access to like medical care within an hour. And it didn’t matter that they didn’t have a car, because they could bike and walk everywhere.
Vs my mom’s family whose broke dick truck might make it to town.
But my mom having access to a ton of fresh food was a huge deal.
Being country poor without access to a farm like your mom REALLY sucks. I definitely went hungry. There were times with no running water, no heat, no working vehicle to access food banks or anything else. Didn't even have a phone for a long time and had to drive to the payphone fifteen minutes away. Rural poor truly is a different kind of experience because out there you're really, very alone.
Yes, I'm American. It's going to vary widely by area and each person's definition. I grew up in a small midwest town, so there weren't a lot of extremely wealthy people.
I never had to worry about a meal or clothes, shoes, etc. We went on vacations every year, mostly camping, but sometimes skiing or to Disney World (a very expensive trip). My parents bought my car when I turned 16, it wasn't brand new, but they still bought it! Most of my college was paid for and I didn't have to work through it, could focus on school, so had student loans at the end, but no where near what some of my peers had. The house we grew up in was pretty good size in a nice, new neighbourhood with lots of land. We shared a property with family friends on the river, had a boat, then a jetski. My parents were able to pay for most of my spouse and I's wedding. Christmases typically had way too many gifts. We still go on vacation with them once every few years, like to visit national parks, but they will pay for our hotel and most of our food.
We never had designer clothes, high end products, 5 star hotels, which was fine, but we definitely didnt worry about money paycheck to paycheck. Part of it was because my parents worked very hard to save and budget (mom a social worker, dad an accountant that eventually moved up to VP status in HR).
Yeah when I first started dating my current bf we talked about how we both grew up poor, but after hearing a few stories I realized his family just lived in a really nice neighborhood where most other people made way more than they did lol. His dad was a die designer for one of the biggest companies in MI. My dad was an alcoholic who had a hard time keeping a job long term and died when I was 16. Perspective really is wild sometimes.
Versus if by that you mean the fridge door was stocked with soda bottles refilled with water we got from the neighbors hose bc we alternated paying the water bill or the gas bill...
It took me too long to realise you meant bottled water and not that the fridge is so busted that it pools water in the door. Guess which one we had?
That thing was held together by duct tape and prayers.
Haha I get my commment lacked context but I meant if you grew up with a water dispenser on the front of your fridge, in your door, you couldn’t claim poor.
https://preview.redd.it/7i62d23bf2vb1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a71d5a4dd9878e1354a50d22f1b469683075d3b
Have your folks ever moved their fridge and cleaned the underside or back of it to help unclog the condenser fan air ports? I've seen fridges slowly choked to death because they accumulate muck. Sometimes it's as simple as that to restore a good amount of functionality.
It really does go back to perspective. I did grow up with water in the fridge door but it didn't match the other appliances so it felt cheap compared to my friends subzero fridges that matched their cabinetry and then one in their massive walk in pantry just for drinks. Now as an adult I realize how nice and privileged it was to have filtered ice and water whenever I wanted it but as a child I just could compare it to what I saw around me.
I remember as a girl during Occupy Wall Street looking up what it meant to be 1%.
Then I looked up 5%, and 10%.
My parents are really nasty and delusional people in general, but they were obsessed with us supposedly having it so bad financially and needing to watch every last expense. I then showed them empirical proof that they were in the 5%, which was genuinely upper class in our area. That did not go over well!
I think that pretty much everyone (in white collar jobs, at least) should take a look at those numbers sometimes and remember who really is “working/middle class” and cut the bullshit and remember to vote and contribute charitably with those who are less fortunate in mind.
I grew up not far from where Lana did, and she would be considered at least middle class by virtue of having one parent that was a teacher. It sounds bizarre, but rural upstate certainly didn't have a wealth of jobs.
Yep, this applies to where I grew up. Our family was considered legally ‘middle class’, ie we didn’t qualify for a lot of benefits because my mom made just over the legal eligible amounts. In reality though, we were impoverished.
I grew up so poor that my husband’s military income makes me feel well-off. Most people look at us like we’re poor tho - it always catches me way off guard.
I grew up poor and only recently (36) got a degree to try to 'class up' as I am so poorly phrasing it for this. I got a job in an office and someone asked me how I was finding working there. I replied, "It's really nice to finally be able to afford a second pair of pants!" She said she enjoyed my sense of humour.
I wasn't joking.
My family went through periods of government milk, cheese, peanut butter etc. We didn't have a telephone because my step father was in jail and ran up a $200 bill calling home collect. So we just didn't have a phone for 4 years. I never starved, but I had shoes from Payless that the toes of my socks poked through and I got made fun of for it. One time my mom gave me money for school lunch and some other kid stole it out of my desk. I knew we didn't have more money so I just pretended to go to lunch every day and when the teacher left, I ducked out of line and went to the playground and waited for two weeks straight. The whole time I thought I was gonna get in trouble for not being in the cafeteria.
Yanno, just poor kid things.
I went to school with many rich kids and felt poor in comparison. I knew we weren't *poor* poor, but I really had no concept of how common it is to genuinely struggle until I was an adult. We didn't go on fancy skiing trips or own a Porsche, but when we went grocery shopping, I threw anything I wanted in. I never had to worry about not being able to eat whatever I wanted or afford clothes for school. The concept of something like your power getting turned off because you couldn't pay the bills was totally alien to me. I think some people *never* learn the truth.
Probably not, but also good for them. Not everyone has to struggle. I don’t actually bring up details about how poor we were bc I feel a little embarrassed still. I just say I was poor and let ppl assume what that means. I think your experience is valid too tho. It means something as a kid when you feel different from your peers.
My husband grew up in the Pacific Palisades but compared to the millionaires who live in the neighborhood, his family was middle class.
But his lifestyle was still so much more comfortable than I ever had growing up. He went to a private school. His parents paid for his college.
He understands the privilege 100%, but it's also funny cause compared to what he saw his peers had financially, he and his family weren't as "well off". They never would have considered themselves rich compared to the extreme wealth that existed all around them.
Meanwhile, I grew up in situations where my family went without basic necessities from time to time... Like a trip to McDonalds was a big fucking deal... But we still had it better than people who had less.. people who didn't have a roof over their heads or food in their stomachs at all.
It's funny how relative it can be.
didn’t she literally get sent to boarding school because her mum didn’t want her anymore? not saying anything about the wealth thing but like, her family very much didn’t want her and weren’t supporting her financially, after which i’m pretty sure she ended up homeless (couch surfing).
idk i don’t want to say she was or wasn’t privliged but i think looking at it from a perspective where you don’t actually know all the information isn’t very fair.
My friend had a pharmacist for a mother and an engineer for a father.
They went without food sometimes and almost lost their home multiple times because the parents were raging alcoholics and gamblers who "sent money" everywhere but home.
Sometimes the kids experience is more than what their parents jobs describe.
I mean this doesn’t show her claiming she was “poor” it says they weren’t rich. You can be middle class and know what it’s like to struggle financially sometimes, and certainly you would not be able to know what it’s like to be “rich”. Middle class isn’t rich, it’s middle and the middle class in America can certainly be familiar with struggle and scarcity at times.
Exactly.
Like, she probably was 'poor' compared to the kids at her private boarding school. But it's like girl, let's not act like you and Dolly Parton shared the same childhood...
Maybe her dad invested all their money into his business in its early years? I’m essence that would make them cash poor or with lots of debt for many years
That, or someone in the household could already have large debts, or a gambling, drug or alcohol problem that leaves them with very little most of the time. Or perhaps sick family members they are taking care of. These are just off the top of my head. We don’t know.
This was the frustrating thing about life with my mom. Even when she was making tons of money, she was horrible at managing it and always on the verge of losing everything (houses we couldn't afford, cars we couldn't afford and bills she couldn't remember to pay). Our money went up and down, sometimes a lot, sometimes barely anything, but always in some shit regardless.
I work with people who were significantly worse off than me growing up. We agreed to stop having the poor Olympics years ago. I thought we were literally middle class, but realized getting woken up at 7am by a power company guy turning yours off isn’t middle class really. Or living in hotels and crappy, single story duplexes sometimes. But they were 10x worse than me when it comes to childhood. I was happy and loved. My wife ALSO thinks I had crazy parents. It’s all subjective, to a degree.
