IELTS Speaking for Success - 🤩 Celebrities and fame (Part 3) + Transcript

Episode Date: May 18, 2026

Get access to our episode archive: https://www.patreon.com/ieltssfs Curious about the dark side of childhood stardom? Rory explores the psychological toll on young celebrities and reveals how they can wind up on a destructive path, from racking up convictions to prying paparazzi. Tune in and have a great day! - Book a class with Rory here: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://successwithielts.com/rory⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Our course on Phrasal Verbs: https://successwithielts.com/podcourses Transcript: https://successwithielts.com/ Find an IELTS Speaking Partner: https://links.successwithielts.com/ieltspartner Our social media: https://linktr.ee/successwithielts © 2025 Podcourses Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hello, lovely and welcome into IEL speaking part three. We are talking about celebrities, famous people and fame. Rory is going to give educated answers on fame, right, Rory? We will see. What are the advantages of being a famous child? I suppose the most obvious is the... access to money and power that can help them and their families stay out of poverty and go on to achieve things. They could also use it to help others or raise awareness of different things.

Well, and just gain even more fame and fortune, I suppose, at the most basic level. And what about the negative aspects? Oh, wow. I mean, there are almost too many to count when you think about it, really. I mean, kids don't have the psychological defenses and maturity that adults do. it could really go to their heads and mess them up in a variety of ways. You can kind of see that with the unsavory behavior in criminal convictions child stars rack up as they get older. They just can't handle it.

Another obvious one would be the potential for mismanagement of all their affairs like finances and education. If they were to get left to do it on their own, I doubt they would do well. What can children do with their fame? Aside from what I mentioned, I'm not sure, really. They could gain all that notoriety and infamy or go down a lighter path of using their platform

to help others and themselves. Ultimately, I think a lot of them wind up doing a bit of both, really. What can today's children do to become famous? I think the sky is pretty much the limit in that regard these days, isn't it? They do all sorts of things, like become social media stars, lead political movements and protest movements, become model students and role models in general. Unfortunately, there's a darker side to that

where they become involved with violence and other social ills, but I don't think that distinguishes them much from adults, to be honest. Do people become famous because of their talents? Well, it certainly helps, doesn't it? But it's not the only thing. There's a great deal of luck and hard work involved. I doubt some of the... the famous social media child stars of today

would have had the same rise to stardom 20 years ago when social media was in its infancy. What are some of the potential negative impacts of celebrity culture on young people? That's a good question. Because on the one hand, maybe these people occupy a position of power and influence potentially. So they could make them behave

in particularly bad ways if they try to copy them. However, it's not like young people are mindless puppets, so it might not be such a strong impact now I think about it. That's the one that stands out the most. Maybe another impact might be influencing them to buy things that they can't necessarily afford and put undue pressure on their parents. But again, it's not like kids are mindless automatones here. They have their own faculties. They can, you know, make a decision by themselves as well. What can celebrities do to protect their privacy? Lots of different things.

I think most famously, they've taken out things like court injunctions, which is like a legal way to stop people from prying into their affairs. They also have these large estates as well that they live on to kind of give them some space away from the public at large and the paparazzi that follow them around. and when they go out in public there might be a degree of anonymity to what they're doing too

they might not draw attention to themselves just so that people aren't focused on them the whole time As you know we now release all of our premium content for free and it's available for one month after one month it goes into our super secret archive

to sign up for the archive click the link in the description below see you soon Right, dear listeners, so we are talking about celebrities, famous people, icons, pop idols, and fame. So being famous, fame. Pop icons like who? Pop icons, like Paul McCartney, of course. Ooh.

Right, yeah, so fame. Yeah, there are advantages and disadvantages to being famous or to fame. And the questions could be about children. So when we have a famous child, this child, a celebrity child, has access to. money and power. Okay. So his family or her family stay out of poverty. So they're not poor.

