Sofia Richie, nepotism model: ‘It’s hard branching out into my own person’

Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin

I want to be like “Sofia Richie is harmless,” but then I ask myself: is she? She’s the daughter of Lionel Richie, she’s part of that set of nepotism models/personalities, she seems dumb as a rock, she goes to Hillsong, and she’s dating Scott Disick, a grown-ass dude with issues who is 15 years older than her (she’s 21). So, is she harmless or is she actually quite annoying? I’ll be real: Sofia’s Cosmopolitan cover story plucked my last nerve. She’s trying to transition from Instagram influencer/model/Disick girlfriend to… actress and businesswoman. Her big idea is to make bikinis and somehow, some way, become an actress. You can read the full Cosmo piece here. Some highlights:

She doesn’t want to “model” anymore: “A lot of people just become models because they’re influencers. We would all get the same jobs, be in the same space, and be labeled the same thing, and I hated it. It made me step back and be like, Okay, I’m a creative individual and I want to be smart, start my own businesses, do something I can do on my own, and not be attached to other people.”

She’s starting a bikini business: “I love bikinis… I feel like my following is always fascinated by the bikinis I’m wearing.”

2020 is the year of hustling: “It’s time to start hustling. 2020 is about no fear, and I’m doing things that would usually make me very uncomfortable.” This includes eventually expanding her collection into a full-on fashion line and launching a beauty company (she’s quick to clarify that it will be hair and body, not makeup), a YouTube channel, and an acting career.

She wants to act too: “I was too scared to fail, and that was the reason I didn’t do it before. This year, I’m not scared to fail. I don’t think there’s necessarily failing. It’s just learning and growing.”

She used to have severe anxiety: “I feel like there’s a space for me to talk about mental health, having dealt with severe anxiety. It was zero-to-a-hundred panic attacks… [brought on by] stupid things, like not having a water bottle in the car or getting stuck in traffic.” She went to doctors, but every single one tried to put her on prescription drugs, which she refused to take. “I read a lot of books, and once I figured out what I was doing to myself, I learned how to control it. I would convince myself that I was panicking or that I wasn’t comfortable, and once I realized that I was doing that to myself and nothing was actually wrong with me, I was totally fine.”

On nepotism: “When things were first starting. I was discouraged because everything I did was ‘Lionel Richie’s daughter.’” She stops and clarifies: She’s grateful—she wouldn’t be where she is without him—“but it’s hard branching out into my own person when I have such a powerful artist as a father. My dad was always like, ‘Once you find your thing, you’ll move away from that,’ and I feel like over the past couple of years, I found my lane in life to go the direction I want to go.”

On her relationship with Scott Disick: She says she has “this weird thing where I just don’t care what people think.” The sh-t-talking she and Scott have endured “doesn’t bother me because I’m very happy. Why would I let someone from the middle of nowhere ruin that for me?”

Getting along with Kourtney Kardashian: “I mean, just be nice. There’s no reason not to be nice.”

[From Cosmopolitan]

It’s worth noting that, from what I understand, Sofia hasn’t actually DONE anything. She’s not actually promoting a launch of her new bikini line or anything. She just agreed to a Cosmo cover to whine about how she doesn’t feel like modeling anymore and she’s vaguely going to, like, design some bikinis or whatever, ugh, she’s so bored now, can’t someone else do it?!? That’s what it feels like. Also: “Why would I let someone from the middle of nowhere ruin that for me?” Oh honey.

Cover and photos courtesy of Cosmopolitan.

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49 Responses to “Sofia Richie, nepotism model: ‘It’s hard branching out into my own person’”

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  1. Jules says:

    when the deepest thought from this article is “I love bikinis”…
    face palm

  2. sassafras says:

    I mean, sure. I guess.
    I have no energy to hate on spoiled 21 year old celebrity offspring but girl, in 2020 you’re going to have to put in something more to get what you want. If bikinis are your passion, you’re going to have to actually… design a bikini. If acting is your passion, you’re going to have to actually… create or audition. No one out there is actively looking for a Sofia Richie anymore.