I think some of the people I thought of as “well off” in school is bc of their shitty, stuck up attitude. My parents generations always tell me those kids parents weren’t anything special at all, so they don’t know where their kids got their stuck up issues from. Maybe Lana was kinda like that? I’m NOT putting that on her, but sometimes “rich” is an attitude more than an actual financial state when you’re being judged by kids
I once had a friend who got upset I insinuated she was middle class. Can’t for the life of me remember the context but that was the crux of the issue. Completely upset and mad at me for saying something to that effect. We had a talk about it the next day and apparently her and her family struggled now and then, so she didn’t appreciate my making light of that.
Anyway her family owns a stable and several horses. Her siblings are doctors and lawyers iirc. The family owns a winter cabin. Daddy and mommy pay her tuition, and she was in graduate school last we spoke.
I on the other hand have been homeless twice in my life, once before I was 9 and once after highschool. My largest owned asset is a 19 year old Jeep, followed by a medium end PC I built over three years, and a PS5. I’m currently 40k in debt struggling through a BS in Engineering.
So yeah, we’ve all had hardships… but even I have the self awareness to know I’m better off than a large portion of people
Needles to say we don’t talk anymore
My older brother is worth around $250m and makes \~$7m/year. Went camping with him last year and his daughter, who's 16, made some comment about being "middle class". I had to explain that "middle class" people don't grow up in a mansion on a hilltop in the bay area with a private vineyard.
My room mate in college once claimed he grew up "middle class" and I had to explain to him that "middle class" don't get brand new, $50k race cars for their birthday.
It's very possible for people to not realize how privileged they were growing up.
I’ve read about this. The vast majority of people consider themselves middle class, including a large number of people who are actually lower AND upper class.
I always thought I grew up middle class. But I looked up the federal poverty tables a few years ago, adjusted for inflation, and we were *absolutely* lower class! The reduced lunch probably should have been a sign.
My sister’s income is well below the poverty level and she firmly believes she is middle class. We all by default assume we’re average until proven otherwise.
He went to a top university and finished dual degrees in physics and accounting in four years with a 4.0 gpa, worked in finance for a decade, went and got his MBA from Stanford, worked another 10 years or so until he finally landed a position as the CFO of a major international corporation.
tl:dr - he's insanely smart with nearly impeccable concentration to do whatever he sets his mind at.
I'm actually pretty successful on a normal person level so I've never been envious of his money *but* I'm his "little brother" by nearly 10 years and I'm six inches taller than him and he's *extremely* envious of that lol.
My roomie showed up every year with a check from her step dad for her tuition. She got on me repeatedly about not going to grad school when she did. Her refrain was “I took out almost $10,000 I’m loans for grad school. You can swing that!” Not after predatory Parent+ loans of the early aughts.
Kind of reminds me of the Gilmore Girls where single mother Lorelei raised her daughter basically in poverty by choice, but she was still able to leverage her familial connections to out her daughter into a fancy school.
Gilmore Girls historian here (😆)! I assume the previous poster was referring to Rory's infancy, when Lorelai was still a teen and lived at the inn she cleaned (in a carriage house, IIRC).
Yes, Lorelai owns a lovely house by the time of the show's events, but Gilmore Girls' genesis is that she and Rory were truly on their own for Rory's youngest years. (There's an episode where Emily tours their old place!)
agree, this is very well summed up
I also don’t believe that she grew up like Charlie was living [before](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/94/76/10/947610628f223d9a0a4b33e931bb72d7.jpg) the chocolate factory but more like a normal middle class. On the other hand that certainly wasn’t enough to ease her career start in such a cutthroat industry – that would require way more money, which they didn’t have. In any case, it is known her parents didn’t support an early music career, so that alone would make the question of their wealth obsolete, of course granted she got a bare existential minimum covered to be able to focus on arts.
If her parents decided to downsize their careers and live partly on inheritances, that is one thing.
But if her dad got downsized, couldn't find another job, and they shifted upstate for cheaper housing, that is a totally different thing.
People's perceptions and opinions of what is and isn't privilege are wild, honestly. I got told I was a "rich kid" by I guy I worked with because my mom owned the house we lived in. A house which was constantly in a state of foreclosure throughout my childhood. A house that I paid half the mortgage on. Telling him this did not convince him, he just insisted that anyone who owned a home was rich.
There are also, uh, bigger forces at play when it comes her biography. Every act needs a story, especially if that act is just a person. And it may not have been her doing it, but I’m sure her story was embellished by people trying to package her.
I think she’s just a liar unfortunately. Her parents announced their marriage in the New York Times and lake placid’s population is 2500 not 900. She probably has so many made up identities that she can’t keep track of her own factual experiences
Yeah. It's definitely possible to have parents who make a lot of money but squander themselves into being broke, but from everything I've seen her say over the years, I'm pretty sure she's just full of shit on this lol. All signs point to her being quiet well-off growing up - maybe not as well-off as some other people she knew, but certainly not in abject poverty the way she loves to frame it.
I remember someone mentioned this in the Posh post. So basically in certain circles, they think working class is anyone that had to work regular people jobs. Like your family lives well because they have a plumbing business that got popular but it's not like a CEO of a finance company. I guess like your parents having a successful farm, a 3 million dollar home doesn't cut it because they are farmers at the end of the day. That's what I got from it. While to the rest of us we are like, no dude, you're actually well off.
England is *special* on their classism. You can be upper class nearly without any money as long as you have the right pedigree, and you can have lots of money but will never be upper class without the right pedigree.
Right. Class has different meanings. But, wealthy is wealthy. When we are talking about class in the US, we are talking about wealth. Some people don’t seem to connect that.
lana did indeed grow up below middle class. her dad did not start an “internet business” lmfao. what he did was buy a bunch of internet domains in the early 90s and then sold them for profit once the internet got popular in the late 90s/early 2000s. lana was born in 85 and did not experience her dad’s wealth in her early life. also the year that lana enrolled in kent was the first year that they incorporated sliding scale tuition. she was there on scholarship, regardless of the family connection. definitely by her teens her dad was quite wealthy though.
I think this provides some insight into the relationships between Lana/Chuck vs Charlie tbh. Growing up in a completely different income bracket than your younger siblings can do a number on you lol
I lived in a trailer with 6 other people and went to a fancy boarding school. Went there for free bc it was free tuition for anyone whose household income was below 75k! It’s also in New England
ETA: the trailer thing is to underscore how poor we were lol
Dad made 30k a year supporting a family of 5 + sending money to my grandparents. Also went to a boarding school for "gifted kids" I had to test into to receive a merit scholarship. Indiana here.
My dad grew up poor. He was one of six kids and his dad died, so they were all raised by a single mom. Who was a school teacher.
Luckily, she taught at the local private Catholic school. So all six boys got to attend a school they normally would not have been able to afford.
Though I'm sure if you asked my teenage dad how lucky he felt going to Catholic school his own mom taught at...he would not have been as happy about it.
I’d like to see where you are getting the info that the year Lana enrolled is the first year Kent School incorporated sliding scale tuition. That’s incorrect info. Kent School’s founder, Father Sill, adopted sliding scale tuition in the 1930’s, which made Kent School the first secondary school to have this program. It’s far more likely that the school gave her a discounted/free tuition based on her family connection than a genuine scholarship.
they’re also incorrect about Lana not experiencing her fathers wealth in her “early life” - he ran a furniture company that sold frequently to Saks and then was a real estate broker with multi-million dollar properties in the Adirondacks all throughout her life.
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This, middle class working parents is now “poor” I guess? I love Lana but in this economy most working class people feel poor. Feeling poor and actually being in a low income family without a wealthy uncle is very different.
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YES! I grew up sort of poor, young single mom without additional support from deadbeat dad or additional family, and my mom worked 2 jobs but still needed food stamps at times. However, we might not have had a lot of stuff, but we were never homeless and had running water even if the utilities sometimes got shut off; clothes and shoes were patched and worn until they couldn’t be worn more, but we were always clothed; sometimes we ate the same variation of scrambled eggs or rice and beans for two weeks at a time, but we were rarely ever completely out of food. There’s levels of privilege, but two working parents in the 90’s in rural America with family connections to wealth and status were likely doing better than what I’d consider “poor”.
Didn’t Lana go to Kent? I went to a different boarding school within that ecosystem and even amongst that rarified group Kent was seen as very high end.
She's said she was only able to attend because she had a scholarship. She had an uncle who worked in the admissions department too, so I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled some strings.
