Nirvana cover baby now a teenager
Categories: Babies, Celeb kids, Playground bureau, Media
If there's one thing that's controversial among parents who blog, it's whether or not it's appropriate to post pictures of your children online. Some parents worry that it isn't safe, while others are concerned that their children will view it as an invasion of privacy when they get older. Still, there are plenty of parents out there (including Dooce, arguably the most famous parenting blogger) who have no problem using photos and/or real names.
Seventeen years ago, these kinds of issues hadn't ever been discussed. So when photographer Kirk Weddie called his friend Rick Elden to see if he could take some shots of Elden's young son Spencer in the pool, Rick didn't think much of it. A few months later, the Elden's were surprised when their infant son showed up on the side of Tower Record's building on Sunset Boulevard, in all his naked glory. A shot of Spencer in the swimming pool had become the cover for Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind.
Nevermind was no small album -- 26 million copies sold -- and Spencer is now a 17-year-old. Spencer says that it's "kind of cool" being the Nirvana baby. Though he's spent some time in military school for bad behavior, Spencer will likely be graduating high school a year early this summer. I'm curious what his parents thought when they first saw that billboard for the first time. Were they mad? Did they wish that they had had a chance to give permission? Maybe they were excited about their young son's fame, or concerned about his privacy. It's hard to say, things being so much different then.
If you're a parenting blogger, do you take measures to protect your child's privacy?
Seventeen years ago, these kinds of issues hadn't ever been discussed. So when photographer Kirk Weddie called his friend Rick Elden to see if he could take some shots of Elden's young son Spencer in the pool, Rick didn't think much of it. A few months later, the Elden's were surprised when their infant son showed up on the side of Tower Record's building on Sunset Boulevard, in all his naked glory. A shot of Spencer in the swimming pool had become the cover for Nirvana's 1991 album Nevermind.
Nevermind was no small album -- 26 million copies sold -- and Spencer is now a 17-year-old. Spencer says that it's "kind of cool" being the Nirvana baby. Though he's spent some time in military school for bad behavior, Spencer will likely be graduating high school a year early this summer. I'm curious what his parents thought when they first saw that billboard for the first time. Were they mad? Did they wish that they had had a chance to give permission? Maybe they were excited about their young son's fame, or concerned about his privacy. It's hard to say, things being so much different then.
If you're a parenting blogger, do you take measures to protect your child's privacy?
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Judy 7-25-2008 @ 8:15PM
This story is about 2 years old.
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Jenn 7-26-2008 @ 8:17PM
Er....how so? It was published on NPR on July 23, 2008. That makes it about 3 days old, not 2 years.
As for the actual question....I post pictures of my daughter on my blog, but I don't use her real name (nor do I use my husband's real name, just an initial). Most of the people who read my blog are family and friends anyway, I just want to be careful of people randomly finding me via Google or other searches.
Tammy 7-27-2008 @ 3:28PM
This is a big issue in my family. I don't allow anyone to post pictures of my daughter online. when I first came home home with her we had a problem with my stepdaughter's older half sister, she put my my daughter's picture up on her myspace page with all her information, where we live how old she was her full name. We fought for 2 months with her mother about making her take it down, it finally came off only after I told her I had a lawyer looking into my legal options regarding the situation. It should be solely up to the parents of the child to decide if a picture can be posted not at the discretion of a 13-year old who doesn't understand what can happen by posting all the information.
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