And they can help others. And a child earns a fortune. So a lot of money is a fortune. And they get fame and fortune, which is a binomial. They get fame and fortune. Some negative aspects or like, yeah, drawbacks, disadvantages involve psychological, issues. So kids, children are not ready to be famous. So they're not mature enough. Mature like they are not adults. So fame could mess children up. Fame could kind of destroy them. Or psychologically damage them. And a child can get involved in criminal behavior. And there is the potential for mismanagement. Yes.

mismanagement, so children can't manage their education, their finances if they are on their own, if they are alone. Notariety. An adjective is notorious. So to be notorious, to be famous for some bad things. Notariety, the state of being famous for something bad. Like he gained notoriety for... For smashing up hotel rooms.

That's all over. rock stars do? Oh yeah, yeah. So children can gain notoriety or they can go down a lighter path. So actually do something useful with their fame. So go down a lighter path. So they can either kind of fail it or choose a lighter path without any crimes and rock and roll. And you can say like Ultimately, finally, I think famous children wind up doing a bit of both. So they end up being notorious for using drugs, for example, and then choosing to do good. That really is my favorite phrase of a verb, isn't it? It is, wind up doing something, end up doing something.

Today, children can do different things to become famous or to become celebrities. they use social media, so they become social media stars. They lead political movement. Oh, children. Oh, yeah, okay, this is Greta girl. I did think, yeah, Greta Thunberg was the one that stood out. I don't know if that's a political movement or an environmental one. Okay, but environment is kind of connected.

She's an adult now, at least legally, I think. But at the time she was a child when she started. Oh, what's her name? Greta, what? Greta Thunberg. But there are others. Malala Yousafzai was a children's rights, I suppose, advocate is the best word. Oh yeah, okay, like, yeah, she started the school strike for Clement in 2018,

and she skipped school to do that. Yeah, yeah, yeah, from Sweden. and now she gained global attention at the age of 15 now she's 23 so an adult there you go

so you can say like okay children can start campaigning can start environmental campaign for example Greta Thunberg from Sweden who started the school strike

for climate movement in 2018 and she kind of, she started the Greta effect because everybody went nuts like, oh, environment, you know. So, yeah, she got a lot of attention from all over the world. So that's a good example that you can either use in your essays and also in speaking part three.

There we go. What can children do to become famous and you say a lot of things so you can say the sky is pretty much the limit? So, which means that a lot of things, there's no limit. What can people do to become famous? The sky is the limit. This means there is no limit. They become model, like role models, they become influences.

Role models has to be a collocation that's quite high level, surely. Yeah, a role model, yeah. And a role model is C1. A person who someone admires, usually like a famous person. So sport stars are role models for children. For example, Usain Bolt is a role model for lots of children. Also, Messi is a role model for lots of children all over the world who want to play football. So people admire them, people admire him and want to kind of copy his success.

A person's talent is not the only thing that makes people famous. There's also a great deal of luck. A great deal of, a lot of luck and hard work. So luck and hard work plus talent helps people to become famous. Maybe. It's got to be like a unique combination of these things, doesn't it? And a nice phrase is rise to stardom. Rory, could you use it in a sentence?

this rise to fame. Oh, wow. Well, celebrities all have a rise to fame, don't they? Because they start small and then they get more and more famous as time goes by. Some questions could be about celebrity culture. And Roy, what is celebrity culture? How do you understand it? Just people following different celebrities, different aspects of their lives. It's not directly connected to their work that gets produced, though that's part of it.

So it could be like who they are dating, for example, or what's going on with their personal lives. So it's pretty much like when people follow celebrities, they follow their personal lives. And everybody in the whole world just follows what a person is doing, their life, like celebrity culture. It's like a parasocial relationship. You feel close to the celebrity, even though they are not close. to you. Emotionally speaking, that is. Okay, could you give us an example? Um, well, like, people following what's happening in Taylor Swift's personal life

as an example of celebrity culture. And you can say that on the one hand, it's something bad, but on the other hand, it's not that bad. Well, it's bad if it gets out of hand. But if it's under control, it's fine, why not? People can follow celebrities, but should not. stalk them Yeah

no stalking stalking is a crime And we talk about paparazzi This is a specific word Paparazzi Follow celebrities Okay

Everywhere Photographers Who follow famous people Paparazzi And that's plural A lot of paparazzi Like the Lady Gaga Sal

And people People pry Into famous people's Affairs Affairs Affairs like a business life, pry inter, means that they kind of spy on people. How do you spell pry? P-R-Y, pry into. Yeah, like, try to find out private facts about a person. So, a reporter

was paid to pry into their personal lives. Right. So that's why famous people want to stay away from prying eyes, from people who pry into their affairs. And they buy large, estates, estates like mansions, like huge houses to be inside, so people can't go in. Estate. A large area of land with a house.

