Nikki Reed was so poor as a kid, she ate off the dollar menu every day

Nikki Reed

I’m trying to remember the last time I saw Nikki Reed in a non-Twilight movie. Her IMDb page reveals a semi-steady workload of mostly VOD titles. She does do a lot of charity work. This photo shows Nikki at a Lindt Gold Bunny auction to benefit autism research. Nikki has a brother on the autism spectrum, so this cause is very personal to her.

Nikki also has a new interview with Yahoo! to promote her new partnership with Thrive Market, which is an online membership service that offers organic and non-GMO groceries at wholesale prices. They claim Whole Foods quality at Costco prices. For every membership sold, Thrive will donate one to a low-income family. The company website says a yearly membership costs about $60, and then you buy groceries at a discount. Nikki finds this Thrive partnership to be a personal cause too. She tells Yahoo! that she didn’t have healthy or organic foods available at all when she was growing up. This sounds like something Vivienne Westwood should read:

Nikki’s early career goals: “I wanted to be a vet and take care of animals. I didn’t ever think of myself as an actress.”

Her poor childhood: “I grew up eating off the dollar menu at every fast food restaurant. When you have a single mother that makes $15,000 a year for her two kids in a major city like Los Angeles, money runs out quickly. If my mom could have afforded it she would have bought healthy organic vegetables, but we didn’t have the money.”

Her career these days: “I do feel like it’s important for women in particular to focus on having a little more control over the roles that they choose. Creating something is oftentimes your best bet. I’m actually currently writing a feature that I’m planning on directing. I started in this business when I was only 13, and I’m still very young. At this age my primary focus and goal is chasing directors I want to work with and chasing material.”

[From Yahoo! Style]

Nikki also talks about her her endless supply of pets (including a horse with Ian) are taken care of by her mom. Nikki built her mom a guest house so she can always be present for pet care. Strange? It’s not quite a Katy Perry move. Nikki provides free room and board for her mom in exchange for pet care. I guess it works for everyone involved. Nikki’s very generous with animals and active with charity. I’m sure she’s geting a cut from this Thrive deal, but she’s also trying to bring attention to the free memberships for low-income families. Still … I gotta throw a little shade at Nikki and Ian Somerhalder’s red carpet behavior at last month’s Noble Awards. Who does this?

Nikki Reed

Ian Somerhalder

Ian Somerhalder

Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN

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83 Responses to “Nikki Reed was so poor as a kid, she ate off the dollar menu every day”

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  1. Kath says:

    That Ian Somer-something is a creepy looking dude. That’s all I’ve got.

    • Megan says:

      Go to the amanda Knox threads…. That means he’s a murder…. Especially if he’s ever dated someone who looks sorta like him

      • Kitten says:

        Because he has sharp blue eyes, that means he’s “skeevy” and “creepy”, didn’t you know this already?

        Nevermind the fact that the dude donates more time and money to animal-related causes than probably anyone on this thread.

      • Nicole says:

        He doesn’t read murderer, he reads cute sleaze. I guess some people are good at getting an instinctual read from faces and videos, and to people who don’t have that, it sounds like hocus pocus.

    • snowflake says:

      same as bradley cooper, light blue eyes, must be a serial killer or creepy. my mom must be too since her eyes are that shade. i don’t get it, i think bc and ian are good looking men, don’t get the comments on here that you’re creepy if you have light eyes.

  2. QQ says:

    OMG the red carpeting.. is embarrassing as F*ck… but good for her being involved in other endeavors

  3. mememe says:

    What’s Ian’s last name? Is he a soap actor?

  4. Rose says:

    But some people are so poor they can’t even afford to eat out everyday though 😅

    • PunkyMomma says:

      Thank you. Sad to say there are some people whose only meal is rummaged out of the dumpsters of fast food places.

      • ybsggss says:

        The Dollar Menu was too expensive for my family. That was for the rich kids.

      • ozmom says:

        She’s not trying to present herself as the most poor child in America, just talking about her experience. I think any family with a 15k income in L.A. would be considered poor.

      • Nicole says:

        It’s not a contest.

      • Liv says:

        I’m not sure if she’s honest. Isn’t her dad in the movie business and that’s why she got into it with 13? I can’t imagine that a kid who’s really poor gets in contact with the business with 13. As far as I know her dad and his girlfriend made it possible for her to write the script/book.

