North West - and the Gen A nepo babies - have arrived

Are you ready for the iconic pre-teens?

She recently hit the headlines for mercilessly roasting her mom and dragging one of the world’s most esteemed fashion designers by claiming a dress made of 50,000 pearls looked like it was “from the Dollar Store”. If you’re not already acquainted, meet North West, the eldest daughter of Kim Kardashian and Kanye West, who at just 10 years old is having something of a moment.

Fame was inevitable for North given the fascination with her mega-star parents but it seems that the spotlight is now being sought out. Through a series of moves North’s profile is rising, and I’m taking it as a sign that she - and the Generation Alpha nepo babies - have officially hard launched.

In the last few weeks North has:

• Graced the cover of i-D magazine

• Become the stand-out star of The Kardashians reality TV show

• Shared more of her life with followers, including the revelation that she’s been diagnosed with dyslexia

• Gone all in on the TikTok account she shares with her mom, sometimes posting four times a day

Put together it seems like there’s an intentional effort to make North a public figure before she hits high school.

Intriguingly the moments that have captured the most attention for North have come at the expense of the adults around her, particularly her mom, who’s been on the receiving end of North’s unvarnished notes about her style, claims that she can’t cook and that her mansion is “ugly”. At every turn North is humbling Kim with her hot takes and many Kardashian watchers are loving the drama.

North also “read for filth” Schiaparelli designer Daniel Roseberry while he was fitting Kim for her MET Gala outfit. In footage captured when she was just nine she opined that the high-end creation looked "beachy” as well as “from the Dollar Store”.

The tween’s raw honesty and brutal delivery is the stuff of nightmares for anyone not in Generation Alpha (that’s you if you’re older than 13), and led Kim to describe North as “the new Joan Rivers” (the commentator and comic who famously eviscerated her subjects).

North’s confidence is on a level beyond the comprehension of my 10-year-old self. Asked by i-D magazine who her style icon was she replied, “me”, and the three words she picked to describe herself were, “The Best Ever”. She also revealed that her ambition was to take over her parent’s clothing brands - Yeezy and Skims - as well as become a basketball player, rapper and a painter.

On TikTok North is regularly getting tens of millions of views on her videos, and is increasingly sharing her life with her 17 million followers. Recent posts include “school drop off” selfies, fit check videos with her mom and her interpretation of TikTok trends. It was also a TikTok livestream where she revealed she was dyslexic.

North’s emergence as the Kardashian clan’s brightest - and funniest - member, comes hot on the heels of other next gen nepo babies stepping out from behind their parents at a similarly tender age. I’m sure you’ve noticed the ascendance of 11-year-old Blue Ivy Carter. The eldest daughter of Beyoncé and Jay-Z isn’t on a reality show, doesn’t have public social media and is rarely snapped by paparazzi, but she did take on the highest profile summer job of all time by regularly performing on her mom’s recent Renaissance tour.

Blue Ivy’s star turn dancing to “My Power” became one of the highlights of the show and earned her long and loud ovations from fans. The story behind her performance will be revealed in Renaissance: A Film by Beyoncé, which debuts on Friday. According to Kyle Buchanan in a New York Times review, Blue Ivy “pops up in much of the behind-the-scenes footage, offering her often unsugarcoated opinion on stage design, song choices and more”. He adds: “In a film where everyone else treats Beyoncé as a boss or a goddess, Blue Ivy is an amusingly irreverent presence: To this 11-year-old, Beyoncé is just a mom.” These Alphas sure have a lot of thoughts.

Madonna also chose her tour to shine a spotlight on her children’s talents. She made The Celebration show a family affair by casting many of her six kids, but the performance that blew up came from her 11-year-old daughter Estere who thrilled audiences by voguing on stage.

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Often present in North’s TikTok posts is another tween nepo baby - her cousin Penelope. As the daughter of Kourtney Kardashian and Scott Disick she is the oldest of the newest batch of Kardashians, and she too is featured in their reality show. Penelope also has a TikTok account with her mom and broadcasts GRWMs, skits with her dad and cooking videos to their 5.5 million followers.

She’s also - surprise, surprise - caught attention for trolling a parent. In a recent episode of The Kardashians she’s asked by her aunt, Khloe Kardashian, what she should look for when trying to find a new girlfriend for her father. Her one word response was “older,” in reference to her dad’s history of dating much younger women. Ouch!

While it was inevitable that the next generation of nepo babies would come along and dominate the celebrity scene, I wasn’t expecting them to start their careers quite so young - or to be so savage. But much like Gen Z, Generation Alpha will be unlike any generation that came before it.

Alphas are often defined as those born after 2010, although some argue the cut off is 2012. The oldest possible Gen A-ers are 13, and the youngest haven’t yet been born. They are the first generation to be exposed to connected screens from birth.