I can’t be the only one who side-eyed Brooklyn Peltz Beckham’s appearance in Variety’s Young Hollywood issue, right? Brooklyn was one of five cover stars along with Becky G, Halle Bailey, and Angus Cloud. One of these… is not like the others. But then again, maybe Variety was trolling. Because “nepo babies” are thing on social media now– people love dumping on them – so for Variety to include one of the most high-profile nepo babies in the culture on their list, well, it feels like a little bit of a troll. 

 

I say this because Brooklyn’s nepo baby-ness is making headlines right now. But first, some background: Brooklyn, of course, is the first child of Victoria and David Beckham. He went to design school and then dropped out. He tried to be a photographer for a while and got a publishing deal for his photos, which were not all that special. But somehow he landed a job at Burberry shooting their campaign. That was a few years ago. Then he moved on to modelling, but Superdry did not renew his contract earlier this year. Because he says his true calling is in the kitchen. He’s a chef now. 

To be fair, Brooklyn is 23 years old and a lot of people in this phase of life have to try out a lot of things to figure out what they want to do and who they are. As Brooklyn told Variety: 

“I still have all my film cameras, but now it’s just more of a fun thing to do. They were kind of all hobbies. I was still trying to find that one thing I would literally die for, and I found that with cooking.” 

 

Right. But few people in this phase of life who are going through “hobbies” before finding the “one thing” to die over are also able to live the way Brooklyn has lived – not worried about student loans, not worried about rent, travelling around the world on no fixed timeline. And driving around in million dollar cars. 

That’s why Brooklyn’s gone a bit viral over the last few days. Because he appeared in one of Daniel Mac’s “What Do You Do For A Living” TikTok videos… 

@itsdanielmac

Bruh What Even Is A “Chef Name 😅💀@brooklynbeckham #mclarenp1 #p1

♬ original sound - DANIEL MAC

And was subsequently clowned in the comments because let’s not pretend that he’s driving a McLaren P1 on his chef’s salary, please. 

 

But I get it. It’s probably an uncomfortable truth for him in some ways, and why should he be mocked for wanting to do something on his own, for wanting to establish his own identity? That said, it gets complicated when your identity is your opportunity. And opportunity in and of itself is what so many people don’t have access to. 

While we’re here though, and we’re talking about identity… 

Much of the gossip around Brooklyn lately has been about whether or not he and his wife, Nicola, are beefing with his parents. Brooklyn and Nicola were seen a few days ago at the Day of Indulgence event – basically a gifting suite for celebrities and mostly attended by women. As far as I could see, Nicola was the only one who brought a male partner. They’re newlyweds so, sure, they’re inseparable right now but seeing him there pinged me. Because now I’m curious about their social circle – do they have one? 

 

David and Victoria are insular, for sure. The Beckhams move as a unit which includes extended family. But they also have friends. David has a crew of dudes he’s known for decades. Victoria is tight with Eva Longoria. Both of them are tight with Elton John. The Beckhams and Gordon Ramsay’s family have been known to spend a lot of time together. This is what Brooklyn grew up around…

And now he’s been on his own, with Nicola, and sometimes her family – but they’re in their 20s, they should be building their own social network. Do they have one? Because it could be really hard if they don’t, if they’re estranged from his family and they’re cocooned together, just the two of them, it’s hard on a young marriage. Especially when the two of them are trying to establish their careers, in Brooklyn’s case with multiple false starts, marriages are always fragile, and it’s best to treat them that way so that you care for them, always. But they can be particularly fragile in the early years, in these times, with the world changing as quickly as it does.