Lourdes Leon is just about to celebrate her 16th birthday. How time flies, right? She turns 16 this week, which should be very exciting for her. I wonder if she’ll get her driver’s license? Probably not. Lola’s homebase is New York City, but she was also raised partially in London as well. Neither are big driving towns, so my guess is that she’ll probably wait another year or so to get her license. Anyway, like many girls at this age, Lola thinks her mom is crazy, and Lola is bristling against her mom’s oppressive, Draconian rules. So Lola is counting the days until she gets the hell out. But her mother is Madonna: the rules Lola’s mom imposes are probably a lot different than the rules most mothers-of-teenagers impose, you know? Which means that Lola’s teenage angst and need to rebel looks decided different than most. According to The Mail, Lola wants to rebel against her mom by… going to college. And paying for college by herself.
Little girls grow up fast. Madonna’s firstborn daughter, Lourdes, is preparing the leave her mother’s nest and live on her own.
The 16-year-old girl is said to be planning her escape to the performing arts school Bard College outside of New York to flee from her mother’s strict rules, and she plans on paying for it herself. Lourdes is said to be fed up with her mother’s strict parenting rules, and her rebellious nature now sees her planning to leave home.
And the young girl is so desperate to be independent, she wants to pay her own way through college, The Sun reports.
Lourdes has teamed up with her mother to create the teenage clothing line Material Girl, and will presumably use the money she earned through that to pay the expensive college fees.
A source has said: ‘Lourdes can’t wait to leave home and get to university. She’s already planned it all. She’s also fed up being in the spotlight. That’s why she didn’t go on stage during Madonna’s tour.’
The oldest offspring of Madonna, 54, will leave her three siblings behind, Rocco, 12, David Banda, 7, and Mercy James, 6.
Believe it or not, I think Lola is a very smart girl, and I do think Madge put a lot of focus on Lola’s education – didn’t Lola go to Lycee Francais schools? Which are the same schools that a lot of diplomats’ children attend, and the curriculum is very focused more on university-preparedness. It’s not unheard of for someone to graduate from those schools at the age of 16, and Bard College would probably be a good fit for Lourdes too. So… more power to her, I guess. I just think it’s funny that Lola’s rebellion is “I’m going to finish my fancy Lycee school and go to a really good liberal arts college and I’m going to pay for it myself. GAWD, MOM.”
Photos courtesy of WENN, Fame/Flynet.
A quick, slightly unrelated question – what’s the situation with tuition fees Stateside? Because there’s been a bit of an uproar here about how much students have to pay now (my little sister has a darts board with Nick Clegg’s face on it).
For a minute I was wondering how Lourdes was going to pay, and then I realised her monthly allowance probably arrives in an armoured vehicle.
It says in the article that she’ll use the money she earned through her teenage clothing line to pay the college fees. I wonder how much she actually made from that? BTW, I don’t have an answer to your question and I would really like to know that, too. How much would an education at Bard College cost?
Someone on another site said Bard is $60K or more per year. I guess ol’ Lourdes made a lot of scratch with her teeny-bopper line.
Ugh my phone keeps eating my replies. US News & World Report says $44,798/yr, which I hope includes housing. I think I’ll have to quit my desk job and pursue pop super stardom to afford college when I have eventually have kids of my own. Yikes.
@ B – that price tag definitely does NOT include housing. Just tuition.
@Bettyrose – oh geez, maybe I won’t have kids 🙁
I’m a current student at Bard and the total cost is about 57K a year.
Tuition costs range from relatively cheap at community colleges to outrageously expensive at private, Ivy League schools.
I went to a large, public university and it was about $7500/semester as a full-time student.
Unfortunately, tuition costs are on the rise, and it will probably be a while before they level off. It’s a vicious cycle… banks/govt lending student loans for kids to go to school, so the schools raise the cost because they know they can, causing more student loans because fewer kids can pay, and the cycle goes on and on and on….
