poor little rich girl

A sarcastic and unsympathetic label for someone, especially a young person, who has access to vast wealth but is discontent at a spiritual or existential level. During the interview, the young billionaire CEO gave a tearful account about not having any meaningful relationships, the poor little rich girl. He's just another poor little rich boy desperately looking for attention because mommy and daddy are too busy earning money to play with him. The film centers around these poor little rich kids wandering around New York City, trying to find meaning in the world.

Unhappy heiress. In contrast to Job's turkey, the subject of this phrase wants for nothing—except emotional support. The original “poor little rich girl” was socialite Barbara Hutton, heiress to the Woolworth (“Five and Dime” stores) and E. F. Hutton investment banking fortunes. She had a lonely childhood, seven failed— and in many cases, exploitive—marriages, and died a broken (and nearly broke) woman at age sixty-six. The phrase has been applied to other women whose lives were sad in spite (or perhaps because of inherited wealth).