I am nepobaby, says Sasha Meneghel

At 25, Sasha Meneghel launched her own fashion brand. Graduated in fashion design in the United States, the only daughter of Xuxa and Luciano Szafir walked the opening parade in São Paulo, this Monday (10).

She recognized the privileges of being the daughter of celebrities and defined herself as a nepobaby when talking about the beginning of her career — whether as a model or, now, as a businesswoman. The word mixes the terms “nepotism” and “baby” and is used to define young artists whose careers would allegedly be facilitated by their famous and/or prestigious parents, godparents or relatives.

“Yes, I am a nepobaby, and I want to say that I recognize the privileges I have, immense privileges of being able to bring together so many incredible people here, of contacts that I naturally received in life for being a nepobaby,” she said to the FFW Fashion channel.

“Now, that’s what I’m going to do with all this, with these opportunities that I have at hand. I hope I showed a little bit with the [marca] Mondepars. My whole life I’ve received criticism, but I’ve received much more love, I look at that more than any negative feedback.”

On social media, the term has already been associated with Gilberto Gil’s children and grandchildren, who form the band Gilsons and won two trophies at the 2023 Brazilian Music Awards. Irrefutable proof that, despite good connections and an above-average cultural environment, In the environment in which they were raised, boys have talent, whatever they say.

This is Theo Bial’s reasoning. “Last name helps, but you have to be good”, the musician, son of journalist Pedro Bial and actress Giulia Gam, told F5, days after releasing an album on ‘Fantástico’. On that occasion, he was interviewed at length by his father and Ernesto Paglia, with interventions from his mother.

Nepobabies are a frequent subject of jokes for online comedians. The profile Malhassaum, formed by Dig Verardi and Fernanda Fuchs, went viral on social media when it mocked the privilege of relatives of famous people and the bubble in the south zone of Rio.

Essayist Francisco Bosco, son of singer João Bosco, spoke about the subject recently on GNT. He said that he fought against this association with his father for a while (“It was quite difficult”), and stated that Brazil has what he defines as an “obsession and fetish” with the figure of the heir.

“The condition for a child to stop being a child is to gain autonomy and social recognition as a subject, but because of this obsession it is difficult. I see it as a fetish, as a symptom of Brazilian society’s inability to democratize itself. It is an eternal perpetuation of it was feudal.”