History Main / RichKidTurnedSocialActivist

* In ''ComicBook/RedRobin'', Bruce's adoptive son Tim takes after him by spearheading a new program to help support community centers, gyms and provide better education in poor areas, starting in Gotham City and then spreading globally where he receives local permission.

* Charlotte Dalrymple in ''Series/{{Hysteria}}''. She's a young daughter of a rich medical doctor who used her dowry to help the poor in VictorianLondon. She runs a settlement welfare house and personally teaches poor children. She helps prostitutes (for example, Dr Dalrymple's maid Molly is a former prostitute) and is unapologetic about her progressive opinions. She also tries to raise more money from other rich people of her acquaintance.

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'' features a few wealthy [[BlueBlood purebloods]] who ended up in the Order of the Phoenix, dedicated to resisting the [[ANaziByAnyOtherName Death Eaters]]' agenda of [[FantasticRacism enforcing purebloods' elite position]] in the FantasticCasteSystem. Harry's dad James was one such member of the Order. James's friend Sirius Black is an even more extreme example: not only did he join the Order, he'd been pointedly rebelling against his parents' blood purism since adolescence.

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* The prequel movies of the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'' emphasize this for Charles Xavier. He was born into immense wealth and grew up into the academic Ivory Tower. However, he devotes his life and resources to being a refuge for mutants, particularly underage mutants who have been turned away from their homes and families. Across the series, he is on a quest to ensure equal rights for mutants and a peaceful civilization for all.

Rich Kid Turned Social Activist and Reformist. This character is usually a young idealistic kid from a wealthy background who takes a hands-on approach to helping the poor and helpless. Their family are filthy rich, but this kid is very well aware of their privilege and they desperately want to balance social injustices. They try to use their money to help the poor, the homeless, the addicted, the ill, orphans and abandoned kids, and other people in need. They may be involved in various charity projects but most importantly, they'll be interacting with those in need personally. They'll organize charity drives, they'll buy them food and clothes and toys and medicine and distribute it all in person. With smiles and immense emotional support.

Helping people ''[[RuleOfEmpathy with faces]]'' will [[PetTheDog look better to the audience]], regardless of efficiency. If a wealthy character never donates any money to charity, but sneaks out every night in disguise to volunteer at a soup kitchen, it serves to humanize him more than donating money to an anonymous charity organization, even if that would actually help more people.

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Compare/contrast with RichIdiotWithNoDayJob and CrimefightingWithCash.

Compare/contrast with RevolutionariesWhoDontDoAnything, RichIdiotWithNoDayJob and CrimefightingWithCash.

* "The Power To Believe" by The Dream Academy (best remembered for it's instrument version in ''Film/PlanesTrainsAndAutomobiles'') is about a man "born and raised in privilege" who had everything handed to him on a silver platter and foregoes any sort of higher education to make the world a better place for those less fortunate than him. Unfortunately, it proves to be too much for him to handle and he soon goes crawling back to his life of comfort.

Not to be confused with SlummingIt, [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething noblesse oblige]], or [[WealthyPhilanthropist philanthropy]], though they can overlap. It can also overlap with NonIdleRich or HeroDoesPublicService. See also BoomerangBigot (if the character is OldMoney who [[EatTheRich hates Old Money]]), HopeBringer and WhiteMansBurden. See also PhotoOpWithTheDog if their charity work could be a publicity stunt, or mistaken for one.

Compare with RichIdiotWithNoDayJob and CrimefightingWithCash, i.e "Rich Guy Turned Superhero".

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Margery Tyrell's second EstablishingCharacterMoment is when, while traveling through a bad part of King's Landing in the royal party, she hops out of her litter to go into an orphanage to spend time with the children. The Lannisters complain, but she points out the EnlightenedSelfInterest aspects of it: if the commoners like you, they're easier to govern (a sharp departure from the more dismissive or paranoid attitudes of previous southern nobles we've met, especially the Lannisters themselves, who are downright cruel).

Not to be confused with SlummingIt, [[RoyalsWhoActuallyDoSomething noblesse oblige]], or [[WealthyPhilanthropist philanthropy]], though they can overlap. It can also overlap with NonIdleRich or HeroDoesPublicService. See also BoomerangBigot (if the character is OldMoney who [[EatTheRich hates Old Money]]), HopeBringer and WhiteMansBurden. See also PhotoOpWithTheDog if their charity work could be a publicity stunt, or mistaken for one. Compare/contrast with RevolutionariesWhoDontDoAnything.

* The scary-looking punk girl in [[http://notalwaysright.com/judge-a-sandwich-on-its-filling/27816 this]] story from ''Website/NotAlwaysRight'' turns out to be a kindhearted spirit from a wealthy family, who buys sandwiches and coffee for homeless locals from a neighborhood coffee shop and stuffs hundreds in the tip jar so the baristas can go to college. When asked, she explains that she just finds face-to-face interaction more fulfilling than signing checks to charities.

* UsefulNotes/{{Russia}}n revolutionary leader UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin was born to a wealthy family; his dad served under the UsefulNotes/{{tsarist|Russia}} government and even received a noble title for his work.