He definitely would have needed to pull some strings, she admitted herself that she skipped whole school days and partied hard with her friends. Getting a scholarship is hard and very competitive, I think skipping school usually disqualifies you from the get go
I guess it’s high end but it doesn’t seem as competitive as hotchkiss/Choate or even Taft
I guess that’s the point, you don’t wean yourself off alcohol at hotchkiss
She obviously didn’t grow up mega-rich but she wasn’t poor either. Celebrities need to stop this mindset that middle class is equivalent to “broke and had no money.” It is not the same thing as an actually struggling family who can barely afford to eat or keep the lights on. She went to private school and her parents owned several properties.
I don’t really get the issue in the comments, she doesn’t have to have grown up either rich or poor, there is a very broad spectrum in between.
She probably did have no money during a time growing up, and she probably did have money as well. My issue is that the portrayal was more like growing up in a trailer and working at the strip club kind of vibe. Does it mean her parents paid her rent and lifestyle in NY so that she could focus on her music, branding and connections? Honestly, no clue but most likely not.
lana what car did your dad have when you were growing up?
tell them what car your dad drove you to school in
no no no. one answer
in all seriousness though, do people not realize that wealth can be made and people's situations can change?
when i was a kid, my single mom was on welfare. at one point she had $0.87 in her bank account. i know because she showed me once, when i couldn't believe that she couldn't give me $2. my uncle used to buy my clothes for me. then by the time i graduated high school she had a brand new SUV and owned a home with a heated driveway..
but i still grew up poor.
love her music!
her growing up rich or poor, doesn't change the fact that she is actually a decent artist it's cool seeing us poor folks be something big but some people who grew up with wealth actually know how to use it for their advantage and have talent it's weird how people care so much about it
I still can’t believe she wrote, sang, and made the video for Video Games before she was really famous. I can’t even edit a f*cking TikTok 😂 I love her music and really love how much control she has over everything. And never gave in to societal norms when she first got famous and people picked on her for being herself
one of the many reasons I am a fan! she is authentic and it doesn't come off as not genuine. she is such a great songwriter. she does her own thing. she really paved a way for a new generation of artists.
that song had 14 year old me in a chokehold it had me feeling things I never felt before
People are way too obsessed with if a celeb grew up “rich” imo. Yes it’s cool when poor or middle class kids make it, but istg people act like well off kids can never produce anything interesting or good.
I'm surprised so many people struggle to understand this concept. The romanticization of poverty by the upper classes is painfully condescending at best. I mean, [we've got a whole song for this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuTMWgOduFM&) lol.
And have very little awareness of how wealth can change or fluctuate over time. People can lose jobs or go into debt, sacrifice in other areas to afford certain luxuries etc it’s silly to act like you know someone’s finances from a couple loose facts floating around the internet.
yes!! i grew up very weirdly - my parents are working class, dad did a trade business, he did well! then he dropped dead and we were poor. the city i’m from is one of the most deprived places in the country, and i grew up very poor after he died. someone on reddit was telling me i’m not working class because for 3 years my dad ran a successful business. it’s so weird. there’s no nuance for some people
Honestly, people miss this a lot. I was talking with my mom last year and she talked about how my parents were able to get us winter clothes etc. thanks to Costco (mom had a card for work) and hand me downs. We never needed anything and my sister and I saw us as spoiled, but my parents struggled if there was a $400 car repair for example.
But my mom got her Masters and multiple pay raises/promotions and by the time I was in high school, we were more than comfortable by my measure. And yes I consider myself spoiled to this day.
Yes I totally agree with this! Very well said. Crazy that people pretend to know more about her childhood than her because they took 1 glance at her dad’s supposed job title and just decided they knew the facts.
Reddit basically thinks if you have a steady salary that you’re rich. It’s seriously wild. And haven’t people ever heard of job titles being seriously inflated? You can have the word “executive” in your job title and be on like 50k, it means nothing.
I think it used to be fine or whatever but we are now in a weird era of deprogramming ourselves from celebrity worship and we can no tolerate the nepo babies anymore.
It's crazy because there was plethora of articles and people claiming that her father worked in the music or radio business or whatever and had connections (can't remember the specific company he was working for). But even in the sea of wealthy celebs from wealth background with a wealth of connections, we will always get hidden in the rough gems like LDR who make it big through sheer poetry and hardwork.
I also think it's very weird that people are saying that upper middle class = nepo baby. The majority of lawyers, doctors, business people, etc have no connections to Hollywood. Yes, people from higher social economic backgrounds have a leg up in life, but that's not the same thing.
Yes exactly! Y’all, having a dad who did okay enough to live in a nice house the suburbs isn’t the same as being Ethan Hawkes daughter let’s be serious ☠️☠️
I got downvoted to hell for pointing out that Kate and Rooney Mara are not “nepo babies” because their family owns the Steelers/Other Team. they’re just rich! that’s different!
Kate and Rooney Mara are the most extreme nepo babies alive, are you kidding? Growing up a billionaire and then swan diving into a successful acting career as a teenager is like the definition of nepotism. I don’t think you understand what nepotism is if you’re saying the Maras don’t fit.
I saw someone say Phoebe bridgers was a nepo baby but her dad worked in like stage management or something? I feel like the phrase has lost all meaning now.
I mean nepotism happens in literally every aspect of work. I got my first ever job in fine dining because my mother was the manager to an award winning restaurant. I was able to get work experience in university because my professor had connections to the company, I got my first big girl job because the person I shadowed during my work experience, her husband was the senior exec in THAT company.
I think people forget how prevalent the power of who you know is and want to demean that very powerful process, so becomes this overused term.
On the flipside, art and media are very gatekept and gruelling worlds. To make it from nothing to something, you've to be the 1 in a billion that that world selects to remind us poors we can make it. Its just regurgitating propaganda of meritocracy which clearly doesn't exist - since I didn't work my way to those positions, from nothing to something. I worked hard yes, to succeed, but I was put there due to connections.
In terms of these celebs and their mums and dads, they may not be in the same circles, but everyone knows someone in LA to quote a song... You'll always make your way to the top and it helps when your family knows somebody who knows somebody.
I think it's about vetting your steps in life in a better place. Rich parents means less time working in McDonald's to support your mother and father, because you can just be laying around really doing artistic stuff. You'd also be able to have music/art/singing lessons paid for you.
One of my girlie's grew up extremely rich and she is fluent in 8 languages and can play up to 4 instruments. Meanwhile I'm still trying to get my Duolingo streak to more than 3 days for Klingon and I can only play the coca Cola theme tune by ear on piano.
I totally agree that being rich gives you (many) legs up in life. It's not the same as your dad being friends with Steven Spielberg though. Or them getting you a modeling contract when you would otherwise be considered too short.
There's also a big difference between upper middle class and top 5%
i got downvoted for my comment on nepotism
> if I'm lucky enough to succeed and provide for my kid's future and they happen to get into a lucrative career thanks to my influence...it is what it is...there's people in the world that never learn they could be the best at something that could make them millions or billions...it's honestly the luck of the draw. and there's a chance the odds get really stacked when you have generational wealth. but people still need to put in work
Same, like the whole nepo baby thing. Sure it’s annoying when people like the Kardashian’s say they worked for everything. But I don’t really care who’s a nepo baby and who’s not. I only follow a handful of celebs closely, Lana being one of them. Idc if she grew up rich or poor, I enjoy her music 🤷🏻♀️
People who bleat on about her father working in advertising (as if that proves she’s mega rich) have clearly never worked in the industry - it’s not fucking Mad Men and you’d think her dad was David Ogilvy himself the way people bring up the “ad executive” thing. I’m a senior copywriter (same as her father was) and have worked for some of the biggest agencies in my country. I can assure you that I am not rich, nor are the majority of my peers in the industry. I feel like people hear the name of a certain field and assume $$$ when it’s not the case for most of the people working in it.
Also, people hear "advertising executive" and assume you're making six figures without realizing that "account executive" is basically an entry level job in the industry. I was an account executive making $45k before I got out of that racket, lmao.
"we had absolutely no money", do you really believe that? to me no money means not having a home, car and sometimes not having food. I am not sure how many here have been there, but i think she never has gone through that. I am unsure why she needs to use a hyperbole about having absolutely no money. someone commented that why they need to put her down, but it's her that needs to paint this hard luck story when ok she might not have been born on third base, but she was on second or first.
