This week I am going to let my friend Viola Mullen tell you why Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof may have bitten off more than she can chew and why Bob Geldof’s daughter might not be the best ambassador for today’s teenagers.
Adults hail Peaches Honeyblossom Geldof as the voice of young people today. She’s the focus of much cooing and gushing by media figureheads. And if there’s a star-studded premiere or fashion event, you can bet your money she’ll get an invite. So why all the fuss?
I’ll be the first to admit she’s got a killer CV: columns in the Daily Telegraph and ELLE girl, and two presenter credits in documentaries made for Sky, “Peaches Geldof: Inside a Teenage Mind” and “Peaches Geldof: Teen America”. Not a bad achievement for a sixteen year old, studying her A-levels!
So compare the average life of Peaches to your average teenager starting out in the media, who probably spends half their weekends stacking economy beans in Tescos. A regular teenager will probably be doing years of dull underpaid jobs to fund themselves through university, fork out a mint on a postgraduate degree and put up with endless rejections and unanswered emails – just to get an inch closer to what Peaches has achieved in her short adolescent life.
But it’s no coincidence that Peaches has evaded these pitfalls. Could it be anything to do with the fact that she happens to be the daughter of iconic musician and activist, Sir Bob Geldof?
I'm not denying Ms Geldof is a very talented, astute young woman. In fact she is a welcome antidote to people famous for nothing specific other than having famous parents (Kelly Osbourne and Paris Hilton to name but an obnoxious few).
But what bothers me is that Ms. Geldof is uncritically applauded for her outspokenness and hailed as the voice of our generation. But what’s forgotten is that her fame has been inherited. As successful and intelligent as she is, the origins of her success are never touched on, and this shows a blatant ignorance for the type of hardships - constant knock backs, rejections and underpaid menial jobs that befall most young people wanting to work in the media.
Ms Geldof's success for someone who has barely reached adulthood seems like a slap in the face for those five years her senior, who have no alternative but years of clawing their way up that media ladder.
It should strike many people as unfair, that this "fashionista" in the media spotlight has been catapulted to a glamorous job that other 16 year olds wouldn't be able to touch until they start getting wrinkles. We don’t live in a fair society but that doesn’t mean that we should ignore the fact that it’s prestige rather than dedication and hard work that got her where she is. One would have hoped that, in the 21st century young people would have had a more authentic voice to represent them.
About the team
This story was produced by Viola Mullen and edited by Annabel McLeod. It was published by Reach for the Sky website.