Your post seems to advocate getting rid of student loans as a “solution” to the problem. Actually, in the past the government subsidized state schools, and that’s why they were affordable. The funding to state schools has been so profoundly slashed that tuition at the UC schools has doubled — and that’s even after faculty has been cut, staff has been cut, and hell, I don’t even have an office phone (I’m faculty). The country isn’t willing to pay for education. The result is that the students are picking up the slack. http://www.utne.com/politics/californias-not-so-public-higher-ed.aspx?newsletter=1&utm_content=10.08.12+Politics&utm_campaign=2012+ENEWS&utm_source=iPost&utm_medium=email
No, I’m not advocating getting rid of student loans as a solution. It’s just a sad reality that the majority of students are becoming strapped with absolutely immense amounts of debt in order to pay for school because they would otherwise be unable to go. Tuition costs will continue to climb because students will continue to pay because otherwise they can’t afford school, and as tuition costs climb MORE students will need loans to help pay, so tuition climbs further… I was just pointing out the nature of the beast. Not really offering a solution because frankly, I don’t know what the answer is. I just know the situation we have now is not ideal, especially for students who will graduate and struggle to find adequate employment to afford their loan payments.
Of course, there is an argument to be made that most kids do not realize the enormity of their borrowing situation when they are 16 and 17 years old and sign on the dotted line for these loans, but that’s a different discussion for a different day I suppose. 🙂
And where do you think the country gets its money that it lends to students? Is there a big money tree in Washington, D.C. I’m not aware of? Oh, wait, no…the country gets all that money FROM THE PEOPLE. So, whether school is funded through state subsidies or through student loans, WE are the ones paying for it, one way or another. Saddling students with upwards of $100K of debt upon graduation at age 21 with no guarantee that they’ll be able to A) get a job or B) get a job that pays enough to cover the loan payments, is unconscionable. You’re better off going to trade school and avoiding the debt…at the end of your schooling, you’ll at least have a marketable skill.
Want to read something scary and have your eyes uncomfortably opened? Google “the education bubble” and report back…
$58,292 on campus with all expenses and fees according to the DOE College Navigator.
Wow. When I hear of these kind of costs for University, I’m always thankful that, at most, I only have to pay 3000 to 4000 euros a year (no housing, though) for really good quality education.
Italy has at least that to its merit.
Anywoo, good on Lourdes for wanting to study and to use her money in a smart way!
I don’t know about Bard, but lots of the really pricey Ivy Leagues provide substantial financial aid and scholarships. If you can get in, you can pay a lot less to go to one of them than state schools or small private schools.
RocketMerry, my sister is considering studying in Italy or elsewhere on the continent because the fees are considerably healthier.
Stupid, spineless, Clegg … *grumbles*
Education should be a *right* not a privilege.
@ LAR: This is true. When my son went to Bowdoin he had a scholarship that covered 70% of his total expenses. I was able to cover the rest from his college fund.
In Australia, if you’re a citizen, you can apply to the government to cover your tuition fees and it is not means tested. There is no interest charged and the amount you pay back is dependent on your income. Repayments kick in when you earn about $50 grand and then it is around 4%. The more you earn the more of your loan you pay back. If you get sick and can’t work anymore, you pay nothing.
It’s like this in most of Europe. I’m seeing a Frenchman and he said he didn’t pay anything for school. Most European countries have extremely low tuition which is why more American children are going abroad for uni.
I love that the English are getting up in arms about fees going from 6,000 to 9,000. I go to school in England (though not this semester) and while it does suck, I still pay a lot less, even with the exchange rate, to go to school there. My American schooling ranged from $24,000 at one school to $34,000 at another, and that is just TUITION. That doesn’t include housing, food, etc. Even if I pay $50,000 a year to study in England it’s still less than what I’d pay in America (and my bloody flat is in Mayfair!).
I only know this because I did the research a handful of years ago, according to collegeboard.com, living on campus, with tuition and fees, books, personal expenses, and transportation expenses is estimated at $60,280. NYU, USC, Stanford, Brown, Harvard etc are all within the 55k mark and up per year. You’re paying for the name, nothing else.
Good for her.
+ 1..
+1
sorry but it’s not really a big deal for her to pay her own way when the money she’s using is from a clothing line her mom started for her and, as someone who worked two jobs to pay her way through college (and had what little financial aid I got cut because I saved the money I earned to pay tuition instead of spending it on other stuff – yeah, they told me that’s why they cut my grant) it saddens me that this is hailed as her really doing it on her own or some great accomplishment.
