Throwaway account. Names changed to protect identities.
I've got a 16 year old daughter, Katie, and she's told me recently she wants to get a job in Hollywood no matter what the cost.
She told me:
It's not about the fame, but about the dollars. I've tried to get a job in a lumber yard, boss doesn't want a teenage girl like me helping there, even though it's good money, the local McDonald's isn't interested, and I tried applying for jobs at the local car dealer, but no dice.
We live in a suburb of Minneapolis. I wasn't born there, but to her it's home; I moved here when I was 22, I'm from Florida originally but my wife's from this city. You wouldn't think we're married since she kept her surname and didn't change to my one, yet our daughter has her surname not mine but is mine. Confusing I know.
I'm pleased my daughter has a work ethic; she could have gone down the route of being an influencer or TikToker etc. but no, she's trying the old-fashioned route of hard work. But she's always been like that. She was bullied in high school a lot for being a geek even though she is very girly, and also for being queer too. I've no issue with that at all, really.
She told me that she doesn't subscribe to this "woke"-ness theory that some young people have, started reading up on current events of 2005-2006 and said the values of that time period seem more interesting and appropriate for her. She's into music from the 2000s anyway, I guess, much like a Millennial into classic rock or 1980s music. She thinks wokeness is silly.
As it is, she also has a girlfriend, who's like her, similar interests in fashion, beauty therapy, other girly stuff; nice girl, glad my daughter's found someone who makes her happy.
We are an ethnic minority in our area, we're Chinese-American and Jamaican-American couple in a largely white area. My daughter looks more like her mom physically but with my skin tone.
But race isn't the big issue here.
I'm a little bit concerned about my daughter's desire to work in Hollywood purely for the money. She's already said:
So what if I have to work a crappy role, at least I get some paycheck. Gonna get a good financial advisor, you can help me on that.
She also said:
I don't expect or want emancipation. Not right for me, and I need your help and love anyway. And besides, being queer ain't great in Hollywood anyway. Look at how Cara Delevigne gets treated for being queer.
She reads up on financial sites and crypto forums a lot, doesn't use Bitcoin or that though, thinks Bitcoin is hinky.
This isn't what I expected. I thought she'd go to college and get a good job.
But it doesn't seem like rebellion; she's clearly laid out to us she wants to have better opportunities than we had.
Yes, I grew up in poverty in Florida, well, OK not dirt-barn-poor, but I did grow up in a poor part of town. I had to work hard to get to where i am today. No multimillionaire, but better still than I was aged 21-22.
My wife was from a middle-class family and they were quite accepting of my background, didn't expect her to marry another Chinese person, not very traditional. They were very Westernized.
I don't know much about the inner workings of Hollywood and my daughter's only given me broad strokes about things.
She thinks she can work in Hollywood for 20-30 years before going into some management or PR role.
What can or should me and my wife do?
Am I too accepting or right to have these concerns?
Just want the best for my daughter, need some advice.
tl;dr: My 16 year old daughter really wants to work in Hollywood, has a plan drawn up, but her main motivation is money; having a moral dilemma over this.
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