KEY POINTS:
In a small country such as New Zealand, having a famous parent can be like living behind a shop window. Someone is always watching.
When broadcaster Paul Holmes' 19-year-old daughter Millie was arrested last week on nine charges involving drugs and stolen property, her court appearance couldn't have been more public. Where the daughter of an unknown accountant or bus driver would have slipped in and out of court unnoticed, Holmes and her father faced a barrage of camera lenses and microphones. The downcast eyes and dishevelled appearance were in sharp contrast to the glamorous women's magazine covers of the past. This was never going to be a private family matter.
For the offspring of high-profile parents nothing is secret, especially when they slip up. They grow up seeing their parents on TV, quoted in newspapers, photographed in magazines. One day they, too, make headlines - but for the wrong reasons.
They've already been singled out at school, stared at in public when out with a famous mum or dad, and then comes the pressure to make something of their lives, to live up to the standards of high-achieving parents.
Pebbles, the daughter of World founders Denise L'Estrange-Corbet and Francis Hooper, was born into the fashion world, played among fabric samples as a child and travelled the world with her parents from a young age. Her parents never tried to shield her from their high profile. She was always part of it. At 13 she had her first art exhibition. At 15 she appeared in Teen Vogue and she has just appeared in WWD magazine in New York as one of the "people to watch".
Pebbles, her mother says, is "totally unfazed by it". But then the young Hooper was never destined to be a normal kid with normal parents.
Says Pebbles: "I just remember being laughed at because they had the ugliest car on the market, because they called me Pebbles and because my dad, during the 90s, would change his hair colour on a weekly basis from pink to blue to average blond."
At primary school she was "fresh meat", constantly asked where Bam Bam was.
Hooper says she doesn't let the success of her parents pressure her into achieving the same.
"I want to work towards my goals without my parents reflecting on what I choose to do in fashion."
L'Estrange-Corbet says she has brought her daughter up to believe that she must work for a living, starting from the bottom. Pebbles is now working on Paula Ryan's Simply You magazine and her mother has warned her that if she's told to sweep the floor, she will have do it.
And to mind her manners. Gifts, which come in steadily from the fashion and beauty world, need to be acknowledged in written form.
"We always made sure she never got a big head about you know 'my mum and dad are famous'. I dislike people who demand things and want to be treated differently because they are high-profile."
Sally Ridge and Adam Parore are no strangers to the limelight. But the couple say they're not aware of people noticing them in public and neither are their children.
Ridge, who still does publicity and advertising shots for her range of underwear, shrugs off the curse of public recognition.
Apart from work, she rarely goes out. With 9-month-old baby Mclane, sons Astin and Boston who turn 4 and 10 respectively this week and daughter Jamie, 13, there's enough to keep her occupied at home.
She thinks ex-husband Matthew Ridge, father of Boston and Jamie, draws more public attention than she and former Black Cap Parore.
"Whenever we go anywhere there are always so many of us, we are so engrossed in each other, that we don't notice whether people take any notice.
"Our children were born with us being the way we are and that's all they know I suppose."
She doesn't try to shield them or tell the media they are off-limits. "I don't really even think about it. They are my children and I love them to bits and I'm proud of them and I have no qualms about talking about them."
Ridge doesn't think her children will feel pressure to be high achievers.
Daughter Jamie is a natural, already achieving mostly straight As and focused on becoming a lawyer.
Boston wants to be an All Black.
"That's all he talks about. That and sharks, he's infatuated with them."
The offspring of columnist and TV producer Colin Hogg have not only had to endure stories of what Hogg acknowledges has been some colourful behaviour in the past, but they've had to read about themselves in his weekly column.
For the past 25 years Hogg has written about his brood of six, aged from 8 to 29, in the New Zealand Woman's Weekly. But, according to Hogg, they have come through it pretty well.
"It's been part of their lives; they've grown up with. They've adjusted to it."
With Hogg's face recognisable from the photo on his column and from television appearances, his children have grown up with strangers coming up to say hello.
"There were times when I had to be careful, when certain subjects were off-limits, particularly when the older children were teenagers," Hogg says. "There have been times when I have probably gone up a bit far. Daddy was taken aside a few times and talked to."
But mostly Hogg thinks his children have got "a buzz" out of being part of his column. His 8-year-old daughter enjoys the reflected limelight.
"If we go to the supermarket and I get recognised I can see her glowing like a little lightbulb."
MP Sue Bradford's children have at times suffered a backlash because of their mother's politics or protests - like the time friends had to care for the five children because Bradford and her husband were arrested after a protest and spent several days in jail.
Her youngest son recently told classmates his mother worked for Greenpeace rather than admitting she was an MP. And at his previous school, a teacher was rude to him about Bradford's anti-smacking bill.
"I think that's inappropriate. I do worry about teachers taking it out on my kids," Bradford says.
And then there were the death threats against her, which, she says, are still occurring. They put pressure on her children who worry about her safety, she says. "You can see the impact. All you want to do is protect your children."
Bradford is angry about a smear campaign on the internet, accusing her of beating her children and suggesting a restraining order had been taken out against her.
The stories are fictional but, she says, impossible to get rid of once they're on the internet. "It's very hard for me to fight back."
But for all that Bradford thinks her children have benefited from growing up within the unemployment movement. And, like any proud mother, she says they've all done well.
The eldest, Richard, works for the World Health Authority in Japan (his twin brother Daniel died in 1995), daughter Katie is a journalist in the parliamentary press gallery, son Sam has just finished a masters degree in scriptwriting at Victoria University and the youngest, Joe, is a member of the First XV at Long Bay College.
Francie Morris, guidance counsellor at King's College in Otahuhu, says good family communication is the key to handling outside pressures when parents have high-profile roles.
The King's school community supports children with high achieving parents who might be in the news, because many have similar circumstances.
Morris says many students at the college have normal teenage issues to deal with, are under pressure to perform well at school, and might have to deal with publicity about a parent at the same time.
"It's the quality of the relationship within the family and the development of that young person that builds resilience to enable them to handle those things."
The children of high-profile families grapple with the same issues as all young people, Morris says. "They need permission to not get it right all the time and to have the freedom to do that and be supported and loved through that. That's really important because none of us get it all right and I think it puts added pressure on when there is a fish-bowl experience."
The daughter of a well-known New Zealand businessman says her brothers and sisters all felt the pressure of growing up under the shadow of enormous success and wealth.
They felt they were judged by outsiders, and any success they might achieve in business would be put down to financial help they might have received from their father.
New Zealand could be a small place to be under the spotlight and in many ways living overseas brought remarkable freedom, she says.
"For me the experience of going away was fantastic in terms of being a bit of a nothing. People had no knowledge of my background. It was great."
Pure Facts
Pure methamphetamine, more commonly referred to as P, is also known as Speed, Meth, Crystal, Burn, Tweak, Go-fast, Ice, Glass, Uppers, Black Beauty.
The chemicals used to produce P can cause fires, produce toxic vapours, and damage the environment.
Symptoms of methamphetamine use may include:
* Inability to sleep.
* Increased sensitivity to noise.
* Nervous physical activity, such as scratching.
* Irritability, dizziness, or confusion.
* Extreme anorexia.
* Tremors or even convulsions.
* Increased heart rate, blood pressure, and risk of stroke.
* Risks associated with using methamphetamine include:
* A severe "crash" after the effects wear off.
* Irreversible damage to blood vessels in the brain.
* Users who inject the drug and share needles are at risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS.
For more information visit www.methcon.co.nz or call(09) 406 1448