Your point is a good one. But I still am much more impressed with Lourdes for not just looking to her mother like a blank cheque (like so many rich kids). Yes, her mother “helped” her make this money but at least Lourdes didn’t just put it up her nose (like so many rich kids).
And imagine how she suffered as a teenager having her mother up on stage flashing all her lady parts. The kid gets my sympathy for that alone. Madonna is a DIVA; poor Lourdes just wants some quiet and a home that has minimalist decor. Not so much to ask, IMO.
But yeah, she ain’t roughing it by anyone’s standards. Still, Madonna as a mother ……..
Am I the only person who thinks Lourdes kind of looks like Cher?
snap!
She’s like a mix between baby Madonna and baby Cher.
Yup. Especially in that last picture.
In the first picture, I thought she looked a little like Gaga. Just the angle her head was turned. I do see the part-Cher resemblance.
Me too I think of Gaga with the yellow dress picture.
I was thinking she looked like a pre surgery Kardassian. She looks more Middle Eastern than Hispanic and Italian. I was also thinking how much prettier she is than Madge and that even though she is LOADED I feel sorry for her because I would hate to have THAT for a mother. Look at the top photo. UGH!
spot on !
Look at me, don’t we look like sisters? I know I’m her Mom, but we’re, like, almost twins! Look at me, I’m so edgy and not at all like a sad and dated parody of my 1980’s persona! Catholic church! Sex! Sex with a Bishop! Or Pope! Kissed a girl! Strap on! The old rich white people are fascists! They fear me! Falatio! FALATIO, DAMNIT! I SAID FALATIO! LOOK AT ME, I’M SO YOUNG!!!
Then quit clicking on Madonna-related posts.
It’s “fellatio,” FWIW.
seagulls. I think @alita was making fun of Madonna, not complaining about the article. I was thinking the exact same thing as @alita. Chill and have some coffee! 😉
Dear seagulls, spelling is a lost art. Someday we can get together and mourn it. Texting is the death of civilisation! I’ll stop now – but yeah, I get your point. My spelling -dar went off too. It’s like gay-dar but it goes off when there’s bad spelling or grammar. It goes off a lot. But I still enjoy the trashy side of the internet 🙂 ‘Nuff said.
So agree, Seagulls…
it makes me wonder what the future will hold for these two. Lourdes is a billion times prettier than Madge, and we all know Madge has some attention issues…
will Madge turn on her? Steal her boyfriends?
Jealous people are some of the most evil. I’d hate to be Lola in 5 years.
I think it’s spelled “fellatio.” 😉
Misspelled Latinates aside, this gave me a hearty guffaw. I think Alita has pretty nailed Madge’s inner voice….
I don’t understand. Madonna doesn’t WANT her to go college? Or Madonna doesn’t want to pay for it?? How is this rebelling?
I took it more to mean that Lourdes is dog-TIRED of living under her mom’s rules & dictates (like every teen, even Madge herself way back when)…so she’s insisting on choosing her own college and studying what she wants. If mom doesn’t like it, she can screw off because Lola can pay her own way.
So, in summation–basically the same drama every teen, every family goes through. Shockingly minor.
Lourdes is lucky she has the cash to confidently make her own path. I’ll bet she has her mother’s drive and will successful in whatever she does.
And is she frickin’ gorgeous or what?! That hair!
I think that’s she’s beyond stunning. I hope she gets to have a true late-teen experience; when she’s able to make her own decisions.
When your mother is Madonna, you rebel by being straight-laced and responsible.
Oh, ok. I guess that explains it.
tru dat!
Except Madonna IS strait-laced and responsible. Her “wildness” has been largely restricted to her stage persona; in her real life, unlike all the other huge pop stars of her era, there’s never been a hint of substance abuse problems, psychological meltdowns, self-destructive behavior, legal problems, etc.
Madonna has always been more of an overachieving Type A workaholic. Lourdes developing a coke problem, getting arrested for DUIs, and aimlessly drifting through life with no goals would actually be the real rebellion against her mother.