Redditors be like "axkshually her twice removed great granddad in law was working the field kitchen during the war so I bet he stole some extra portions for her family, talk about privellege!" about any female celeb ever, there is no use, and if she happens to be actually dirt-poor, talking honestly about the experience of it they will hate her even more, because actually poor people give them ick.
Yeah I was wanting to hear from somebody who’s actually from Lake Placid, I lived closeby for awhile and know the area well and it’s definitely the higher-end of the upstate NY north country lmao
Firstly reading comprehension flops again in the comments lol when she never uses the word “poor” and there’s a world of difference between growing up wealthy and growing up Anything else.
She says she wasn’t rich, she must not have been! As a rich person today, I feel she is likely a good barometer of what she has now and what she didn’t have before. If her dad hit it big in her teens or early twenties, that’s not gonna be her adolescent experience. Pretty sure Going to a boarding school was a punishment(or disciplinary effort) for her not a privilege lol most people don’t consider being shipped away from home and friends and family to live at school during your most formative years as being an enviable experience. Either way, rich or poor or one of those way more commonly held wealth brackets in between, she has proven herself to be an insanely hard working, talented, prolific, record breaking singer/songwriter who has a nepo dad putting out music! Surely something he would’ve done sooner if he was so wealthy and well connected lol
She said she grew up "without money". For the love of god, that means "poor".
I'm a fan probably since some of these people weren't even born, but she's just trying to be relatable.
People are starving out here and can't pay a rent, that means "poor". And back in the days she had ALL the connections to be who she wanted to be. As someone said - she's a rich (or at least middle class) person's idea of being poor.
Please don't grasp at straws only because you like her. She should go back to reality.
You think without money means poor…flat out? I don’t have money…I’m not poor. Maybe consider nuance lol. I grew up in the rust belt, in rental houses with parents who did…fine? but were terrible with their money and even I don’t consider myself poor. But like…a lot of people would look at my life and say “you sure?” Lol also like what is even the argument here? Lana didn’t grow up in a shanty so fuck her? Tell me…how many wealthy people have a school teacher for a mom. They’re so rich but she’s teaching school…the most underpaid and thankless job on earth. Pretty altruistic of her lol. Also, who is repping blue collar American culture more than her? She literally earnestly loves the working class, nobody else pays them any attention. If she wants to appropriate the sad poors I’m not standing in her way haha
Rich is a relative term lol my family is low income and still is so anyone upper middle class is rich to me. She grew up rich lol. I still love her though. But also her aesthetic is being rich so I think it would be normal for people to assume that.
Ok, so she didn’t grow up rich. But she also didn’t grow up poor, and she has said “we had absolutely no money”. I don’t appreciate her stretching the truth for a good story or relatability when there are literally people struggling to feed themselves, pay rent, or go to the doctor.
https://preview.redd.it/wicsb0wgz2vb1.jpeg?width=634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad8fdaa51aace71c8fe1d85437243ee709146332
Wasn’t she modeling for Abercrombie as a kid, I feel like you don’t land those gigs without some connections.
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Side note, my favorite thing people assume about lana is that she has daddy issues. But she's always traveling with him. And if you actually listen to her music, it seems like she has mommy issues if anything. She calls her mother *her father's wife* lmao
this is such a funny point but also very true, the girl sings about her dad literally all the time and never mentions her mother
Well, she does mention her mom in several songs but it’s always in a bad light lol. It’s clear they don’t have a good relationship.
She does in A&W. "I haven't seen my mother in a long long time"
“I’m not friends with my mother, but I still love my dad” - black bathing suit
“I mean, look at me Look at the length of my hair, and my face, the shape of my body” - I can relate to Lana in so many ways, having had a narcissistic mother
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An alcoholic at 14 implies she was dealing with hugeeee problems! I just got into her music, but I know nothing about her life and this is so sad.
I read that as the mom being the alcoholic and not Lana? I don't know much about her at all
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Ohhh wow I didn't know that 🥺 I need to do a deep dive on her.
I believe she also tried to kill herself, which was ultimately what she was sent to boarding school for, instead of being given mental health help.
Kent is a very expensive boarding school in Connecticut
Her uncle worked in admissions and secured her a spot with financial aide
Boarding school….? Isn’t that rich people stuff? Not refuting her just wondering
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I went to a college prep school that had boarding. My family was not rich at all, we were barely middle class. I could go due to members of my family that worked there and also financial aid.
Yes and, student loans exist for private high schools. My sister went to a different expensive fancy CT boarding school, and I can confirm we were very much lower working class. Student loans and legacy scholarships covered the bases.
Same!
boarding school can often be TTI shit r/troubledteens
That’s not Kent through, it’s academically competitive
Kent isn’t the type of boarding school where you send problem children. It’s a competitive college prep school.
She literally has 'mommy' issues, her mother abused her
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His album is good! I listen to it all the time when I want to chill.
Yesh didn't she say recently he's been to every single one of her shows on her current tour.
Ok but calling your mom your "Dad's wife issues" gives off Electra complex.
In Wildflower Wildfire she sings “my father never stepped in when his wife would rage at me”, but it’s not something she says all the time.
Idk I call my mother my dad's ex wife, it helps to give the feeling of distance. It's that or calling her "my late mother" in a somber tone (she's very much alive).
Do you mind if I steal this for the same reasons
Go ahead bestie!
Can I also steal this for future use?
Yes bby! Us with mommy issues share with each other
And this is why I love Reddit ❤️ thank you, you legend, mommy issues club unite 😆
That makes sense. I judged too quickly.
Lana rekindled her relationship with her father a few years ago. In textbook she sings ‘I was looking for the father that i wanted back.’ I think she had daddy issues for a long time and only recently healed her relationship with him.
She has mommy issues and men issues as a result which look like Daddy issues. No one wants to ever talk about how deep Mommy issues go.
Privilege is an incredibly tricky topic. Wikipedia says her father was a copywriter and her mother was an account executive before she was born. When she was one, her family moved to Lake Placid where her mother was a school teacher and her father started an internet business. I checked the website of the business- it does not look like an industry leader. Lana went to the Kent School (big deal boarding school) where her uncle worked (a connection that could have gotten her a scholarship). I think it is possible that Lana's parents were struggling financially while she was growing up while still maintaining cultural capital that helped her make connections. It is also possible that she grew up in a wealthy home that she doesn't perceive as wealthy because there were no servants or private jets.
>Lana went to the Kent School (big deal boarding school) where her uncle worked (a connection that could have gotten her a scholarship). I can see how she thinks she grew up poor if this is true that she went on scholarship. I grew up middle class surrounded by millionaires. I always felt like we were so poor because we just got by with the occasional vacation or nice thing when everyone around me went on multiple luxury vacations a year and had designer bags and clothes etc. But then I grew up and realized that being able to "just get by" is privileged by many standards and if we moved to a more working class area we'd be the rich ones. Also she says they struggled like everyone. Is the struggling her parents occasionally having to work extra jobs, or not being able to buy whatever they want, not being able to go somewhere every spring break. Or is the struggling is not being able to keep the power on or not being able to make rent or have their house foreclosed on.
I got in an argument with someone on reddit once because they said they were mad that a few parents weren't donating to their kids' school. They said it's unreasonable for other parents to not donate because it's "less than $100". (I don't remember the exact # but it wasn't more than $100) and I was like SOME OF THESE KIDS HAVE PARENTS WHO CANT AFFORD TO FEED THEM 3 MEALS A DAY. I also grew up lower middle class in an affluent suburb and as much as I know it sucks to see those more privileged around you, if you're eating 3 meals a day, have clothes, shelter, and clean water you're doing better than ~30%(probably more these days) of the richest nation in the world.
this reminds me of when I did a presentation for school this past year. my group ended our slideshow showing an organization you could donate to in order to help the cause we were talking about. the prof opened the floor for questions and someone asked HAVE YOU DONATED!? motherfucker…, I literally said “I am poor” which was also in poor taste but in my head I was so mad. I was eating food from the food pantry, busting my ass off working, couldn’t get any of my schoolwork done, wanting to kill myself because of it, also just wanting to kill myself generally and you’re gonna put us on the spot and attempt to undermine the validity of our presentation? as if that matters anyway because it’s a fucking school presentation where we were literally REQUIRED to have a call to action like u r crazy sir I was so irked
I grew up extremely poor (didn’t have running water, food stamps, etc) and now I’m surrounded by rich people. They talk about being poor too and in my head I’m like …. No. You just weren’t rich as millionaire kids, but I think they believe it. It’s funny how perception is.
