Having a famous person in the family must be pretty cool right? Wrong. All sorts of problems can crop up when someone in the family is famous. Maybe the Paparazzi and Loony Fans refuse to leave the family alone, maybe members of the family have to deal with False Friends trying to get to their kin through them, maybe they suffer from being in their shadow, but whatever the case, the family has issues directly because one or more of their own is famous.
Super-Trope to Notorious Parent, which is specific to when a parent being infamous is a source of a drama.
Sister Trope to, and can go hand-in-hand with, Celebrity is Overrated, which focuses more on when the problems are directly suffered by the famous person. Note that for an example to count as this trope and not Celebrity is Overrated, the negatively impacted person cannot be famous on their own merits themselves, at least at first. If they become famous later but the issues are rooted from before they became famous, it counts as this trope.
In cases where the famous relative is a sibling, it may overlap with Successful Sibling Syndrome. In cases where the famous relative is a parent, it may involve their child feeling like or being seen as a Sucksessor and/or Inadequate Inheritor. If the work is a Sequel featuring Spin-Offspring, it may also involve Protagonists Become Bad Parents. All cases may also involve some combination of Overshadowed by Awesome, Always Someone Better, and Always Second Best.
Compare Mo' Money, Mo' Problems, when having more money results in having more problems. Contrast Stage Mom where a parent trying to make their kid famous is a source of issues, though it's not mutually exclusive with this trope.
No Real Life Examples, Please! We are not gossiping on the familial affairs of real life celebrities or any other famous person for that matter.
Examples:
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Anime & Manga
- Macross Delta: Mirage Farina Jenius has this problem as she's the granddaughter of Ace Pilots Maximilian Jenius and Miriya Farina and, as part of Delta Squadron, feels like she needs to live up to this Heroic Lineage. By the time of Zettai Live, others like Arad and even her own Grandpa Max see that she's better as a commander than a pilot, the inverse of Max's track and more like her aunt Mylene.
- My Hero Academia: With Enji Todoroki as the Number Two Hero, Endeavor, his son Shoto is constantly being compared to him, which has particularly bad synergy with Endeavor's status as an abusive parent.
Fan Works
- Infinity Train: Blossomverse: Chloe Cerise's major claim to fame in Pokémon Journeys: The Series is that her father is a Pokémon Professor, and a student of Oak's at that. This has a lot of angst on her for the fact that her classmates that that, obviously, she will take after her father and is super smart about Pokémon, super strong in battling, etc. Many stories bring up how much stress she has on her for many reasons, one of them being she'll never be seen as anything past her father's reputation.
- My Driver Academia: In the sequel Decimo Either Way, Izuku is the world-famous Honoured One, Rex, and his kids grew up in that shadow. The one to suffer the most from that is Tsunayoshi, who considers himself the loser of the family compared to his famous father, famous moms, and talented siblings, which makes it hard to connect to his father. Izuku himself laments this, and it is only through hiring Reborn to act as Tsuna's tutor that the familial issues improve.
Films — Live-Action
- Sky High (2005): Will Stronghold is the only son of the two most famous superheroes in the world, The Commander and Jetstream. This is already intimidating enough, but by the time he is supposed to start at Sky High, he has not developed any powers, which leaves him at a loss over how he's supposed to live up to their legacy. This gets him put into the lesser Sidekick/"Hero Support" track, which disappoints his father when he eventually finds out. When he later develops his father's Super-Strength, transferring to the Hero track, he basks in his father's newfound approval, along with popularity at school, though a little too much popularity, alienating his Sidekick friends. Gwen, secretly his parents' Arch-Enemy, Royal Pain, uses him to get into their secret lair and steal her confiscated weapon back. When Will realizes this, he makes up with his friends to save the school.
- Tower of Terror: Abigail Gregory — the old woman who gives Buzzy the story about the Hollywood Tower Hotel disappearances — is revealed to be the sister of one of the victims, child star Sally Shine, and was envious of her fame. The final straw was when on her birthday, the day of the disappearance, nobody seemed to remember her. As a result, she put the curse on the elevator that trapped her sister and everyone inside in limbo and was using Buzzy to help banish them all for good. Sally reveals that they hadn't forgotten Abigail's birthday — the family had planned a Surprise Party for Abigail, and were on their way there when the curse struck, making Abigail feel terrible. Their reconciliation breaks the curse.
- What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?: Happens twice over. As a child, "Baby" Jane Hudson was a vaudeville star who overshadowed her sister Blanche for years. Fortunes reversed when they were young adults, as time killed Jane's career, while Blanche became a famous movie star before getting crippled in a mysterious accident that Jane was seemingly responsible for. Even though both sisters have lost their fame by the present day, they still resent each other.