    • Jay says:

      There will always be one person worse off than the next… that doesn’t make her struggle any less valid.

    • Luciana says:

      Right? That’s what I was thinking. My sister and I were also raised by a single mom who made very little money so we rarely ate out at all. Mc Donald’s or Burger Chef were treats for us.

    • jwoolman says:

      I read junk food review sites, and have noticed that those dollar menus often provide loads of protein and calories. I can see why people short on cash would use them as the major source of food for the day. Or even the only source. Lots of bang for a single buck. No cooking facilities or working refrigerator or electricity needed, which is another factor for many. Not a balanced diet, but first priority is enough calories and protein especially for kids. Produce is terribly expensive where I live in the US, I can also see why people can’t justify spending limited dollars on it.

      So eating off the dollar menu is not a sign of affluence or being able to afford “eating out” …. It can be a reasonable and cost-effective choice for low income folk. They can come in, spend a dollar plus tax, and get enough food to keep going for another day.

    • wiffie says:

      Sorry but you can eat lot more food if you buy produce and bulk grains than eating off the dollar menu. If the way of thinking is, “can’t afford organic, so double cheeseburger it is!” It’s way off. A non organic carrot is still better than fries.

      Bulk pasta, whatever produce is on sale, and a jar of 99¢ red sauce is a whole meal for a family you can buy for less than $4. It FEELS cheaper to eat from the dollar menu, but it sucks you dry, and is way more expensive in the long run.

      With coupons and planning, 3.5 of us eat for $10 a day, and that’s 3 meals a day.

      Her mom must have had a hard time and I’m not coming down on her, just trying to address this for anyone else out there thinking, sure! That’s the way to go!

      • Sos101 says:

        Unless your electricity gets cut off regularly and you can’t afford to refrigerate or cook food. Depends on the circumstances. Everybody’s got a story.

      • Anna says:

        In poorer communities healthy food is a lot more expensive so buying fast food off the dollar menu would be cheaper. Also a lot of low income families don’t have a lot of space to store all these healthy foods, they might not have cars to get a bunch of groceries at once, they might not have the time to go grocery shopping and cook since they’re pribably working a lot of hours at low paying jobs and they might not even been able to afford electricity to make these meals.

    • Tiffany :) says:

      “Sorry but you can eat lot more food if you buy produce and bulk grains than eating off the dollar menu”

      Yes, but if you don’t have a car to take a trip to a store that offers affordable produce and bulk grains, you might be taking a 3 hour bus trip there and back.

      People do not understand that what is available in terms of food is GREATLY impacted by where you live. In urban areas, like Los Angeles where Nikki lived, it can be very challenging to find fresh affordable produce, much less bulk grains. Many people have to do their grocery shopping from convenience stores.

      • TrixC says:

        Is this really the way it is in big cities in America? I live in a not-so-good part of London and find it a lot easier to get affordable healthy food than it was when I lived in a more fashionable part of town. There are lots of small corner stores that are run by immigrants (particularly Turkish and Bangladeshi) and they all sell very good quality fresh vegetables, fruit, herbs, pulses etc for much cheaper than you can get in the supermarkets. We have a problem with excessive numbers of fast food shops too, but healthy food is easily available if you want it.

      • wiffie says:

        Touche. I forget that for some people grocery stores are not everywhere. And if mom is working and kids fend for themselves, it’s probably more likely they’re walking to McDonald’s and not cooking over a stove by themselves.

        In general though if you’re strictly looking financially and no other factors, dollar menu FEELS cheaper, but in no way is.

      • snowflake says:

        no trixc it’s not that way in all the big cities. just less fresh outdoor markets, i wish we had more of those.

      • taxi says:

        But Snowflake, fresh outdoor markets in California are usually only 1 day a week, set up in a parking lot or blocked street. Very large cities have more than 1 site & day, but Trixc, we don’t have very workable public transportation here – not like London, Paris, or NYC.

      • Tiffany :) says:

        Not all of Los Angeles is like this, but in poorer areas it definitely is. There are very few grocery stores south of the 10. They were burned down during the Rodney King riots and never rebuilt.

