IELTS essay: Do celebrities experience more problems than the benefits they enjoy?

Essay topic

Being a celebrity – such as a famous film star or a sports personality – brings problems as well as benefits. Do you think that being a celebrity brings more benefits than problems? Or is it the other way around?

Sample response

Celebrities have fans all over the world and they are always in the news. Sometimes they make news for right reasons, and sometimes for wrong reasons. In my opinion, celebrities face more problems than the benefits they enjoy.

Very few celebrities actually manage to avoid controversies and this often takes a toll on their emotional health. In fact it is not uncommon for celebrities to develop psychological problems because of the constant media scrutiny.

It is true that celebrities enjoy the respect and adulation of millions of fans. They get to make a lot of money by endorsing various products. They are recognized by people all over the world. They get invited to inaugurate various functions. While all of these are the advantages of being a celebrity, they also have to deal with encroachment into their personal space. Their privacy often gets violated. Celebrity gossips circulate like wildfire. Also there is a class of journalists called paparazzis who follow celebrities wherever they go. They circulate embarrassing celebrity photos and videos and make money. Worse still, celebrities cannot go out without security personnel. When they step out, their fans follow them and make it impossible for them to enjoy themselves.

Celebrities also get criticized even when they act with the best of inventions. People always try to interpret their actions and words in a negative way. For example, Amir Khan’s television program ‘Satyamev Jayate’ attracted a lot of criticism from various corners of the society although the actor did not have any wrong motives.

To conclude, it is true that celebrities benefit from the name and fame that stardom bring. However, they also have to deal with a lot of problems. There have been several cases of highly talented people who could not achieve their true potential because of their inability to cope with the demands of stardom. So, I believe that celebrities experience more problems than the benefits they hardly enjoy.