  3. Chanteloup says:

    hahahaha I love it that in that last [Cosmo twitter] picture where she’s supposedly saying, “I want people to know that I have a lot of ambition to work hard…I want to be known for the great things that I do in my life” –
    That cat is all of us, going nahhhhhh, nfw! lol

  4. theothercleo says:

    As someone who lives with an anxiety disorder I think the part where she talks about mental health is awful and the opposite of “harmless”. I feel that it’s just a tamer version of “oh it’s just in your head,get over it”.And if that’s not what she meant than no, sweetheart there’s no “space for you to talk about mental health” because you clearly don’t know how to do it in a responsible and helpful way. Nothing surpising here though, she’s a spoiled uneducated kid and it shows.

    • Allz says:

      YES thank you. Willing it away is not an actual solution to real anxiety. Thanks for playing, Sofia.

    • Erin says:

      Theothercleo, thank you!! What she describes is simply a spoiled brat having a tantrum. Stuck in traffic? No water bottles? That isn’t an anxiety disorder. You’re just an asshole. She isn’t harmless anymore with statements like those.

    • Noodle says:

      100%. Her statement “once I figured out what I was doing to myself, I learned how to control it” defies what we know about anxiety and panic disorders. People with anxiety and panic disorders cannot just control their thoughts and feelings and will themselves to get better. Is awareness of what’s happening part of the solution? Sure. But it’s not the solution in and of itself. People with OCD or severe panic disorders know what’s happening; they just can’t control the obsessive thoughts without intervention, both pharmacologically and behaviorally. Someone *may* be able to learn to function without the medications, but it takes a ton of therapy and help to overcome an intense anxiety and panic disorder.

    • Ashley says:

      While she might not have been articulate, i disagree – i understood entirely where she was coming from. Some people do need medication and it should not be stigmatized. But it shouldn’t be stigmatized that someone would want to try and see what habits their brain had developed that they could overcome. She’s talking about anxiety. It’s not like she’s saying she “fixed” her bipolar disorder or something. But truly, anxiety can in a lot of cases be resolved by mental exercise and not medication.

      • Jules says:

        True. Anxiety disorders are the easiest to treat actually, once one realizes how to control the thinking that instigates it. It does take work and it does sound like she did it.

  5. AnnaKist says:

    “I love bikinis… I feel like my following is always fascinated by the bikinis I’m wearing.”
    And that’s a ghastly lip job.
    Oh, dear me…

    • yiza says:

      Yes I came here to talk about the lip job. They look like two slugs stuck on her face.

  6. Nina says:

    ‘2020 is about no fear’

    Lol. I realize this interview likely happened before the pandemic but: LOL.

  7. Kitty says:

    That is honestly the worst magazine cover I’ve ever laid eyes on.

    • Jules says:

      When you are outshined by a giant pair of garden scissors.

      • Lightpurple says:

        Honestly, those garden shears are the only thing interesting about that cover. I need those to tackle the vines growing over from my neighbor’s yard.

    • BeanieBean says:

      I first started reading Cosmo in the days when they had real models on the cover, with Way Bandy doing makeup & Scavullo taking the photos. And now we have this. How times have changed.

    • Tifffany :) says:

      My thoughts exactly. She looks so awkward. She never seems to know what to do with her mouth, and the cover is an extreme example of it. This is a really terrible cover.

  8. emmy says:

    2020 saw this interview and went “Oh you have PLANS, do you? LOL”

    Seriously, these professional sons and daughters all think they’re special when really, their parents are. They are not. Why are none of them in college??? Education is about more than a job later on.

  9. Chica71 says:

    She is not physically appealing as a model. .. You don’t have to be beautiful but you have to have “something” that stands out in print or runway. She lacks charisma and don’t seem that bright. Gigi and her sister have either skills or do editorials very well. While Kaia is cute, she is bland. Sophia is jus Sophia.. the cute girl from the mall

    • cheche says:

      Her expression is the same in all three pictures.

    • minx says:

      Yes there’s nothing special about her at all.

    • Léna says:

      And she had some work done. Nose, lips, chin… she just looks different

    • Veronica S. says:

      Gigi had that very sultry, exotic eye shape that made her stand out – and she photographed very beautifully, which is why she made such a good editorial model. Not so much on the runway, but I have to give her that she had a unique beauty to her.