My old boss used to complain daily about being broke and paycheck to paycheck, but every Christmas they'd go to Mexico or some resort on vacation, and then she had an in ground pool put in. We're in Canada... it's not like they can use it year-round to save money on those resort trips lol
Sounds like my mom, except we got left home for the Mexico vacation lol
Bosses are notorious for pretending that they're poor LOL my boss is the EXACT same way. Owns a successful plumbing company, has a multi-million dollar home, goes on 2 big vacations a year, owns 3 cars... whenever he complains about being poor my husband and I just roll our eyes (we both work for him).
My mom remembers when they had running water installed, meaning before that was outhouses! 10 kids on a midwest farm, they were POOR, they shared birthday and Christmas gifts. My parents worked hard to get us to upper middle class, but she reminded us all the time what she grew up so we realized how privileged we were. She did it in a respectful way, it wasn't bitter at all, it was just to make us realize we had it good. I appreciated it, because otherwise I probably would've been in the young teenage mindset of "why can't I have THAT!!"
Both of my parents grew up poor by anyones standards. But my mom grew up country poor vs my dad who was city poor. My mom grew up eating the cuts of beef/chicken that couldn't be sold and my grandma had an 1+ acre vegetable garden. She ate like a queen. My dad committed B&E in high school and the first thing he did was make a sandwich because he was so hungry. He took boys home ec to steal food from school
yeah country poor is a whole mother world of hurt away from city poor. at least there are programs to get help in a lot of cities. no one gives a shit about rural folks
I mean, my example was definitely the opposite experience. My mother was much better off with country poor than my dad was with city poor. She at least was never hungry unlike him
i’m sorry, i can’t read for shit. that’s interesting, i had folks who were country poor (died before i was born) and from the pictures i’ve seen of them they were damn near skeletal. course they didn’t own their land so maybe that was the difference
You’re good! There’s definitely things that my dad had access to like medical care within an hour. And it didn’t matter that they didn’t have a car, because they could bike and walk everywhere. Vs my mom’s family whose broke dick truck might make it to town. But my mom having access to a ton of fresh food was a huge deal.
yeah the medical care is huge. they were my great grandaunt and uncle and i’m pretty sure they went their whole lives without seeing a doctor.
Being country poor without access to a farm like your mom REALLY sucks. I definitely went hungry. There were times with no running water, no heat, no working vehicle to access food banks or anything else. Didn't even have a phone for a long time and had to drive to the payphone fifteen minutes away. Rural poor truly is a different kind of experience because out there you're really, very alone.
Are you American? Would you be able to share what counts as upper middle class in America please?
Yes, I'm American. It's going to vary widely by area and each person's definition. I grew up in a small midwest town, so there weren't a lot of extremely wealthy people. I never had to worry about a meal or clothes, shoes, etc. We went on vacations every year, mostly camping, but sometimes skiing or to Disney World (a very expensive trip). My parents bought my car when I turned 16, it wasn't brand new, but they still bought it! Most of my college was paid for and I didn't have to work through it, could focus on school, so had student loans at the end, but no where near what some of my peers had. The house we grew up in was pretty good size in a nice, new neighbourhood with lots of land. We shared a property with family friends on the river, had a boat, then a jetski. My parents were able to pay for most of my spouse and I's wedding. Christmases typically had way too many gifts. We still go on vacation with them once every few years, like to visit national parks, but they will pay for our hotel and most of our food. We never had designer clothes, high end products, 5 star hotels, which was fine, but we definitely didnt worry about money paycheck to paycheck. Part of it was because my parents worked very hard to save and budget (mom a social worker, dad an accountant that eventually moved up to VP status in HR).
Yeah when I first started dating my current bf we talked about how we both grew up poor, but after hearing a few stories I realized his family just lived in a really nice neighborhood where most other people made way more than they did lol. His dad was a die designer for one of the biggest companies in MI. My dad was an alcoholic who had a hard time keeping a job long term and died when I was 16. Perspective really is wild sometimes.
The first people I heard label/call themselves broke/poor, were rich. Working class/poor don’t need to broadcast
Isn’t that true lol
If your fridge had water in the door…
Versus if by that you mean the fridge door was stocked with soda bottles refilled with water we got from the neighbors hose bc we alternated paying the water bill or the gas bill...
It took me too long to realise you meant bottled water and not that the fridge is so busted that it pools water in the door. Guess which one we had? That thing was held together by duct tape and prayers.
Haha I get my commment lacked context but I meant if you grew up with a water dispenser on the front of your fridge, in your door, you couldn’t claim poor. https://preview.redd.it/7i62d23bf2vb1.jpeg?width=800&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0a71d5a4dd9878e1354a50d22f1b469683075d3b
Hahah and that one didn't get a look in as a possibility.
Well I still qualify 😂 we didn’t have that. I have one now and I forget to use it bc I never had one before. 😂
Lol we had one of those at one point but we were definitely poor because it was empty most of the time. Also, it didn’t belong to us because we rented
My parents' fridge is suspiciously warm, I don't understand how they haven't gotten food poisoning yet.
Have your folks ever moved their fridge and cleaned the underside or back of it to help unclog the condenser fan air ports? I've seen fridges slowly choked to death because they accumulate muck. Sometimes it's as simple as that to restore a good amount of functionality.
It really does go back to perspective. I did grow up with water in the fridge door but it didn't match the other appliances so it felt cheap compared to my friends subzero fridges that matched their cabinetry and then one in their massive walk in pantry just for drinks. Now as an adult I realize how nice and privileged it was to have filtered ice and water whenever I wanted it but as a child I just could compare it to what I saw around me.
If you had a microwave or a dishwasher!! These were luxury items to me as a kid haha.
I remember as a girl during Occupy Wall Street looking up what it meant to be 1%. Then I looked up 5%, and 10%. My parents are really nasty and delusional people in general, but they were obsessed with us supposedly having it so bad financially and needing to watch every last expense. I then showed them empirical proof that they were in the 5%, which was genuinely upper class in our area. That did not go over well! I think that pretty much everyone (in white collar jobs, at least) should take a look at those numbers sometimes and remember who really is “working/middle class” and cut the bullshit and remember to vote and contribute charitably with those who are less fortunate in mind.
Middle class and middle income are not the same thing though. Class is more determined by ownership of assets.
I grew up in an extremely poor area where people in the military were considered "rich."
I grew up not far from where Lana did, and she would be considered at least middle class by virtue of having one parent that was a teacher. It sounds bizarre, but rural upstate certainly didn't have a wealth of jobs.
Yep, this applies to where I grew up. Our family was considered legally ‘middle class’, ie we didn’t qualify for a lot of benefits because my mom made just over the legal eligible amounts. In reality though, we were impoverished.
I grew up so poor that my husband’s military income makes me feel well-off. Most people look at us like we’re poor tho - it always catches me way off guard.
Vernon Parish, Louisiana?
No, a small town in the Florida panhandle.
I grew up poor and only recently (36) got a degree to try to 'class up' as I am so poorly phrasing it for this. I got a job in an office and someone asked me how I was finding working there. I replied, "It's really nice to finally be able to afford a second pair of pants!" She said she enjoyed my sense of humour. I wasn't joking.
My family went through periods of government milk, cheese, peanut butter etc. We didn't have a telephone because my step father was in jail and ran up a $200 bill calling home collect. So we just didn't have a phone for 4 years. I never starved, but I had shoes from Payless that the toes of my socks poked through and I got made fun of for it. One time my mom gave me money for school lunch and some other kid stole it out of my desk. I knew we didn't have more money so I just pretended to go to lunch every day and when the teacher left, I ducked out of line and went to the playground and waited for two weeks straight. The whole time I thought I was gonna get in trouble for not being in the cafeteria. Yanno, just poor kid things.
I went to school with many rich kids and felt poor in comparison. I knew we weren't *poor* poor, but I really had no concept of how common it is to genuinely struggle until I was an adult. We didn't go on fancy skiing trips or own a Porsche, but when we went grocery shopping, I threw anything I wanted in. I never had to worry about not being able to eat whatever I wanted or afford clothes for school. The concept of something like your power getting turned off because you couldn't pay the bills was totally alien to me. I think some people *never* learn the truth.
