Celebrity children on a road to failure

The critical reaction to Brooklyn Beckham’s book of photography shows that while being a child of celebrity parents can open doors, it can also lead to unrealistic expectations, says Carolyn Moore.

His privileged upbringing aside, you’d have to feel for Brooklyn Beckham. The 18-year-old son of David and Victoria had a rude awakening recently when critics derided his debut photography book, What I See, as ‘terrible’ and ‘hilarious’.

Dubbed a ‘craparazzi’ by The Sun, he weathered a social media storm. Twitter users shared some of his less technically proficient images and claimed the budding photographer’s work had only been published because of the bankability of the Beckham name. When Burberry hired him to shoot a campaign last year, a similar backlash ensued. Professional photographers called it “a devaluation of their skills and training.” “Sheer nepotism!” they cried, and they were right, but Beckham is just the latest in a long line of celebrity offspring to be given a foot up because of who their parents are. What we often don’t acknowledge though, is how harshly their efforts are judged for the very same reason.