Literature
- Magic Attic Club: In Heather Goes to Hollywood, Heather meets Rena Malone's overbearing Stage Mom Jean and younger sister Sophie. Jean's focus on Rena's stardom has resulted in a fractured family dynamic. In Jean's attempt to duplicate Rena's success, Sophie is constantly being taken to various movie auditions, pressured to find the right script so she can get into movies (and told she'll be a bigger star than Rena should she do so) and expected to aim for a movie career like Rena's, even being told to watch her weight at her younger age. Still she's almost invisible in public, with few people paying attention to her other than to fuss at her. Jean says Sophie's complaints about Rena's stardom come from a place of envy, rather than the truth that Sophie is unhappy being made to follow Rena's goals. Their parents don't live together and Mr. Malone is divorcing Jean—a scandal for the 1930s setting—and he had no idea his daughters were both miserable. Sophie is also constantly lectured by Jean, and eventually Sophie reveals to Heather (who is impersonating Rena so she can accept the Maggy Award) that the real reason Rena isn't there is because she ran away due to the pressures of stardom, and both girls are friendless, miserable, and want a regular life instead of being taken from audition to audition and having a personal tutor instead of going to school and having friends "like normal."
- Mother of Learning: Zorian is thoroughly fed up with people knowing about his brother Daimen, who has made a name for himself as an archaeologist. Not only does it mean that people recognize him as "Daimen's brother" instead of himself; not only does it mean their social climber parents like to play favorites and compare Zorian negatively to Daimen; there's also the fact that he doesn't like Daimen, who as a teenager was rather arrogant and inconsiderate toward his younger siblings, and Zorian doesn't enjoy listening to him being praised and celebrated.
- Romance of the Three Kingdoms: A recurring theme in the later chapters of the book involve the children (primarily the sons) of famous generals or officials trying to live up to their fathers' names.
- During the fall of Shu, the son and grandson of Zhuge Liang resolve to fight to the death, as they would rather die with Shu than live with the shame of allowing it to be conquered. That Zhuge Liang is a Mary Tzu with outright supernatural powers and helped build Shu not just from a backwater province but a proper contender for the empire especially weighs upon them.
- Upon being introduced as an adult, Liu Shan is derided as being a useless successor to his father Liu Bei. Where Liu Bei essentially clawed his way up from nothing with a combination of courage, cunning, audacity and honour (thus earning the loyalty of many capable men), Liu Shan has practically no redeeming features. He does, however, have one very important skill: he knows to stop useless struggles, and he knows to just keep his head down so people don't think he's a threat that needs to be permanently dealt with. After the fall of Shu, he lives the rest of his life in comparative peace and luxury.
- Trapped in a Dating Sim: The World of Otome Games is Tough for Mobs: Due to Leon amassing many accomplishments and gaining a lot of fame, his older brother Nicks develops an inferiority complex, especially when people compare him to his ridiculously successful younger brother.
- This is the entire premise of the Gordon Korman book The Twinkie Squad. Douglas Fairchild has a big problem. His entire family is famous and distinguished and he's quite ordinary. His father is an ambassador who routinely meets the President, his mother is a famous hostess (important in Washington, D.C.), his sister is a doctor, and his brother is a congressman. There's no way he can possibly keep up, so he chooses not to, acting out in ways that distract people away from comparing him to his family. It takes months for his friend Armando to figure this out.
Live-Action TV
- The Big Bang Theory: Leonard's father and siblings have more successful scientific careers, so his mother, Dr. Beverly Hofstadter, constantly compares him to them, which isn't good for his self-esteem. His mother is herself a published author and renowned neuroscientist/psychiatrist who has used his own childhood traumas, caused by her cold behavior, as fodder for her books.
- Blue Bloods: The Reagan family is fairly well-known in New York, since the family patriarch, Frank Reagan, is the Police Commissioner for New York City. This is of particular frustration to Jamie Reagan, a younger officer on the police force, as he feels that he is singled out for extra scrutiny by his superiors precisely so it won't appear that they're granting the commissioner's son extra favors due to Nepotism, and that he is held back from promotions for that reason, as well as the fact that whenever he's involved in incidents that garner public attention, his family name means that he's doubted and scrutinized by the public with greater intensity, such as an incident where he stopped a cyclist at a protest from plowing into a mother and daughter, only for the media to only show the footage of him knocking the cyclist to the ground (with the man ending up hospitalized), but with absolutely no camera footage showing that he was, in fact, protecting others (at least until Frank leans on a local minister known for playing racial politics for withholding said footage).
- Hannah Montana: In the episode "When You Wish You Were The Star", Miley wishes she could be a star full-time. In the alternate reality that results, Jackson leaves the family and lives as a hermit whose only friends are dolphins because he was sick of everyone trying to be his friend just to meet his sister. Unfortunately for him, it wasn't enough, since one of the dolphins is a fan of Hannah Montana and pesters Jackson about it.