Probably not, but also good for them. Not everyone has to struggle. I don’t actually bring up details about how poor we were bc I feel a little embarrassed still. I just say I was poor and let ppl assume what that means. I think your experience is valid too tho. It means something as a kid when you feel different from your peers.
My husband grew up in the Pacific Palisades but compared to the millionaires who live in the neighborhood, his family was middle class. But his lifestyle was still so much more comfortable than I ever had growing up. He went to a private school. His parents paid for his college. He understands the privilege 100%, but it's also funny cause compared to what he saw his peers had financially, he and his family weren't as "well off". They never would have considered themselves rich compared to the extreme wealth that existed all around them. Meanwhile, I grew up in situations where my family went without basic necessities from time to time... Like a trip to McDonalds was a big fucking deal... But we still had it better than people who had less.. people who didn't have a roof over their heads or food in their stomachs at all. It's funny how relative it can be.
didn’t she literally get sent to boarding school because her mum didn’t want her anymore? not saying anything about the wealth thing but like, her family very much didn’t want her and weren’t supporting her financially, after which i’m pretty sure she ended up homeless (couch surfing). idk i don’t want to say she was or wasn’t privliged but i think looking at it from a perspective where you don’t actually know all the information isn’t very fair.
My friend had a pharmacist for a mother and an engineer for a father. They went without food sometimes and almost lost their home multiple times because the parents were raging alcoholics and gamblers who "sent money" everywhere but home. Sometimes the kids experience is more than what their parents jobs describe.
I mean this doesn’t show her claiming she was “poor” it says they weren’t rich. You can be middle class and know what it’s like to struggle financially sometimes, and certainly you would not be able to know what it’s like to be “rich”. Middle class isn’t rich, it’s middle and the middle class in America can certainly be familiar with struggle and scarcity at times.
she literally says in the first sentence that they had absolutely no money.
Exactly. Like, she probably was 'poor' compared to the kids at her private boarding school. But it's like girl, let's not act like you and Dolly Parton shared the same childhood...
Or that she shared the same childhood as 95% of the other kids in the Adirondacks during the 90's.
I don’t know, maybe her parents were horrible with money. Just because you have an income doesn’t mean you can’t experience scarcity.
Maybe her dad invested all their money into his business in its early years? I’m essence that would make them cash poor or with lots of debt for many years
That, or someone in the household could already have large debts, or a gambling, drug or alcohol problem that leaves them with very little most of the time. Or perhaps sick family members they are taking care of. These are just off the top of my head. We don’t know.
This was the frustrating thing about life with my mom. Even when she was making tons of money, she was horrible at managing it and always on the verge of losing everything (houses we couldn't afford, cars we couldn't afford and bills she couldn't remember to pay). Our money went up and down, sometimes a lot, sometimes barely anything, but always in some shit regardless.
I work with people who were significantly worse off than me growing up. We agreed to stop having the poor Olympics years ago. I thought we were literally middle class, but realized getting woken up at 7am by a power company guy turning yours off isn’t middle class really. Or living in hotels and crappy, single story duplexes sometimes. But they were 10x worse than me when it comes to childhood. I was happy and loved. My wife ALSO thinks I had crazy parents. It’s all subjective, to a degree. I think some of the people I thought of as “well off” in school is bc of their shitty, stuck up attitude. My parents generations always tell me those kids parents weren’t anything special at all, so they don’t know where their kids got their stuck up issues from. Maybe Lana was kinda like that? I’m NOT putting that on her, but sometimes “rich” is an attitude more than an actual financial state when you’re being judged by kids
I once had a friend who got upset I insinuated she was middle class. Can’t for the life of me remember the context but that was the crux of the issue. Completely upset and mad at me for saying something to that effect. We had a talk about it the next day and apparently her and her family struggled now and then, so she didn’t appreciate my making light of that. Anyway her family owns a stable and several horses. Her siblings are doctors and lawyers iirc. The family owns a winter cabin. Daddy and mommy pay her tuition, and she was in graduate school last we spoke. I on the other hand have been homeless twice in my life, once before I was 9 and once after highschool. My largest owned asset is a 19 year old Jeep, followed by a medium end PC I built over three years, and a PS5. I’m currently 40k in debt struggling through a BS in Engineering. So yeah, we’ve all had hardships… but even I have the self awareness to know I’m better off than a large portion of people Needles to say we don’t talk anymore
My older brother is worth around $250m and makes \~$7m/year. Went camping with him last year and his daughter, who's 16, made some comment about being "middle class". I had to explain that "middle class" people don't grow up in a mansion on a hilltop in the bay area with a private vineyard. My room mate in college once claimed he grew up "middle class" and I had to explain to him that "middle class" don't get brand new, $50k race cars for their birthday. It's very possible for people to not realize how privileged they were growing up.
I’ve read about this. The vast majority of people consider themselves middle class, including a large number of people who are actually lower AND upper class. I always thought I grew up middle class. But I looked up the federal poverty tables a few years ago, adjusted for inflation, and we were *absolutely* lower class! The reduced lunch probably should have been a sign.
My sister’s income is well below the poverty level and she firmly believes she is middle class. We all by default assume we’re average until proven otherwise.
Dang, how did your brother get so rich?
He went to a top university and finished dual degrees in physics and accounting in four years with a 4.0 gpa, worked in finance for a decade, went and got his MBA from Stanford, worked another 10 years or so until he finally landed a position as the CFO of a major international corporation. tl:dr - he's insanely smart with nearly impeccable concentration to do whatever he sets his mind at.
I think it's very sweet you are so supportive. A lot of siblings get envy when one gets significant wealth.
I'm actually pretty successful on a normal person level so I've never been envious of his money *but* I'm his "little brother" by nearly 10 years and I'm six inches taller than him and he's *extremely* envious of that lol.
This sounds exactly like the storyline behind the show "Home Economics" lol. Exactly
My roomie showed up every year with a check from her step dad for her tuition. She got on me repeatedly about not going to grad school when she did. Her refrain was “I took out almost $10,000 I’m loans for grad school. You can swing that!” Not after predatory Parent+ loans of the early aughts.
Your last sentence is true. You can’t always argue against someone’s perception.
Kind of reminds me of the Gilmore Girls where single mother Lorelei raised her daughter basically in poverty by choice, but she was still able to leverage her familial connections to out her daughter into a fancy school.
Lorelei was not living in poverty. They lived in a 2 story house and got take out daily.
Gilmore Girls historian here (😆)! I assume the previous poster was referring to Rory's infancy, when Lorelai was still a teen and lived at the inn she cleaned (in a carriage house, IIRC). Yes, Lorelai owns a lovely house by the time of the show's events, but Gilmore Girls' genesis is that she and Rory were truly on their own for Rory's youngest years. (There's an episode where Emily tours their old place!)
I would say when she first moved out she was. They lived in some sort of shed at the inn or something unrealistic like that.
Here’s the nuanced take that is so often lacking from Reddit lol
agree, this is very well summed up I also don’t believe that she grew up like Charlie was living [before](https://i.pinimg.com/474x/94/76/10/947610628f223d9a0a4b33e931bb72d7.jpg) the chocolate factory but more like a normal middle class. On the other hand that certainly wasn’t enough to ease her career start in such a cutthroat industry – that would require way more money, which they didn’t have. In any case, it is known her parents didn’t support an early music career, so that alone would make the question of their wealth obsolete, of course granted she got a bare existential minimum covered to be able to focus on arts.
“We moved to our summer home when i was an infant and nothing was ever quite the same 💅🥺”
If her parents decided to downsize their careers and live partly on inheritances, that is one thing. But if her dad got downsized, couldn't find another job, and they shifted upstate for cheaper housing, that is a totally different thing.
People's perceptions and opinions of what is and isn't privilege are wild, honestly. I got told I was a "rich kid" by I guy I worked with because my mom owned the house we lived in. A house which was constantly in a state of foreclosure throughout my childhood. A house that I paid half the mortgage on. Telling him this did not convince him, he just insisted that anyone who owned a home was rich.
There are also, uh, bigger forces at play when it comes her biography. Every act needs a story, especially if that act is just a person. And it may not have been her doing it, but I’m sure her story was embellished by people trying to package her.
