No single image reflects prosperous child's true nature. (Comment).

FIRST off, an important disclaimer: I am neither rich nor a kid. I also don't have any friends who are rich and I certainly don't know any kids who qualify. In other words, I'm about the last person you can think of whose mug belongs inside the pages of a special report entitled "Rich Kids."

Here is one of those subjects where what you think you know can be a dangerous thing. If your opinions are based largely on the stuff they run in Vanity Fair or air on "Entertainment Tonight" or dramatize in movies like "Clueless," you will be left with one reflexive conclusion: that rich kids are spoiled brats. End of story.

That opinion gets buttressed every time you wait for a light to change and the late model BMW in the lane next to yours is being driven by someone young enough to be your grandchild. And here you are, in a serviceable but well-worn Acura, surmising that this guy or gal has a rich daddy who wouldn't think twice about writing a check for 50 grand -- or more -- so the kid could tool around town in style.

Sometimes, you hear crazy stories about parents living in New York or Paris while their children are left on their own for weeks at a time. Then there are the kids whose ego and self-importance is grafted from their successful parents because it's all they have going for them -- the kind of kids who expect VIP treatment at school because the old man has contributed big bucks.

We all know there are families that operate like this, which makes the "spoiled brat" theory a convenient crutch. I mean, how much fun would it be to discover that rich kids are not only blessed with opportunity and security, but that they're levelheaded and deferential, as well? Who would want to see that movie?

The truth is, you can't typecast the very wealthy any more than you can typecast an autoworker or soccer mom. Our excursion into the world of wealth among children and young adults has found all types -- from the studious to the spoiled, from the well grounded to the all-mixed up. Parents are sometimes a big factor, sometimes not.

Being born into significant wealth -- we're talking at least eight figures -- brings all the obvious privileges but it can also include considerable pressures, starting with the most basic: How much should I use my family's resources to better myself?

The Wall Street Journal recently surveyed the class of '98 at the prestigious Groton School, outside Boston, to find out how connections influenced who got accepted where. One student, Caroline Braga, decided against her mother's urging to inform admissions officials at Brown University that one of her ancestors was William F. Sayles, who had endowed Sayles Hall in 1881. Despite a strong academic record, she was turned down. "I was a little bit naive," she told the newspaper. "In an ideal world, I wouldn't include preferences. In the real world, you use whatever tools you have to.

This is a sensible approach, but it requires maturity and perspective -- two traits not always found among young folks, rich or otherwise. For most of us, getting a part time job in college or sending out dozens of resumes upon graduation is a kind of boot camp for adulthood. If you're a rich kid, none of this is really necessary so it becomes your own initiative -- or that of your parents -- to establish a healthy work ethic, no matter what the bank account happens to show.

"Part of being born into wealth and fame means that if you do the best you can and succeed you're basically running in place," writes Carrie Fisher, daughter of Eddie Fisher and Debbie Reynolds, in Lauren Greenfield's 1997 photo book, "Fast Forward: Growing Up in the Shadow of Hollywood?'

"You often develop no muscle to achieve for yourself, or get out of that familiar context," Fisher continues. "I can never explain this without it sounding like self-pity... The children who grow up in this environment have to struggle to find their own humanity."

The following pages provide just a sampling of that struggle.

Mark Lacter is editor of the Business Journal.