Star Kids’ woes

In the wake of a post by Smriti Z. Irani about how she deleted a picture with her daughter who was later bullied by a peer for how she looked in the picture, what we can decipher is that, it’s not all glitz and glam for celebrities’ kids.

While there are several campaigns to break the stereotypes of beauty in this misogynistic society, it seems like even celebrity children have to face the brunt. They become the victims of snarly and nasty comments on social media because of their parent’s celebrity status.

Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana Khan

While such trolls and bullies can affect their confidence and have an adverse effect on their holistic personality. According to sociologist Sangeetha Amarnath, people in general have an inquisitive mentality. “Which then demands them to be curious and nosy in knowing the personal life of celebrities. In turn, the media focuses on reporting personal information, almost invading their private space. While on one side we have the stipulating society, on the other we have celebrities themselves trying to curb their kids’ freedom by binding them with rules to maintain a social status, like pressurising kids to lose weight and so on,” she opines.

“The Indian mentality is such that anything different is unacceptable, hence they compare celebrity kids to their parents and expect them to behave accordingly. When their freedom is restrained, then it is irrational to expect them to be responsible for everything they do,” she adds.

Shwetha Srivatsav, an actress and a mother of a two-year-old, shares, “With my daughter, I have never experienced this though I strongly feel that one should not take such trolls or negative comments so seriously. Everyone has access to the phone and social media. They are free to post whatever comment without even thinking”

To understand the psychology behind this intrusive obsession, Dr Nisha Khanna, a psychologist explains, “This could come from jealousy and the fact that these kids have it all as opposed to the perpetrator. When people see someone better than them, they, unconsciously, become insecure and aim to tarnish the reputation by attacking their most sensitive point i.e their kids. Mostly people are unhappy not because they can’t afford something but because the others can.”

Throwing light on how this affects celebrity kids, she adds, “Sometimes bullies notice these kids’ lack of emotional support mainly because their parents are career-oriented and their personal life has taken a back seat. This, ultimately, reacts on their personality. They can either become aggressive or succumb to depression.”

Talking about the woes of a celebrity mother, Jayashree Raj, an actress, a Bigg Boss contestant and a mother of a 15-year-old shares, “No one has the right to speak about others and especially invade their private space. During my stint at the Bigg Boss house, I’d constantly cry, thinking about my daughter and people had the nerve to take pictures of my daughter and post it on social media with derogatory comments. I was shattered, I hope that my daughter never sees these comments again.”

With reference to star kids’ lifestyle, she says, “Celebrity kids have their own problems, to begin with — they are dealing with their age; they’re trying to keep up with expectations; they’re trying to deal with cyber bullies and others. In the bargain, they loose their childhood. I tell my daughter that she’s not special and acting is just a profession that doesn’t make us any different from the rest.”

Further, Jayashree believes that there is no definition to beauty neither does it have any rules. “Just because someone possesses good features doesn’t make them beautiful. Beauty is from within, this thought has to be sowed in everyone’s upbringing,” she asserts.

With Shah Rukh Khan’s daughter Suhana Khan already facing the brunt of social media haters. Recently, even Ajay Devgn’s daughter, Nysa, was trolled and humiliated on social media for her looks. To which Ajay was quick to retort, “My daughter doesn’t care...Jo bhi krte hai, unka mind-set, bakwaas hota hai”. So we too, do not bother about all that rubbish, nor do we pay any heed to such nonsensical comments, with fake identity. I think the best way to ignore such bullying is to just ignore it.. They are all faceless people so how do their  comments matter or should even bother us?”