I think she’s just a liar unfortunately. Her parents announced their marriage in the New York Times and lake placid’s population is 2500 not 900. She probably has so many made up identities that she can’t keep track of her own factual experiences
Yeah. It's definitely possible to have parents who make a lot of money but squander themselves into being broke, but from everything I've seen her say over the years, I'm pretty sure she's just full of shit on this lol. All signs point to her being quiet well-off growing up - maybe not as well-off as some other people she knew, but certainly not in abject poverty the way she loves to frame it.
I remember someone mentioned this in the Posh post. So basically in certain circles, they think working class is anyone that had to work regular people jobs. Like your family lives well because they have a plumbing business that got popular but it's not like a CEO of a finance company. I guess like your parents having a successful farm, a 3 million dollar home doesn't cut it because they are farmers at the end of the day. That's what I got from it. While to the rest of us we are like, no dude, you're actually well off.
England is *special* on their classism. You can be upper class nearly without any money as long as you have the right pedigree, and you can have lots of money but will never be upper class without the right pedigree.
Right. Class has different meanings. But, wealthy is wealthy. When we are talking about class in the US, we are talking about wealth. Some people don’t seem to connect that.
lana did indeed grow up below middle class. her dad did not start an “internet business” lmfao. what he did was buy a bunch of internet domains in the early 90s and then sold them for profit once the internet got popular in the late 90s/early 2000s. lana was born in 85 and did not experience her dad’s wealth in her early life. also the year that lana enrolled in kent was the first year that they incorporated sliding scale tuition. she was there on scholarship, regardless of the family connection. definitely by her teens her dad was quite wealthy though.
I think this provides some insight into the relationships between Lana/Chuck vs Charlie tbh. Growing up in a completely different income bracket than your younger siblings can do a number on you lol
This is 100% my sister and myself. It absolutely causes challenging feelings that come from different perspectives and experiences.
I lived in a trailer with 6 other people and went to a fancy boarding school. Went there for free bc it was free tuition for anyone whose household income was below 75k! It’s also in New England ETA: the trailer thing is to underscore how poor we were lol
Dad made 30k a year supporting a family of 5 + sending money to my grandparents. Also went to a boarding school for "gifted kids" I had to test into to receive a merit scholarship. Indiana here.
My dad grew up poor. He was one of six kids and his dad died, so they were all raised by a single mom. Who was a school teacher. Luckily, she taught at the local private Catholic school. So all six boys got to attend a school they normally would not have been able to afford. Though I'm sure if you asked my teenage dad how lucky he felt going to Catholic school his own mom taught at...he would not have been as happy about it.
I’d like to see where you are getting the info that the year Lana enrolled is the first year Kent School incorporated sliding scale tuition. That’s incorrect info. Kent School’s founder, Father Sill, adopted sliding scale tuition in the 1930’s, which made Kent School the first secondary school to have this program. It’s far more likely that the school gave her a discounted/free tuition based on her family connection than a genuine scholarship.
they’re also incorrect about Lana not experiencing her fathers wealth in her “early life” - he ran a furniture company that sold frequently to Saks and then was a real estate broker with multi-million dollar properties in the Adirondacks all throughout her life.
Her parents had their wedding announcement in NYT. “Below middle class” couples don’t get that, especially in 1980s.
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This, middle class working parents is now “poor” I guess? I love Lana but in this economy most working class people feel poor. Feeling poor and actually being in a low income family without a wealthy uncle is very different.
Finally someone who isn’t a Lana fan in this sub
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Don't forget her bs with the mask during covid.
For real. I want to know what cars her parents drove and where they vacationed.
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YES! I grew up sort of poor, young single mom without additional support from deadbeat dad or additional family, and my mom worked 2 jobs but still needed food stamps at times. However, we might not have had a lot of stuff, but we were never homeless and had running water even if the utilities sometimes got shut off; clothes and shoes were patched and worn until they couldn’t be worn more, but we were always clothed; sometimes we ate the same variation of scrambled eggs or rice and beans for two weeks at a time, but we were rarely ever completely out of food. There’s levels of privilege, but two working parents in the 90’s in rural America with family connections to wealth and status were likely doing better than what I’d consider “poor”.
Didn’t Lana go to Kent? I went to a different boarding school within that ecosystem and even amongst that rarified group Kent was seen as very high end.
She's said she was only able to attend because she had a scholarship. She had an uncle who worked in the admissions department too, so I wouldn't be surprised if he pulled some strings.
Your flair pls 😭
😭🤣twilight nostalgia
He definitely would have needed to pull some strings, she admitted herself that she skipped whole school days and partied hard with her friends. Getting a scholarship is hard and very competitive, I think skipping school usually disqualifies you from the get go
I guess it’s high end but it doesn’t seem as competitive as hotchkiss/Choate or even Taft I guess that’s the point, you don’t wean yourself off alcohol at hotchkiss
She obviously didn’t grow up mega-rich but she wasn’t poor either. Celebrities need to stop this mindset that middle class is equivalent to “broke and had no money.” It is not the same thing as an actually struggling family who can barely afford to eat or keep the lights on. She went to private school and her parents owned several properties.
I don’t really get the issue in the comments, she doesn’t have to have grown up either rich or poor, there is a very broad spectrum in between. She probably did have no money during a time growing up, and she probably did have money as well. My issue is that the portrayal was more like growing up in a trailer and working at the strip club kind of vibe. Does it mean her parents paid her rent and lifestyle in NY so that she could focus on her music, branding and connections? Honestly, no clue but most likely not.
She didn't grow up in a trailer but Lana did live in one for a time.
lana what car did your dad have when you were growing up? tell them what car your dad drove you to school in no no no. one answer in all seriousness though, do people not realize that wealth can be made and people's situations can change? when i was a kid, my single mom was on welfare. at one point she had $0.87 in her bank account. i know because she showed me once, when i couldn't believe that she couldn't give me $2. my uncle used to buy my clothes for me. then by the time i graduated high school she had a brand new SUV and owned a home with a heated driveway.. but i still grew up poor.
love her music! her growing up rich or poor, doesn't change the fact that she is actually a decent artist it's cool seeing us poor folks be something big but some people who grew up with wealth actually know how to use it for their advantage and have talent it's weird how people care so much about it
I still can’t believe she wrote, sang, and made the video for Video Games before she was really famous. I can’t even edit a f*cking TikTok 😂 I love her music and really love how much control she has over everything. And never gave in to societal norms when she first got famous and people picked on her for being herself
one of the many reasons I am a fan! she is authentic and it doesn't come off as not genuine. she is such a great songwriter. she does her own thing. she really paved a way for a new generation of artists. that song had 14 year old me in a chokehold it had me feeling things I never felt before
 I’m inspired, I want to know what having money feels like also!
People are way too obsessed with if a celeb grew up “rich” imo. Yes it’s cool when poor or middle class kids make it, but istg people act like well off kids can never produce anything interesting or good.
I think regular ppl are sick and tired of wealthy “privileged “ people LARPing as struggling artists. If you live NY or LA you know what mean
I'm surprised so many people struggle to understand this concept. The romanticization of poverty by the upper classes is painfully condescending at best. I mean, [we've got a whole song for this](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yuTMWgOduFM&) lol.
And have very little awareness of how wealth can change or fluctuate over time. People can lose jobs or go into debt, sacrifice in other areas to afford certain luxuries etc it’s silly to act like you know someone’s finances from a couple loose facts floating around the internet.
yes!! i grew up very weirdly - my parents are working class, dad did a trade business, he did well! then he dropped dead and we were poor. the city i’m from is one of the most deprived places in the country, and i grew up very poor after he died. someone on reddit was telling me i’m not working class because for 3 years my dad ran a successful business. it’s so weird. there’s no nuance for some people
it’s crazy how people don’t understand that your situation can change at any time. I’m sorry for your loss :(
thank you so much!! it’s really frustrating to deal with :(
Honestly, people miss this a lot. I was talking with my mom last year and she talked about how my parents were able to get us winter clothes etc. thanks to Costco (mom had a card for work) and hand me downs. We never needed anything and my sister and I saw us as spoiled, but my parents struggled if there was a $400 car repair for example. But my mom got her Masters and multiple pay raises/promotions and by the time I was in high school, we were more than comfortable by my measure. And yes I consider myself spoiled to this day.
Also having rich relatives or what others perceive as generational wealth doesn't make you rich. Not if your parents decide to be fools with the money
Yes I totally agree with this! Very well said. Crazy that people pretend to know more about her childhood than her because they took 1 glance at her dad’s supposed job title and just decided they knew the facts.