      Some of these models just plastic surgery the sh*t out of their face and take away any unique characteristic. Why, I don’t know. It just makes you expendable.

  10. Juliette says:

    The cat in the picture with her is adorable, love his face. That’s all I’ve got. I guess I’m to old but she seems nice but a big meh from me on her. Lovely girl but really just like the rest of the “nepotism models”. Do a product line, pose, post on SM – next.

  11. Christina says:

    She and Disick are the same: come from wealth, have never needed to work, etc. It’s how people born into money who are raised not to care about the world are. The harm they cause is that some people envy their privilege. These people have always existed, and so much of the world isn’t fair, and pragmatic people don’t care. They are harmful to people who care about them.

    She is very pretty. Maybe she will grow. Maybe she won’t. Her proximity to the Kardashian machine will keep her in the spotlight or we wouldn’t know who she is. I will continue to ignore her excepting this blog post. Lionel Ritchie and her mom seem to suck as parents, but maybe they aren’t as smart as I thought. If I remember correctly, her mom is the woman Brenda Ritchie walked in on her husband having sex with. It was quite a scandal at the time. Maybe her mom is a woman after that affair.

  12. lucy2 says:

    Sigh. So few of these celebrity offspring decide to “branch out as their own person” by getting an education, finding their own path, actually working for a living, being a productive member of society. All she’s doing is using her tangential fame to post selfies and “model”.
    That magazine cover is bad, on many levels.

  13. Nicole says:

    I have hope. Nicole Ritchie continues to grind and make money. She openly made mistakes, but she did that sitcom on NBC (I enjoyed it), she still has House of Harlow, and she still is trying to make her bones in entertainment. Twenty-one is still pretty young and stupid. Let’s see if she stumbles, learns, and gets some wisdom.

  14. Jensies says:

    That cat’s face is exactly as indignant as I feel about nepotism models. Well done, cat.

  15. MangoAngel says:

    The only thing I can think to say is that I’d live to know the brand of garden shears she’s holding on the cover. Our front and back gardens have loads of shrubbery, and those look like something I could really use.

  16. Veronica S. says:

    Well, honey, it looks like you’re on track to inject enough plastic and silicone into you that you’re basically a whole new person, anyway, so give it time.

  17. Mellie says:

    It’s a good thing she’s done being a model, because she was done being a model before she started……

  18. Kristen says:

    Saying you have ambition to work hard is not the same as being hardworking.

  19. cherriepie84 says:

    LOL at her lips! That cover photo is also ridiculous.

  20. serena says:

    Maybe she’s stopping modeling because she’s not good at all? Look at that cover photo.. what in the world was the magazine thinking? She always wear the same dumb expression too.. I don’t want to be mean but this is the prime example of nepotism model who can’t actually do anything and still whines about her life.

  21. February Pisces says:

    I’ve got nothing against Sofia, I wish her well, but I have a feeling she’s quite naive especially when it comes to Scott. I have a feeling that between Scott and this industry they could ruin her Lindsay Lohan style. I wonder who’s actually looking out for her.

  22. clairej says:

    Sofia is definitely a nepotism child who should have gone to uni and stayed out of the limelight. I would have added Hailey Baldwin also, but that girl had game.

  23. Ariel says:

    I’m dumber for having read this.
    Never need to read anything about her again. That much is clear.

  24. Tasha says:

    This child has no clue what anxiety is. I read a book and fixed it? Sure Jan.

  25. Chris says:

    LOL this is what passes for a model nowadays? I wonder how much her dad paid for her to get this cover. There’s no way she got it on her own merit.

  26. Ashley says:

    We all laugh, but Nicole Richie went from “doing nothing” to actress – and she’s actually really funny. So, we’ll see what happens here.

    • clairej says:

      Nicole seems really nice on Heidi Klum and Tim Gunn’s show Making The Cut.

    • Lucy says:

      I don’t know. Nicole also does seem to have an actual personality. This one…not so much.

  27. Naddie says:

    “2020 is about no fear” Hello?

  28. Natasha says:

    So what’s Nicole Ritchie up to these days? She was ways the funny one

  29. Lucy says:

    Yet another reason why Nicole is my favorite. Also, those giant black and yellow glasses are 100% wearing her, and not the other way around.