She has admitted to using drugs in the past which isn’t really straight laced to me. Even if it’s ” experimenting” which for some reason I highly doubt with Madonna.
Going from man to man, abortions, crazy situations with them, calling them, talking crazy, trying to get them back etc,
I think Madonna has mental issues, we just don’t hear about them all we hear is she is a bitch because she is a strong woman, blah blah. She only eats healthy, works out etc. Just because she didn’t have a public Britney like breakdown doesn’t mean she is happy, fine, and has no issues.
But her past is not straight laced, for someone who stayed out of the sun, worked out, and ate healthy she sure aged pretty fast which resulted in a massive over haul at once time around 43? 45?
I still can’t wait for Lola to write a tell all when she is 35 or so about her life and all the crazy shit she had to put up with.
Please just promise me that if you are ever called for jury duty, you will find a way to get out of it.
Excellent point. I’m not a fan of Madonna, although I do like some songs from the Ray of Light album. Her controversial and shocking behavior has always been very calculated, and executed primarily to garner publicity. Never had a DUI, never photographed stumbling out of a nightclub drunk. If you believe her unauthorized biographies, she was fast and loose with the sexual favors up until her second marriage, but considering how straitlaced she is with other health matters, I wonder if the sexual escapades are yet more PR put out with Madonna’s blessing. She certainly is addicted to attention, which in and of itself can be construed as a mental illness – especially as she’s gotten older, it’s become more pathetic – but in every other aspect of her life, including her children, Madonna comes off as an anal retentive control freak.
To DI and jury duty – just say you’re a lawyer. That and being a “mental defective” will get you out the door of the jury duty room ASAP. Sigh, I had so hoped to unduly sway a jury some day.
Signed, not a mental defective (at least I wasn’t until I got to law school).
Yes, but lets not forget Madonna was famous during a time when the paps were not as relentless, there were no blogs or interwebs. She could have been a hard core psycho druggie hot mess. We would never know.
@D1:
Except Madonna was rumored to pick up teenage boys when she was in her 30s. Madonna made out with her first manager’s 16-year-old cousin, according to the manager, who caught her in the act. Was Madonna apologetic? Of course not:
http://s11.zetaboards.com/antimadonna/topic/901193/1/
As Kellie mentioned, Madonna became famous before the internet age, so her early behavior was not as widely publicized as it would be today. I do remember magazine articles that mentioned how she slept with influential men in the industry in order to get ahead. I particularly recall reading about how Madonna approached Eddie Van Halen in the mid ’80s and openly flirted with him in front of his then-wife, Valerie Bertinelli.
She hardly lives a truly healthy lifestyle. She’s admitted to smoking weed, even sharing a joint with her PR flack, Liz Rosenberg. She claimed she didn’t touch alcohol before 30, yet there’s a 1983 photo of her drinking champagne when she was in her 20s. She really took to drinking when she was married to Guy Ritchie. There are several English pap photos of her looking shitfaced after an evening out. Must be hard to keep your lies consistent when you’re always hiding behind a facade.
She has been sued several times for plagiarism and lost. She had undisclosed settlements for many of them to avoid widespread bad publicity. When you are that rich, it’s easy to hire the best lawyers and publicists to whitewash your hackery and your indiscretions.
She does work hard, but she also works hard at appropriating the imagery and work of others. People complain about Gaga and Beyonce, but was one of the first to make a successful career out of copying.
Madonna’s children are not allowed to watch tv or read the papers. But it was okay for other people’s kids to read about her or watch her televised antics, thus buying into her imagery and contributing to her bank account. With a hypocrite, control-freak mother like that, it’s no surprise Lourdes wants to rebel. In keeping with her character, it’s not farfetched to suspect Madonna capable of trying to steal Lourdes’ boyfriends. Ugh.
Madonna has been responsible her whole life. She probably hopes her daughter finds love early on in her twenties. Madonna may be unorthodox herself and far too famous, ambitious, and relentlessly driven for most men, but if you read her 1991 Vanity Fair interview, where she opened up, she always wanted a partner in life to raise a family with but feared it wouldn’t happen for her. It didn’t, but I bet she wants it for her children.