Helping people ''[[RuleOfEmpathy with faces]]'' will [[PetTheDog look better to the audience]], regardless of efficiency. If a wealthy character never donates any money to charity, but sneaks out every night in disguise to volunteer at a soup kitchen, it serves to humanise him more than donating money to anonymous charity organization.

Some of them might be SecretlySelfish types who do it for PR or who tell themselves that GoodFeelsGood, but they still invoke/exploit the notion of this trope.

* Similar, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin Mikhail Bakunin]], a Russian anarchist whom Kropotkin took some inspiration from (though they differed at times) came from a noble family but had become radicalized as a university student, adopting socialism and then anarchism, becoming a life-long revolutionary. Due to this, the Russian Tsar stripped him of his land and titles (not that Bakunin likely cared). He played a leading role in the Prussian May Uprising, for which he was sentenced to death, but spared so the Russian government could take custody of him for advocating revolution against them. Bakunin languished in Russian prisons, suffering greatly until being exiled to Siberia. From there he escaped, took a ship back to Europe and lived in exile there for the rest of his life, where he advocated collectivist anarchism by revolutionary violence.
* Other examples can also be found. Though not all were nobles by any means, many Russian revolutionaries (plus those of many countries in general), have come from a comfortable middle class background at least. This was also a well-known characteristic of student activists in the 1960s (sometimes used as a criticism of them). It's also often been noted that most communist leaders were from a "bourgeois" background themselves.

* Similar, [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Bakunin Mikhail Bakunin]], a Russian anarchist whom Kropotkin took some inspiration from (though they differed at times) came from a noble family but had become radicalized as a university student, adopting socialism and then anarchism, becoming a life-long revolutionary. Due to this, the Russian Tsar stripped him of his land and titles (not that Bakunin likely cared). He played a leading role in the Prussian May Uprising, for which he was sentenced to death, but spared so the Russian government could take custody of him. Bakunin languished in Russian prisons, suffering greatly until being exiled to Siberia. From there he escaped, took a ship back to Europe and lived in exile there for the rest of his life.

Social Activist often advocates for systemic change, or at least acknowledges the unfairness of the system, even if that includes their own wealth. It's an eventual conclusion to draw from immersing themselves in the struggles of the lower class and helping personally. Some of them might have political aspirations and hope to bring about new economic system that is more just and install an equal society. These kids are often true revolutionaries at heart, and they become pure socialists or anarchists. Usually they're idealistic and they believe they work for the greater good, but they lack any real grasp of the politics or what revolutions really look like. Their trust funds will always be welcome to their fellow social activists.

* The prequel movies of the ''Film/XMenFilmSeries'' emphasize this for Charles Xavier. He was born into immense wealth and grew up into the academic Ivory Tower. However, he devotes his life and resources to being a refuge for mutants, particularly underaged mutants who have been turned away from their homes and families. Across the series, he is on a quest to ensure equal rights for mutants and a peaceful civilization for all.

* ''Literature/LesMiserables'': Les Amis are a group of privileged students who nonetheless empathize with Paris's poor and try to stage a rebellion in their name. Their leader, Enjolras, is specifically mentioned to be born to a wealthy family.

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* In ''Series/{{Batwoman|2019}}'', Mary Hamilton is a wealthy debutante who spends almost all of her free time (and a considerable amount of her money) running a free clinic for those in Gotham who can't afford a hospital.
* Julie Mao from ''Series/TheExpanse'' and [[Literature/TheExpanse the novels]] the show is based on. She was born into one of the wealthiest families on Earth but had no interest in lavish lifestyles of her peers. In college she joined the student activist group Far Horizons Foundation, which eventually led to her joining the Outer Planets Alliance. The OPA is a decentralized movement with [[YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters an ambiguous reputation]] that fights for the rights of Belters, who are largely under the heel of Earth and Mars.
* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Margery Tyrell's second EstablishingCharacterMoment is when, while traveling through a bad part of King's Landing in the royal party, she hops out of her litter to go into an orphanage to spend time with the children. The Lannisters complain, but she points out the EnlightenedSelfInterest aspects of it: if the commoners like you, they're easier to govern (a sharp departure from the more dismissive or paranoid attitudes of previous southern nobles we've met).

* Once parodied in ''Magazine/{{Mad}}''. A typical rich-kid-turned-hippie is seen being the male equivalent of a GranolaGirl and over five excruciating frames is seen declaring, to what looks like an equally stereotypical black man, about how he has tired of his life of unearned wealth and riches and has turned his back on all that so as to come to the ghetto and share the everyday poverty and suffering of poor Americans and become as you are, brother. the black guy considers the obvious BS being spouted at him, and answers

* Tabby of ''WebVideo/ContraPoints'' is a representation of the stereotypical left wing activist {{furry|fandom}} {{transgender}} woman ([[StealthPun her nickname even comes the Sabo-Tabby]]), and implicitly has (or prior to transitioning had) the same upper-middle class background as most of Natalie Wynn's characters. Deconstructed in that she has difficulty explaining anything without obtuse academic jargon, and gets criticised for starting violence that she might not be as likely to suffer the consequences of (since despite being trans and dressing as a CatGirl, she's still upper class, white and passes well).