The model and entrepreneur, 26, sounded off about setting the internet ablaze back in January when she was photographed wearing a cropped white tee with the words “nepo baby” written across the front in black lettering.
In an interview, Bieber explained why she decided to lean into the phrase.
“My point to having worn the T-shirt was not to poke fun at it or be like, ‘Yeah I’m a nepo baby haha,’ type of a thing,” said Bieber, who is the daughter of actor Stephen Baldwin. “It was more so to be like, ‘This is what everyone is saying and I want you to know that this is my way of responding to it.’ ”
Bieber went on to explain that she thought it would be funny to wear the shirt and embrace the criticism about the benefits of her famous lineage.
“I’m just going to call myself a nepo baby, because I am one, and I embrace that I am,” she added. “My point to having worn the T-shirt was not to poke fun at it or be like, ‘Yeah I’m a nepo baby haha,’ type of a thing. It was more so to be like, ‘This is what everyone is saying and I want you to know that this is my way of responding to it.’ ”
Bieber went on to say that it’s just another example of how she can never please everyone on the internet, because “nothing’s ever enough.”
“You’re going to sit there and call me a nepo baby all day long, but then I acknowledge it and then I’m not enough of a nepo baby? There is never any winning with the internet, and that’s what I’ve always time and time again realized,” she continued.
The term “nepotism baby,” or “nepo baby,” originated on social media as a way to point out individuals who have benefited from the privilege of having powerful family connections, such as rising stars like Maude Apatow and Lily Rose Depp. However, the term can also be applied to some staples of entertainment, like Jamie Lee Curtis.