In an era when every celebrity move is caught on camera and tracked on Twitter, it’s no surprise that celebrity children can achieve first-name-only fame before their first birthday. Suri, Shiloh, Honor, and Cruz—the stars of celebrity tabloid covers and baby blogs in which their every outfit and tantrum is documented. These kids have marketable and measureable influence. They spur clothing sales with what they wear, they sell magazines with their cute faces, and they prop up their parents’ popularity by giving them a human identity far from the glamorous silver and small screen personas.
Which child rules the celebrity baby zeitgeist? To measure the cultural impact and import of celebrity offspring, The Daily Beast considered how well known and appealing they are to the public, as well as how much media coverage and online content is devoted to them. An initial ranking of more than 70 celebrity children under the age of 6 was conducted using press and online media mentions in the last year.
From there, we asked E-Poll Market Research to measure the relative appeal of children who ranked among the Top 20 in terms of media power. E-Poll measures the likeability and awareness of celebrities and public figures based on in-depth survey results of 46 attribute ratings. For the final ranking, the E-score was weighted twice the media and online presence.