Phoebe Gates, the youngest daughter of Bill and Melinda French Gates, is giving a candid look into the pressures of growing up in the spotlight.
In a recent podcast appearance, the 22-year-old spoke openly about her struggles with the “nepo baby” label and the difficulty of carving out her own identity.
During a revealing conversation on her new podcast, The Burnouts, which she co-hosts with close friend and business partner Sophia Kianni, Phoebe discussed her time at Stanford University.
“I had so much insecurity and such a desire to prove myself,” Phoebe admitted. “I was like, I have so much privilege. I’m a nepo baby. I had so much insecurity around that.”
Reflecting on her freshman year, she explained how challenging it was to feel like she had nothing to offer: “It’s so hard when you’re a freshman in college because you have no experience. You have nothing.”
Phoebe, who graduated with a degree in Human Biology last year, also opened up about her entrepreneurial journey. She and Sophia recently launched Phia, a sustainable fashion platform, but when Phoebe first shared her ambitions, her parents were cautious.
She recalled her father asking, “Are you sure you wanna do this?” She continued, “Both of my siblings were incredibly intelligent and took very typical career paths. My brother’s a genius, my sister has two kids, a horseback riding career, and is in residency as a junior pediatrician – but there wasn’t this adverse risk of failure.”
Despite their initial concerns, Bill and Melinda insisted Phoebe finish her degree before diving into her business venture. Phoebe found this advice “so funny,” given her father’s own decision to drop out of Harvard to pursue Microsoft.
She laughed, “My parents were really cautious when I was like, ‘I want to do Stanford abroad and do this remotely and finish up my degree and do the start-up.’ They were very much like, ‘You need to finish your degree. You don’t just get to drop out and start a company.’ Which is so funny because my dad literally did that – that’s like the reason I’m able to go to Stanford, have my tuition paid.”
