How Ariana Biermann Handles Headlines About Mom Kim Zolciak & Family (Exclusive)

“Extra” talked “Next Gen NYC” with stars Ariana Biermann, Rowan Henchy and Liam Obergfoll about Season 2. 

She show is a docuseries about twentysomethings — some the children of celebrities — living in NYC.

Ariana, the daughter of “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” star Kim Zolciak, opened up about the best thing about being on the show.

She said, “Honestly, I think it’s really the friendships that we’ve made and how close everyone’s kind of gotten, and I think that’s my favorite part of getting to do that and work with my best friends... You get to see everyone live really authentically to them, and I hope that that helps people to know that you’re not the only one going through a lot of the same things that we are."

Biermann added, “I definitely have been somewhat in the public eye, I guess, my whole life growing up. It was more my mom and my sister, for sure. And then I stepped out and did my own thing, but I think it’s kind of prepared me to be able to handle this maybe in a better way or, kind of, have gone through this before and, like, the scrutiny that comes with being online and stuff like that. So, I think it’s prepared me a lot for ‘Next Gen.’” 

Liam shared, “I'm an actor,” teasing, “so I love attention, right?”

He said of all the attention from the show, “It's definitely a change... we're still in the start of it, so we'll see how it goes.”

What does he love the most? “The new friendships… It’s a group of, like, high personalities. We're all different but we all somehow get along... most of the time.”

Rowan, who is Brooke Shields’ daughter, talked about her experience, saying, “Reality TV is not the direction that I thought I was going to end up in post-grad. I’ve been out of school for about a year now... You take every day one day at a time. I think the beauty about being so young and in New York City is that you say yes to as much as you want to say yes to and you just see where life takes you. I’ve really enjoyed it.”

She agreed with her co-stars on the friendships, saying, “The friendships that come along with this is great and I think the best part about this season and this show itself is we really [are] just following what we like and what we're passionate about and it really shows growth. Every single individual, we all are growing individually and it’s really awesome to see all of these passion projects in different areas and you kind of follow us through mistakes and learning more about ourselves.”

Ariana teased the drama we will see, revealing, “I honestly feel like, unfortunately, chaos seems to follow me anywhere I go. By living so authentically and saying things that come to my mind right away definitely bites me in the ass. You’ll kind of get to watch that throughout the season, but you know, we’re navigating it all together. There’s definitely some fights and some things that happen, but I love it.”

Her mom Kim is on board. Ariana said, “My mom was really happy for me and super excited that I was going to embark on this journey and move to New York and be able to follow my dreams in a way. And she just told me to live very authentically to myself and not to give a f**k what anybody thinks.” 

Ariana, spoke about how she handles all the headlines about her family and online scrutiny.

“I think that obviously there’s been a lot of headlines that have come out about my family in the last few years and I don't read anything online,” Biermann said. “I actually pay attention to nothing. Like, I know a few people that have, like, their Google alerts on for themselves. I want to know nothing. I actually want to know nothing. I never want to read it. I, like, try not to even read my comments sometimes. Sometimes... it gets the best of me. But I think it’s better to just kind of turn a blind eye to all of it. At the end of the day, you know, I don’t see these people and they’re not saying it to my face.” 

She went on, “I think it’s been hard for me at times because it’s like I want to… obviously go to bat for my mom. She’s an incredible mother and going through a lot right now. But between her and I’s relationship, we always keep ours separate from what everyone else is saying online. She's my best friend. I was talking to her like 10 minutes before I got here.”

So what do the three of them think about the term “nepo baby.” 

Ariana shared, “I don't think I still have a full understanding of exactly what this means.”

Liam said of the show, “It is a little ‘nepo baby,’ but I don’t think people realize, like, it’s hard to be a nepo baby… You know what I mean? Hear me out… Every day you’re compared to an already successful career that every single night you go home and you think, ‘All right, how can I get there? How can I get there?’ And to be put on a show like this where everyone is then judging you getting there, it’s not the easiest thing in the world. So, I do think like it is the nepo baby show, but, like, give us a break.” 

Ariana added, “And the way I’ve always looked at it is, like, my mom paved this path for me to be able to do this, and I’m so unbelievably grateful and blessed that she did. I hated it when I was younger and now I’m doing it myself. I’m very grateful… This is the world I grew up in. I really don’t know any different. I just feel very grateful for it. But yeah… people have a lot to say about it.”

Rowan confessed, “I love the term ‘nepo baby.’  I genuinely love it... I didn’t come out of the womb like, ‘Give me Brooke Shields,’ and that's just how it is. And my mom always says, like, ‘I can get you in the room, but I can't keep you there.’ And that, to me, is like, ‘Okay, that makes sense.’”

She added, “It would be idiotic of me not to use the resources available to me. It’s now just about how I use them. And if you meet me, you realize maybe things are a little bit different than the preconceived notion that you might have of the term nepo baby.”