And they prefer anonymity. So to be anonymous. Not to be known. They hide themselves. Yeah. They don't give their real name. So anonymity is important for them. So they like it when

their anonymity is guaranteed when they go to some events, for example. Radio Listener, how are you doing? Are you okay? Lovely. Stay with us. Thank you very much for listening. Sending love and joy and hugs and banai vocabulary. And we'll get back to you in our next episode. Bye. Bye. AI is moving fast across the enterprise. But without visibility, it's just chaos. Different tools, different models, different models. models, different teams using AI in completely different ways. ServiceNow turns that chaos into control.

With the AI control tower, you see all your AI across the business in one place. What it's doing, what it's done, and what it's about to do. So you stay in control. To put AI to work for people, visit servicenow.com. What are the advantages of being a famous child? I suppose the most obvious is the act. access to money and power that can help them and their families stay out of poverty and go on to achieve things. They could also use it to help others or raise awareness of different things.

Well, and just gain even more fame and fortune, I suppose, at the most basic level. And what about the negative aspects? Oh, wow. I mean, there are almost too many to count when you think about it, really. I mean, kids don't have the psychological defenses and maturity that adults do. it could really go to their heads and mess them up in a variety of ways. You can kind of see that with the unsavory behavior and criminal convictions child stars rack up as they get older. They just can't handle it.

Another obvious one would be the potential for mismanagement of all their affairs, like finances and education. If they were to get left to do it on their own, I doubt they would do well. What can children do with their fame? Aside from what I mentioned, I'm not sure really. They could gain all that notoriety and infamy

or go down a lighter path of using their platform to help others and themselves. Ultimately, I think a lot of them wind up doing a bit of both, really. What can today's children do to become famous? I think the sky is pretty much the limit in that regard these days, isn't it? They do all sorts of things like become social media, stars lead political movements and protest movements, become model students and role models in general. Unfortunately, there's a darker side to that where they become involved with violence and other

social ills, but I don't think that distinguishes them much from adults, to be honest. Do people become famous because of their talents? Well, it certainly helps, doesn't it? But it's not the only thing. There's a great deal of luck and hard work involved. some of the famous social media child stars of today would have had the same rise to stardom 20 years ago when social media was in its infancy. What are some of the potential negative impacts of celebrity culture on young people? That's a good question. Because on the one hand, maybe these people occupy a position of power and influence potentially. so they could make them behave in particularly bad ways if they try to copy them.

However, it's not like young people are mindless puppets, so it might not be such a strong impact now I think about it. That's the one that stands out the most. Maybe another impact might be influencing them to buy things that they can't necessarily afford and put undue pressure on their parents. But again, it's not like kids are mindless, automaton here. They have their own faculties. They can, you know, make decisions by themselves as well. What can celebrities do to protect their privacy? Lots of different things. I think most famously,

they've taken out things like court injunctions, which is like a legal way to stop people from prying into their affairs. They also have these large estates as well that they live on to kind of give them some space away from the public at large and the paparazzi that follow them around. And when they go out in public, there might be a degree of anonymity to what they're doing, too. They might not draw attention to themselves just so that people aren't focused on them the whole time. Instacart makes grocery shopping easier. And just because you're not doing the shopping yourself doesn't mean you don't care how it's done.

With Instacart shopper notes, you can get particular about what you want right in the app, like rotisserie chicken that's extra crispy, cheddar that's sharp as your skates, and lettuce you to actually pick yourself. Just leave a note for your shopper so they can get it right for you without having to ask. That way, you can get groceries just how you like. Download the Instacart app and shop today.