Responsible? Have you seen her SEX book? How do you explain being in a sling to your children? It is raunchy! I still have a copy.
SEX book was art not a mental illness. Madonna put that book out as art and if we can call Tracy Amin or Rubens art, then so is that SEX book.
Madonna was and is always anally retentive. She’s too controlled and driven to ever let any indulgences overwhelm her.
Her stage persona is her version of rebellion.
she should get work in an office, marry an elementary school teacher, get two children and a dog and have couple evenings playing board games. that would piss magde off big time.
born to Madonna. christened Lourdes… becomes a nun.
“Anyway, like many girls at this age, Lola thinks her mom is crazy”….Lola honey, the WORLD agrees with you! Not many teens get this type of validation.
UGH that woman is such a try-hard.
Her own money?! Puhleeeze! If it wasn’t for Madonna’s fame, she would probably have just enough money saved from her job at the mall to attend one of her mother’s concerts.
This is true, but at the very least, she’s being smart about where she spends what she has (as far as any of us knows, anyway).
Madonna has a high IQ, was an A student in high school, and received a dance scholarship to college and went away to college. In high school she was a cheerleader, drama club, beyond disciplined in her dance studes, yet always excelled in her studies. Madonna was driven from a very young age. She eventually dropped out of college to move to New York and pursue her dance career. I would imagine she wants higher education for her daughter.
I rebelled against my parents at 16, hating their restrictions. I don’t know how much I believe this story, anyway. All that money she has earned from the clothing line probably put away for her is because of mom anyway. Lola is hands on about the fashion but mom is the brains behind that line.
i like this kid.
I’m with you, Ms. O. I am intrigued to see where she goes in life. If she has her mom’s discipline, she could sky-rocket.
She is such a pretty girl.
In my book this is a minor rebellion. This girl will never really live the life of a poor college girl, digging around for empty beer cans for lunch money poor anyway.
But it is a natural progression and I think it represents more of a symbolic separation to show she is her own girl.
I’m always drawn to that bright color of her eyes…Sort of like copper instead of brown.
more power to her and all, but this chick needs some conditioner in her hair.
I don’t think she’s rebelling, she’s just trying to be independent, which is not so strange considering that everytime she’ll accomplish something there’s going to be people who’ll say that her mom paid for it or that she only got there because of her mom.
Also, not all teenagers rebel. I never did it and neither did my friends.
Well, you know how it goes. The more rebellious & wild the parents were, the stricter they are with their kids.
I realize Madonna just wants to protect her from the dark-side of the world (that she is more than familiar with). But in doing so, probably pushed too hard, went to far with way more rules than a normal kid would.
It is sort of ‘running away’, but at least she’s ‘running away’ to an education instead of some friend’s couch.
the college trust fund is in her name
ugh. just stop. You were born into money why is it rebelling to not use it?
To me paying for your own college education is not a rebellion it is a fact of life for many students in the us. My son goes to a private college that costs about 54,000 $. He received a great academic scholarship and paying the difference in loans which he will have to pay back. More than half the school is on loans and the average debt is $25,000, so Lourdes is doing nothing special, she has the money to do it.
Agreed! Is she taking out student loans? Is she working on the side to pay for college? THAT would be rebelling. Not using the money you’ve made from a clothing line…
I am just finishing my degree now, at 32. I just couldn’t afford it and had too much else on my plate.
I’m in the opinion that paying for your school makes you value your education more.
Blah blah.. this spoiled child cries when it rains and she is wearing a new mascara for the first time..
All of this is dominating Madonna’s master plan to instruct her how to play the empowered woman marketing publicity game.. You are representing what I produced girl and don’t you forget it..
Lourdes has attended NYC’s High School of the Performing Arts (the Fame school), since they moved back here after Madonna & Guy Richie’s divorce.
Lourdes has gorgeous hair. More power to her if she wants to rebel by going to college and not by stumbling out of clubs instead. Madonna wouldn’t let that happen anyway.
Thinking out loud – how would control freak, ambitious, driven Madonna and control freak, ambitious, driven Tom Cruise look together? They should meet soon if they haven’t already.