        In more affluent and middle class areas, there are tons of places to get fresh produce, including grocery stores and farmers markets. There are very few, if any, farmers markets in struggling areas. Transportation is such a burden in LA. If you can’t afford to have a car, or if you have a family with only one car that is dedicated to getting people to multiple jobs, the distance to a grocery store can seem insurmountable.

  5. AlmondJoy says:

    Sorry to be insensitive, but extremely poor kids don’t get to eat out. I know many kids that get their only meal when they come to school. It’s heartbreaking. I agree with alot of what she said though. I also love that she helping with autism research. That’s a cause that’s close to my heart as well.

    • Kathy says:

      Some people live in areas where they have no grocery stores and without transportation the only option available is fast food. Or scrounging.

    • atrain says:

      She was an extremely poor kid, and she ate at McDonald’s. Sometimes it’s easier to scrape together $1 for a cheeseburger than $5 to buy some milk, bread, and eggs.

    • noway says:

      In fairness to her she didn’t say she was extremely poor. She said her mother made $15,000 a year for two kids and money ran out quickly. The sad case about childhood hunger there are the ones that have no meals, except hopefully at school, and also the ones that have limited resources like it sounds happened to Nikki. Both situations are bad, and it is very sad that the McDonald’s dollar meal is the cheapest way for some people to eat in the US as grocery stores in poorer areas are not prevalent and you are stuck with convenience stores which are generally very expensive and not nutritious.

      • Kitten says:

        Maybe it depends on where you live, but in Boston $15,000 annual income with two kids is considered “extremely poor”.

      • snowflake says:

        that’s 1250 a month or 312/week or 7.81 an hour if you work a 40 hour week. that’s extremely poor, no offense intended to anyone in that income bracket. esp if you have two kid s. you have to have a bigger place with kids, too, so your rent is more expensive. not to mention all the other expenses associated with kids

      • GoodNamesAllTaken says:

        I made that much 30 years ago, and I was very poor. I could pay my rent and bills, but I had nothing left over, and I didn’t have kids to support, either.

  6. JenniferJustice says:

    That dude looks so much like Rob Lowe but in a skeevy way, it’s freakin’ me out.

    Regarding the dollar menu thing, I don’t get how anybody can afford fast food -even the dollar menu, if they can’t afford fresh vegetables. I’ve heard this before and although I do know that certain veggies are expensive (asparagus!), most are reasonably priced and enough for more than one meal. Are fruits and vegetables really that out of reach for low-income families?

    • noway says:

      In the poorer area of large cities people on that type of income or below can’t find grocery stores nearby. Furthermore transportation to the grocery stores could be expensive and time consuming. They generally have convenience stores that have limited selections and expensive prices to boot. Asparagus probably isn’t even an option, and other vegetables and fruits are pretty expensive. Yes the dollar meal is probably cheaper and available.

      Yes you are right he does look like a skeevy Rob Lowe, maybe he should do those commercials with Rob.

    • Bridget says:

      Access is huge – not every grocery store is going to have the same selection of produce we have, and of course not everyone has easy access to the grocery store in the first place. And don’t forget, while fresh fruit and veggies may not be hugely expensive (at least, depending on what you get) they go bad fast and you need to eat a lot of them.

  7. doofus says:

    sorry for being obtuse, but what was so wrong with their red-carpet behavior?

    in those pics, they just look to be looking at each other affectionately….which we all go “AW!!!!” over for other couples.

    did I miss something? are there more pics where they’re like…humping on each other?

    • Allie May says:

      I thought the pics were okay, myself. Not exactly anything I would do on the red carpet, but to each his own. Good for her for taking care of her mom.

    • Mel M says:

      I’m in the same boat as you. I’m confused why these pics are so awful, are there more somewhere?

  8. Ana says:

    She was not poor. Her dad is rich. Once again She is changing her history .If you do a research her life history changes every couple years . I feel sorry for her.

    • Renee28 says:

      Yeah, I thought one or both of her parents was connected to the entertainment industry. That’s how she co-wrote Thirteen when she was 13/14 years old. I also thought she started living on her own around that time.

    • marysimon says:

      Was Nikki’s father involved with the woman who directed the first Twilight movie? I don’t think there was any dollar menu stuff going on there. That would also explain the miscasting of Nikki as the beautiful Rosalie in the movie.

