Brooklyn Beckham has spent his 26 years trying to find who he is away from “Brand Beckham”.
As the eldest son of David and Victoria Beckham, he has spent his entire life in the spotlight, with each move highly documented and often criticised.
From the typical move of following his father’s footsteps with football to being in front of and behind the lens, here are the many iterations of Brooklyn Beckham’s careers.
Watch the video above.
Barista
Like many teens, Brooklyn’s first official job was in a coffee shop, working as a barista.
He worked in a coffee shop in West London when he was 15 years old, reportedly earning £2.68 (approx. $5.30) per hour.
His dad David Beckham shared with Huffington Post in 2013 that he and his wife Victoria wanted to instill the value of money in their children from a young age.
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“We try to lead by example, by showing them it’s important to work hard,” he said.
“We juggle everything around the family because our main priority is the children, simple as that.
“It always will be, but being hard-working is the best thing you can show children.”
Footballer
Being the son of David Beckham has it’s ups and downs, it seems.
Young Brooklyn has been involved in the world of football essentially since he was born, but when it came time for him to play, it seems it didn’t come quite as naturally to him.
He started playing when he was 16 years old with a position on Arsenal Football Club’s youth team, but stopped playing after he failed to secure a scholarship to continue.
David shared with ABC in 2015, ”One of my boys turned around to me the other day and said, ‘Daddy, I’m not sure I want to play football all the time.’
“He said, ‘Every time I step onto the field, I know people are saying, ‘This is David Beckham’s son’, and if I am not as good as you, then it is not good enough.'”
Brooklyn himself spoke about the topic in a 2022 Variety piece, telling the outlet, ”My dad wasn’t sad, because he was like, ‘I just want you to be happy’.
“But of course, I was sad. It was my whole life since I was literally two.”
“To try and live up to what my dad did in football, I was just like, that’s going to be a bit difficult.”
Modelling
The 17-year-old then decided to turn to modelling in 2014.
He graced the covers of Vogue China, Miss Vogue, Interview, L’Uomo Vogue, The New York Times Style Magazine and Dazed Korea.
He also became the brand ambassador for Huawei’s Honor 8 smartphones and fashion brand Superdry.
Photography
After a few years in front of the camera, Brooklyn decided his passions lay behind it, taking up photography.
He enrolled in a photography degree at the prestigious Parsons School of Design in New York, but left after one year, having secured an internship with British photographer Rankin at age 19.
Despite his lack of experience, the teen secured a position as the main photographer for a campaign for Burberry’s fragrance, BRIT.
The move garnered much controversy, with fashion photographer Chris Floyd telling The Guardian, “David and Victoria Beckham represent sheer willpower and graft. Especially her, she’s climbed that mountain all by herself.
“They represent hard work and then their 16-year-old son comes along and it’s sheer nepotism. He hasn’t done it from hard work, which is counter-intuitive to what his parents represent.”
“Part of me takes my hat off to Burberry and says that’s clever, but the photographer side of me says for god’s sake,” he continued. “Brooklyn Beckham’s got however many million Instagram followers, that’s what’s attracted Burberry. The people his age are Burberry’s target market or the future target market.”
In 2017, Brooklyn released his debut photography book What I See, which ultimately did not help his case.
The book was supposed to be ”a series of snapshots of his life,” according to its synopsis.
“Each chapter tells a different story through pictures by and of Brooklyn, accompanied by captions and passages of text in his own words. Unique, authentic and stylish, WHAT I SEE is a glimpse behind the lens.”
The book was mercilessly mocked, with users taking to social media to share snippets of it, including a now-infamous photo of an elephant he tried to photograph.
Titled “elephants in kenya”, the caption reads,” so hard to photograph but incredible to see”, accompanying a photo of an elephant completely obscured by shadows.
Another snap titled “dinner” featured a blurred photo of a celebration dinner with the caption, “i like this picture – it’s out of focus but you can tell there’s a lot going on.”
Soon he realised photography was better off as a hobby, telling Variety, ”I really enjoyed it for a couple of years,
“I love taking pictures of my wife. I still have all my film cameras, but now it’s just more of a fun thing to do. They were kind of all hobbies. I was still trying to find that one thing I would literally die for, and I found that with cooking.”
Chef
Brooklyn then delved into the world of cooking, dubbing himself an amateur chef as he dabbled in the kitchen.
He began showing off his creations with his Facebook video series, Cookin’ With Brooklyn, in December 2021.
“Unfortunately I’ve never done, like, a cooking class, but I’m obsessed with watching MasterClass,” he told The Times of his motivation for creating the series.
This too drew criticism, with his out-there recipes including pasta made from seawater, bolognese sauce cooked with a wine cork in it, and a £300 (approx. $592) joint of beef, alongside notoriously expensive black truffle.
His endeavours have landed him gigs on TV, and even a pop-up restaurant with Uber Eats where he cooked chicken tikka masala, pork dumplings, and more of his favorite meals.
Hot Sauce
Being an aspiring chef led to quite a natural progression to the 26-year-old’s next passion projects, launching both a sake brand titled WESAKE, as well as a hot sauce brand titled Cloud23 in October 2024.
The hot sauce was inspired by the “diverse cultures [that] inspired him to try new things, experiment, and become the tastemaker he is today,” according to the website. it comes in two flavours, Sweet Jalapeno and Hot Habanero, and is sold in a pack of two for $US35 (approx. $51) at Whole Foods in America.
The name Cloud23 has also raised eyebrows, with the “23” coming from his father’s No.23 jersey, which David donned during his time at Real Madrid and LA Galaxy.
David Beckham and Victoria Beckham’s family life in pictures
The hot sauce was launched long after Brooklyn broke away from his family and tried to carve out his independence in America.
Brooklyn told Grazia about the product, “I worked so hard on not just attaching my name to a hot sauce and just putting it out. I decided every little aspect. I’ve never worked so hard on something.”
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