On the other end of the spectrum are the Kardashians, with gobs of money and zero scholastic ambition. I think Lourdes has her head straight and I have to admire her (and Madonna, who apparently is a better mother than Kris Jenner) for that.
Lourdes has always struck me as someone who isn’t big on the limelight, unlike her mother. Good for her for going away to college and not sticking needles in her arms like other rich kid a**holes.
A lot of parents help their kids get jobs in high school (and beyond). If Lourdes actually did the work, then yes, it is her money. I’m not going to diss the kid for the way she earned it, unlike some of you venomous people.
She is absolutely beautiful. All the best features from both of her parents.
I like Lourdes. I like her looks and I like the way she carries herself
Performing Arts School? How exactly is she rebelling against her mother by basically pursuing the exact same profession?
Omg, please, please, PLEEEEASE don’t become a pop star or actress! We’ve had to stomach your wretched mother for the past 25 years, please don’t force us to endure you as well :*(
Madonna on her Daughter’s Eudcation:
What an ungreatefuly little brat. You buy someone a crappy clothing line, make St. Paul her personal slave, and give her a British passport so she can forget about ever being born in that place where people are grossly obese and only speak in monosyllables, and they still crap all over your Perperation H. How many children get to call Lucifer Uncle? Or God G-dizzle. I’ve sacrficied everything for these children, even my cheek fat, to make sure these kdis had everyting one could ever want, and all I asked in was that they a make weekly tirbutes to ym Madgness, use their youthforce fro my appearances, and worship me like the goddess that I am.
You know what she said to me. “Stop sniffing Lady Gaga’s rancid meat dress Madge, I’m going to school so that I can rule the world with some class and dignity. I don’t want to turn 57 like you and dislocate my pelvic bone in the middle of stage humping, just to prove a point.”
Bitch.
I told Lourdes, college was for people who need 401Ks they’ll never cash in and gastric bypasss surgery to pay for. Degrees are basically for the little people. And since we’re loaded and I forbid her to be fat, what’s the problem? And if she were to go to university it would be Oxford where I paid good money (and made my assistant sleep with that crusty old president as as sign of good faith) to tell them to make us a legacy since we are English you know.
I threatedned to take away her TV, cellphone, computer, tablet and whatnot until I remembered we don’t use any of that noise in OUR home. We teleport everywhere and I’m omnipotent.
)
Everyone knows cheek fat is the hardest to lose.
Get this poor girl away from her narcissistic mother who most likey is extremely jealous of her! Run Lourdes!!!
Pay her own way? Sure she will. She has no idea of that concept.
Lourdes is going to laguardia not lycee for high school.
I was in college when Lola was born and I still remember that MTV played Madonna ALL weekend long! Wow, I’m old!
Sounds like kiddo has a pretty good head on her shoulders.
Madonna’s heart must sink when she sees how incredibly gorgeous her daughter is. Gah – I would have killed for that hair when I was young. Still would.
Madonna – for all her faults – is very smart. If Lourdes inherited that and even half of her mother’s drive she’ll power her way through life just fine.
………….YOU STINGY OLD BITCH!!
Moon Zappa has talked about how the only way to rebel in her family was to become strait-laced and responsible. She says she’s a compulsive tidier.
And all she ever wanted was some bitchin’ clothes and an understanding pedicurist.
Don’t like the bathing suit thing under the black lace and rat fur coat, but her face and body look great there. Lourdes is very attractive. Can’t believe she is friends with that waste of space no talent midget Osborne.
Bard is one of the most expensive colleges in the USA. if she pays the full fare, she is looking at $60k/yr or more. I suppose she might qualify for financial aid, however, if she can establish that she is an emancipated minor.
I have no idea why she would want to go there, if she is paying for it herself. It’s not a bad school, but the price is insnaely high. I suspect her mother could afford to cough up the $60k/yr.
If she wants to continue being a fashion designer, the place to go is the Fashion Institute of Technology on Manhattan’s west side, which happens to be a state school.
I also have no idea why I am commenting on this article: it is pure speculation totally unsupported by any actual facts. And it’s about someone I don’t even know, although I do own some of her mother’s CD’s and even listen to them on occasion.