    • lucy2 says:

      From what I just read, her dad is a set designer, but his earliest credit is 1993, and she would have already been 5 at the time and her parents were already divorced, so it’s quite possible they struggled when she was young. I don’t think this is a born on third, Gwenyth type situation.

      • Gretchen says:

        Yeah, I don’t know where people get this idea that everyone in the entertainment industry is rolling in cash. All those billions go to very few people and it is so competitive that many will work for free or an absolute pittance just to build their cv and industry connections.

      • lucy2 says:

        I’ve heard numerous actors (working actors, not huge stars) say that once you’re on TV or in a movie, everyone thinks you’re rolling in money, and that’s so far from the truth – it’s great if you get paid well for a job, but you might not work again for a year after that. It has to be a tough business for the majority of people who work in it.

    • Bridget says:

      The parents split up, so while the dad would (hopefully) be contributing child support, his income wouldn’t make a difference in how her single mom lived.

    • Liv says:

      This. She’s pretty unabashed and twists things like she wants them to be. They were probably not rich, but I doubt that her father didn’t contribute to the family at all.

  9. Sister Carrie says:

    those pink lips in the header pic . . . yoiks!

  10. Angel L says:

    I am not saying this about Nikki, just in general.
    There are many areas of the country were there aren’t any grocery stores within a decent distance. They are called Food Deserts. There only options are convience stores and fast food. Plus those of you saying that the dollar menu is more expensive that fresh food….no way.
    Say you have a two person family( 1 parent, 1 child). Each person gets one item from the dollar menu and a water for three meals a day. That is only 6 dollars plust tax . I know I couldn’t get 6 bucks to stretch across three meals a day for two.
    Also people living in shelters often aren’t allowed to have perishable food (so no fresh fruit/vegetables, milk, etc)
    http://www.babble.com/best-recipes/what-i-learned-after-taking-a-homeless-mother-grocery-shopping/

    • (The original, not CDAN) Violet says:

      The other thing is that a lot of people don’t know how to cook, which further limits their options.

      It’s definitely possible to feed two people for $6 a day — delicious, healthy meals — but that requires access to cheap groceries as well as the skills to prepare meals from scratch. There was a couple in NYC who blogged about spending only $30 a week, but they lived near grocery stores, knew how to cook and ate vegetarian.

      https://thirtyaweek.wordpress.com/about/

      They still eat that way, though they’ve quit blogging about it. However, there’s four years’ worth of posts on the blog so there’s a ton of ideas and inspiration there.

      Of course, that’s of little help to someone who has to travel long distances to buy groceries, can’t store perishables and/or doesn’t know how to cook 🙁

  11. Dubois says:

    Somerhalder is awful from the waist down.

  12. Naddie says:

    I like her, hate him.

  13. Ohlala says:

    My first time to enter McDonald’s was when I was 15 yrs old with my aunt. My first time to go to a fast food chain – considered as luxury in our country many years ago. I so want that amazing looking burger and my first time to taste french fries , I don’t even know how to call them and how to order it. Then counter girl asked me in English ” dine in or take away”? I was soo lost and embarrassed , I don’t know what does it mean. Now I won’t even glance at McDonald’s.

    • snowflake says:

      are you eating in the restaurant or taking it away (like to your home). have a nice day

  14. Adrien says:

    Wasn’t 13 autobiographical?
    Ian, what is going on? He looks like an action figure of Rob Lowe in that Liberace movie.

  15. Talie says:

    So poor she was well-connected enough to sell a script at 13… remember the movie, Thirteen? She got a writing credit on that. Based on her life, supposedly.

    • Gretchen says:

      As far as I know, Catherine Hardwicke was a friend of her father’s, and 13 was the result of her collaboration with Nikki Reed. They were all involved in the film industry but behind the scenes, very few people involved in the industry actually earn bucket loads of money. It is perfectly possible (actually more common than not) to be flat broke and working in films. A friend of mine has been working in LA for years trying to get his break, he’s worked on some pretty cool projects but still can’t guarantee rent the next month.

    • Bridget says:

      The movie was Thirteen, Reed had to have been 17/18 when she wrote it.

      And what’s with people not getting the whole single mom thing? It’s entirely possible that her mom struggled while her dad did not.

      • Talie says:

        No, she was like 15 when it came out! You can like her, but let’s get crazy defending the revisionist history here.