- Supergirl (2015):
- Supergirl, though she loves her cousin, struggles to make a name for herself as her own hero separate from Superman, especially in Season 1. This is especially frustrating since she is technically older than him and was sent to Earth to protect him, not the other way around. Barry mentions this in "Duet":
Barry: When you need a compliment
I can rattle off a dozen
For instance, I have to say I'm not impressed
By your more famous cousin
Kara: [spoken] THANK you! Nobody ever says that! - Lucy Lane, Lois Lane's younger sister, appears as a supporting character in Season 1. She struggles with being in the shadow of her Pulitzer Prize-winning sister, though the specific reasons they don't get along are never discussed.
- Supergirl, though she loves her cousin, struggles to make a name for herself as her own hero separate from Superman, especially in Season 1. This is especially frustrating since she is technically older than him and was sent to Earth to protect him, not the other way around. Barry mentions this in "Duet":
- Superman & Lois: On Inverse World, Bizarro Superman does not have a secret identity, so he and his family, who go by his Kryptonian family name El, have been in the public eye for all of his sons' lives. This has had a negative effect on their family dynamic compared to the Kents from the main universe, and gets worse when Jon-El develops powers and becomes a public hero before he is emotionally ready, failing to handle the power responsibly. Jon-El is swayed by Ally Alston to join the Inverse Society and becomes an antagonist to his father and the Kents as he tries to absorb their world's Jon into himself.
Theatre
- Harry Potter and the Cursed Child: Harry Potter's middle child Albus Severus Potter struggles with his famous father's reputation, especially since he gets sorted into Slytherin, struggles with magic and Quidditch, and gets bullied at Hogwarts, meaning they have little to bond over. At one point, Albus lashes out at Harry, telling him he wishes Harry wasn't his dad, which causes Harry to lash out right back. However, Harry's other children, James Sirius and Lily Luna, seem to get on just fine, downplaying this.
- In the play Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike, the main characters are siblings Vanya, Sonya, and Masha, all adults who are getting on in years. When they were younger adults, their parents grew ill and dependent on caretakers. Vanya and Sonya stayed at home to care for them, basically putting their lives on hold. Masha, in contrast, left home and became a movie star. Vanya and Sonya resent her for her selfishness and success, as Masha wasn't there when their parents needed her and they died while she was living it up in Hollywood. Part of the play's plot involves the siblings working through their unresolved issues.
Video Games
- Arcanum: The "Child of a Hero" background starts you off with an enchanted sword and the game-long drawback that any evil act (many of which fall squarely into Informed Wrongness) gets double penalties. Implicit in the way this works is that as a direct result of being the child of a lauded hero, the player character is under greater pressure to be of good moral standing like their parent than they otherwise would be.
- Pokémon Legends: Z-A: In the Mega Dimensions DLC, Ansha mentions that one of her worries is that if she becomes a Pokémon Trainer, she fears she would never live up to her mother's, former champion Diantha's, greatness.
Web Original
- The Onion: In "Holy Shit, I Just Realised People Want to Kill My Dad
", Barack Obama's daughter Sasha realises that because her dad is the President (at the time), that means that some people want to kill him, and a few might even want to kill her and her mother and sister as well.
Western Animation
- Family Guy: In "The D in Apartment 23", Brian posts an innocuous tweet that sends the internet into a frenzy, with protestors showing up at his front door. The Griffin family forces Brian to move out because him getting canceled by the internet is now directly affecting their own lives.
- My Dad the Rock Star: Part of the premise of the show is how Willy's dad Rock being a famous rock star impacts him, with one recurring issue being that Willy has to deal with Scoop harassing Willy and the rest of the family to get a scoop on Rock.
- Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Downplayed with Daphne; she comes from a very wealthy family, and is the youngest of six girls. Her older sisters all have fame and fortune due to their successful careers (i.e., a Marine Corps general, a wealthy doctor, a race car driver, a fashion designer, and an unseen sixth sister who married rich and works with NASA). Her parents consider Daphne a bit of a Black Sheep since she hasn't done much in her life other than solve mysteries with her friends, but Daphne is happy as she is and doesn't envy her sisters' success (although she and her sister, Delilah, don't seem to get along very well). In later seasons, she's even shown getting along with her parents better than in the first seasons. The finale's reset timeline flips this on it's head: Daphne is the one her parents are proud of due to her getting engaged to Fred (who, here, is the son of two well-off doctors) while her sisters have done nothing noteworthy in their lives.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: The episode "Its Mean Its Green Its The Mystery Machine" features the Dinwittie family, which consists of former child stars, Andy and Mandy, their Stage Mom, Susan, and a third child, Randy, whom said mom doesn't care about because he's not a star. Susan openly favors Andy and Mandy at Randy's expense, a source of angst for Randy, but by the end of the episode, Andy and Mandy have enough of their mother's attitude, abandon their attempted comebacks, and promise to give Randy the love and support he never got from their mother.