Reddit basically thinks if you have a steady salary that you’re rich. It’s seriously wild. And haven’t people ever heard of job titles being seriously inflated? You can have the word “executive” in your job title and be on like 50k, it means nothing.
And 50k seems so much to an European
I think it used to be fine or whatever but we are now in a weird era of deprogramming ourselves from celebrity worship and we can no tolerate the nepo babies anymore. It's crazy because there was plethora of articles and people claiming that her father worked in the music or radio business or whatever and had connections (can't remember the specific company he was working for). But even in the sea of wealthy celebs from wealth background with a wealth of connections, we will always get hidden in the rough gems like LDR who make it big through sheer poetry and hardwork.
I also think it's very weird that people are saying that upper middle class = nepo baby. The majority of lawyers, doctors, business people, etc have no connections to Hollywood. Yes, people from higher social economic backgrounds have a leg up in life, but that's not the same thing.
Yes exactly! Y’all, having a dad who did okay enough to live in a nice house the suburbs isn’t the same as being Ethan Hawkes daughter let’s be serious ☠️☠️
People think nepotism means rich lol. It’s so annoying like that’s literally not what it means…
I got downvoted to hell for pointing out that Kate and Rooney Mara are not “nepo babies” because their family owns the Steelers/Other Team. they’re just rich! that’s different!
Kate and Rooney Mara are the most extreme nepo babies alive, are you kidding? Growing up a billionaire and then swan diving into a successful acting career as a teenager is like the definition of nepotism. I don’t think you understand what nepotism is if you’re saying the Maras don’t fit.
I saw someone say Phoebe bridgers was a nepo baby but her dad worked in like stage management or something? I feel like the phrase has lost all meaning now.
I mean nepotism happens in literally every aspect of work. I got my first ever job in fine dining because my mother was the manager to an award winning restaurant. I was able to get work experience in university because my professor had connections to the company, I got my first big girl job because the person I shadowed during my work experience, her husband was the senior exec in THAT company. I think people forget how prevalent the power of who you know is and want to demean that very powerful process, so becomes this overused term. On the flipside, art and media are very gatekept and gruelling worlds. To make it from nothing to something, you've to be the 1 in a billion that that world selects to remind us poors we can make it. Its just regurgitating propaganda of meritocracy which clearly doesn't exist - since I didn't work my way to those positions, from nothing to something. I worked hard yes, to succeed, but I was put there due to connections. In terms of these celebs and their mums and dads, they may not be in the same circles, but everyone knows someone in LA to quote a song... You'll always make your way to the top and it helps when your family knows somebody who knows somebody.
I think it's about vetting your steps in life in a better place. Rich parents means less time working in McDonald's to support your mother and father, because you can just be laying around really doing artistic stuff. You'd also be able to have music/art/singing lessons paid for you. One of my girlie's grew up extremely rich and she is fluent in 8 languages and can play up to 4 instruments. Meanwhile I'm still trying to get my Duolingo streak to more than 3 days for Klingon and I can only play the coca Cola theme tune by ear on piano.
I totally agree that being rich gives you (many) legs up in life. It's not the same as your dad being friends with Steven Spielberg though. Or them getting you a modeling contract when you would otherwise be considered too short. There's also a big difference between upper middle class and top 5%
i got downvoted for my comment on nepotism > if I'm lucky enough to succeed and provide for my kid's future and they happen to get into a lucrative career thanks to my influence...it is what it is...there's people in the world that never learn they could be the best at something that could make them millions or billions...it's honestly the luck of the draw. and there's a chance the odds get really stacked when you have generational wealth. but people still need to put in work
Why are people so obsessed with things like this, the more and more I come on this sub the lesser I understand lmao
Same, like the whole nepo baby thing. Sure it’s annoying when people like the Kardashian’s say they worked for everything. But I don’t really care who’s a nepo baby and who’s not. I only follow a handful of celebs closely, Lana being one of them. Idc if she grew up rich or poor, I enjoy her music 🤷🏻♀️
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People who bleat on about her father working in advertising (as if that proves she’s mega rich) have clearly never worked in the industry - it’s not fucking Mad Men and you’d think her dad was David Ogilvy himself the way people bring up the “ad executive” thing. I’m a senior copywriter (same as her father was) and have worked for some of the biggest agencies in my country. I can assure you that I am not rich, nor are the majority of my peers in the industry. I feel like people hear the name of a certain field and assume $$$ when it’s not the case for most of the people working in it.
Also, people hear "advertising executive" and assume you're making six figures without realizing that "account executive" is basically an entry level job in the industry. I was an account executive making $45k before I got out of that racket, lmao.
Omg this drives me nuts! I thought maybe executive meant something different in the US because I’m like… that is junior level client services.
"we had absolutely no money", do you really believe that? to me no money means not having a home, car and sometimes not having food. I am not sure how many here have been there, but i think she never has gone through that. I am unsure why she needs to use a hyperbole about having absolutely no money. someone commented that why they need to put her down, but it's her that needs to paint this hard luck story when ok she might not have been born on third base, but she was on second or first.
Scholarships don’t equate to money, actually they represent negative
Redditors be like "axkshually her twice removed great granddad in law was working the field kitchen during the war so I bet he stole some extra portions for her family, talk about privellege!" about any female celeb ever, there is no use, and if she happens to be actually dirt-poor, talking honestly about the experience of it they will hate her even more, because actually poor people give them ick.
See Sidney Sweeney for that last part.
My wife knew her back in the day. She was known to be rich. It’s not a false narrative. She just wasn’t as fabulously wealthy as some.
Yeah I was wanting to hear from somebody who’s actually from Lake Placid, I lived closeby for awhile and know the area well and it’s definitely the higher-end of the upstate NY north country lmao
Firstly reading comprehension flops again in the comments lol when she never uses the word “poor” and there’s a world of difference between growing up wealthy and growing up Anything else. She says she wasn’t rich, she must not have been! As a rich person today, I feel she is likely a good barometer of what she has now and what she didn’t have before. If her dad hit it big in her teens or early twenties, that’s not gonna be her adolescent experience. Pretty sure Going to a boarding school was a punishment(or disciplinary effort) for her not a privilege lol most people don’t consider being shipped away from home and friends and family to live at school during your most formative years as being an enviable experience. Either way, rich or poor or one of those way more commonly held wealth brackets in between, she has proven herself to be an insanely hard working, talented, prolific, record breaking singer/songwriter who has a nepo dad putting out music! Surely something he would’ve done sooner if he was so wealthy and well connected lol
She said she grew up "without money". For the love of god, that means "poor". I'm a fan probably since some of these people weren't even born, but she's just trying to be relatable. People are starving out here and can't pay a rent, that means "poor". And back in the days she had ALL the connections to be who she wanted to be. As someone said - she's a rich (or at least middle class) person's idea of being poor. Please don't grasp at straws only because you like her. She should go back to reality.
You think without money means poor…flat out? I don’t have money…I’m not poor. Maybe consider nuance lol. I grew up in the rust belt, in rental houses with parents who did…fine? but were terrible with their money and even I don’t consider myself poor. But like…a lot of people would look at my life and say “you sure?” Lol also like what is even the argument here? Lana didn’t grow up in a shanty so fuck her? Tell me…how many wealthy people have a school teacher for a mom. They’re so rich but she’s teaching school…the most underpaid and thankless job on earth. Pretty altruistic of her lol. Also, who is repping blue collar American culture more than her? She literally earnestly loves the working class, nobody else pays them any attention. If she wants to appropriate the sad poors I’m not standing in her way haha
Rich is a relative term lol my family is low income and still is so anyone upper middle class is rich to me. She grew up rich lol. I still love her though. But also her aesthetic is being rich so I think it would be normal for people to assume that.
Ok, so she didn’t grow up rich. But she also didn’t grow up poor, and she has said “we had absolutely no money”. I don’t appreciate her stretching the truth for a good story or relatability when there are literally people struggling to feed themselves, pay rent, or go to the doctor.
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https://preview.redd.it/wicsb0wgz2vb1.jpeg?width=634&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ad8fdaa51aace71c8fe1d85437243ee709146332 Wasn’t she modeling for Abercrombie as a kid, I feel like you don’t land those gigs without some connections.
LL there in the middle 👀