      • Bridget says:

        Nope. You’re wrong. She was about 18 when the movie came out (and has since shaved a few years off her age). It wasn’t a huge hit, but it was noteworthy when it came out since 1) it was written by a teenager and 2) Holly Hunter got an Oscar nomination.

        But sure, “revisionist history”

      • Renee28 says:

        Thirteen was released in 2003. She was born in 1988 so she was only 15. It would have been shot when she was 14/15.

      • Lou says:

        Renee28, she’s shaved a bit off her age, she’s not actually born in 1988.

  16. roxy750 says:

    They are a hot couple, very hot.

  17. JosieJ says:

    I’m probably one of the few who like both of them. I think they’re harmless and pretty good people. Both of them are heavily involved in charity work and giving back and have been for a long time. It’s one thing I think they do because they truly do want to make a difference.

    • lucy2 says:

      I don’t think either is a particularly brilliant actor, and I always confuse her with the other Twilight girl, but they do both seem very involved in charitable work. They could be a lot worse.

    • Kitten says:

      I’m with you, JosieJ, I like them both. They seem really well-matched actually.

  18. EN says:

    She might be talented as a writer, but not as an actress. She was horrible in the twilight movies. And that is saying something. She stood out as a sore thumb. I kept thinking – this girl is in there as a favor to someone.

    Looking at her now, she is quite nice looking. But she looked below average in twilight and she can’t act.

    As for growing up poor, it is good that growing up poor gave her perspective and she is involved in charities.

  19. lila fowler says:

    What’s unfortunate is that someone like Nikki Reed can’t even talk about the financial struggles that her family faced without getting judged by judge-y people on the internet. Even in these comments there are people who are suggesting that her struggle wasn’t real because even the dollar menu was still dining out and others can’t afford that, etc etc. Poverty is relative. You don’t know someone’s situation in life. Stop judging.

    • Kitten says:

      +1. It’s so weird how everything is a contest these days.

    • Gretchen says:

      Well said. I find it disturbing how quickly people will imply – or explicitly state – that her mum, and by extension those in a similar situation, are too stupid to work out how to feed her children fresh carrots instead of fast food. Yes, there are crappy mums out there, but for the most part they are doing their absolute best with the resources they have available.

      And yes, many people have had and do have it much worse, that still does not make daily sustenance from the dollar menu a “luxury” lifestyle.

    • Bridget says:

      I am astounded at the comments here. Both in their lack of empathy and in how they have no idea about how poverty really works. This has just made me sad.

  20. TOPgirl says:

    I grew up so poor…I ate baby Gerber food for breakfast and uncooked crunchy noodles for snack. A dollar menu a day sounds more like a reward vs what I had.

  21. Velvet Elvis says:

    Back when my son was a baby and my husband and I were struggling, eating off of the Dollar Menu would have been a luxury. We lived off of pinto beans, which back then were about 50 cents for a bag of dry beans. I remember we would conveniently drop by the houses of our friends and family around dinner time, hoping to be invited to eat because we had nothing in our fridge but pickles. It sucked. Life is good now thankfully and we always have more than enough food. When people come over I always invite them to eat. You never know who is struggling like we were.

  22. crizo says:

    She will do anything to be on the news poor girl is to much baby

  23. Mia Calendar says:

    You also have to factor in that there was an autistic child involved, which is an enormous expense. And while a typical child will eat the veggies and bulk pasta rather than go hungry, the autistic kid will not. They will starve first, or vomit.
    Also it’s completely exhausting, even having an autistic kid that is high functioning. McDonald’s is sometimes all
    you have the ability to do.

    • Ana says:

      Her autistic brother is from her dads second marriage. She has an older brother and a younger one who is autistic.

  24. EscapedConvent says:

    Who does this, you ask? Cumby and Sophie did much worse on red carpets all season. My favorite pose was at the Oscars, when she nearly bent over backwards to avoid his face coming toward hers for a totally awkward kiss. Nikki Reed and Ian look like amateurs compared to those shenanigans.

    Also, good for Nikki for working with and bringing attention to Thrive.

  25. Jules says:

    I see no problem with their affection.

    Also, her experience is the only one she’s had. She’s not saying it was better or worse than anyone. Life isn’t a contest and there are a myriad of experiences, both good and bad. I just know I’m happier when I identify rather than compare.