History Main / LonelyRichKid

'''A noticeable shortage of close friends''', for various reasons. They could be a RichBitch or JerkJock, or at least mistaken for one. The character may be leery of friendship overtures because these have turned out to be attempts to take advantage of their wealth. If they do have plenty of opportunities for friendships with other rich kids, they likely want nothing to do with them, usually loathing them for their [[UpperClassTwit arrogance, ignorance, superficiality, and immunity from consequences for their often-atrocious behavior and life choices]].

Then there are the wealthy parents of the rich kid to consider. It could be that parental pressure is toward the character becoming remote and icy because that's what worked for them, all that caste and class nonsense. Politicians' and tycoons' kids often have anti-kidnapping protection around them (bodyguards and mandatory travel in a [[HummerDinger huge, armored SUV]], vetting of new pals) that friends have just as hard a time getting through as do the bad guys.

'''Some form of ParentalAbandonment.''' Mom and Dad will be either a) dead, b) never around as they are traveling world for business or pleasure, c) [[ParentalNeglect inattentive and uncaring]], as they have far more important things to do (either running their empire or just living a decadent life of debauchery), d) inhumanly demanding for the child to achieve in life to the exclusion of actual ''parenting'', or e) [[ParentsAsPeople overwhelmed with all the other responsibilities they need to handle]] or f) some combination of the above.

There are seldom aunts, grandparents, or siblings around to fill in the gaps. In many cases, there are butlers, housemaids, nannies, or [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Au_pair au pair]] teens left to take care of them.

'''Rich intelligent kid.''' Wealth and inherited intelligence often go hand in hand and IntelligenceEqualsIsolation. God help if the lonely rich kid is also intelligent! Even with all their wealth, a rich ''and'' intelligent kid feels alien in their world and among their lesser intellectually endowed peers. Their wealth ''may even exacerbate'' the situation, turning mere scorn and anti-intellectualism into ''active hate''.

This one-two punch serves up a lonely kid, one with resources. Unhappy kid + lots of money = trouble, more often than not.

* Literature/HarryPotter
** Harry himself qualifies, but in a largely subversive way. He's very wealthy and an orphan, but until he turns 11 and gets his magical reveal, he's completely friendless. This is not due to his wealth - which he never knew about until that point, anyway - but because his cousin Dudley is the school bully. Since he hated Harry and all the other kids would rather not find themselves on the business end of Dudley's fists, no one ever reached out to him. Once Harry ends up among his own kind (wizards), he's a bit confused by how popular he is, but does find very good friends fairly soon.

** Draco Malfoy also comes from a prominent Pureblood family, but his loneliness is much less obvious at first. Appearing as a racist bully and SmugSnake for most of the earlier books, it can't be denied that he gets most of that smugness battered out of him later on: The imprisonment of his father and Draco himself being forced into Voldermort's service under pain of death takes an enormous toll on his mental health, and maintaining his old swagger proves a difficult facade to keep up. There's also the fact that he never seems to have any close friends that he considers his equal. In ''The Cursed Child'' Draco reveals to Harry that he always was jealous of Harry's frienship with Ron and Hermione while he has, well, [[DumbMuscle Crabbe and Goyle]].

--> "Her blessings became a burden because she had none to share them with"

* [[Characters/TheOwlHouseAmityBlight Amity Blight]] from ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'' is a lonely rich kid who is LonelyAmongPeople. [[BigBrotherBully Her siblings constantly bully and tease her]], her parents are abusive {{Control Freak}}s [[spoiler:who forced her to end her friendship with Willow simply because the latter was a late bloomer]] and her GirlPosse was handpicked for her and she doesn't like any of them.