The famous role model thing goes back a very long time. Any sports fan remembers when former NBA great Charles Barkley spoke so publicly about it. He said something to the tune of “I’m an athlete, not a role model. If your kids look up to me then you need to do something about that.” He was right. He was very outspoken during his career and you never knew what controversial statement would come out of his mouth next. However, on that fact he nailed it perfectly.

Sure, lots of role models come from the celebrity life. It can’t be helped when they are in the headlines every day. With social media the way it is now, there isn’t much these people do that isn’t reported on by at least one media outlet. It’s silly to think that the younger generation won’t start to look up to some of these people now and then. The money, the fame, the women (and men), they are all very attractive to the younger people.

A lot of those people though are not good people away from the stage they make a living on. Today you will read about plenty of these so called “role models” that are really terrible people. If you are a parent you might want to share this with your kids. If you are a kid don’t click away, read on and you may learn a thing or two about that celebrity you think is so awesome.

20. Lindsay Lohan

Lindsay Lohan is someone that the younger female gender looks up to as a role model. It’s pretty hard to figure out why exactly that is though. Sure she was successful in her early teen years and she actually seemed like a pretty good person. But once she turned 18 years old that all went out the window.

Did you know that since the day she turned 18 years old until now, she has spent 86% of her adult life on some kind of probation? The amount of chances that have been given to this woman is unbelievable. She has been arrested countless times and she just isn’t a good person to have around, and certainly not one kids should be looking up to.

19. MTV’s Teen Moms

The girls on the hit MTV show Teen Mom should never be looked at as role models. First of all, I use the term “hit show” reluctantly because that would be giving it credit as an actual good show. However, a lot of people watch it so I suppose it could be considered a hit.

Any time a teen is pregnant they should never be looked to as a role model. What they have actually done is screwed up their life, and putting them on a television show isn’t the right answer. Some people may say that it helps other teens learn what not to do. But in reality it also helps teens think that it’s an ok situation to find yourself in.

18. Anyone With the Name of Kardashian

First of all, the Kardashians have never done anything of real note or offered the world anything other than cheap entertainment. If it weren’t for O.J. Simpson, nobody would know who they were or care about the Kardashians in any way.

The sex tapes, the gossip and the reality shows keep their name in the headlines. Anyone that is a regular in the headlines is bound to have some people that look up to them. It’s a very bad choice. If you ever actually listen to the words that come out of some of their mouths, you’ll realize they should be considered more of an embarrassment than a role model.

17. Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus is a lot like Lindsay Lohan. When she was younger (she still isn’t very old at 24) she was successful and it looked as though she had a lot going for her. Then adulthood hit and everything changed.

Cyrus lives her life always looking for the shock factor in everything she does. If you don’t believe me just type her name in a Google search and the first five results should be enough to verify things for you. She is no longer the Hannah Montana that everyone once knew and loved. She is more like a young female version of Howard Stern now and that’s not anyone you would want your young daughter looking up to.

16. Lance Armstrong

There wasn’t a person in the world that wasn’t once totally behind Lance Armstrong. He won bicycle races like no other man ever had and then he told the world he had cancer. He survived and made a strong comeback and everyone loved him even more. He was a role model for anyone that was fighting cancer.

Eventually the world found out that Lance didn’t win all of those races on his own. He had help. He cheated. That immediately drops him from a role model to a terrible person. He lied to everyone and made strong denials before eventually coming clean. Some people say that his eventual admission fixed his reputation, but in reality it didn’t. Once a cheater, always a cheater.

15. Chris Brown

Chris Brown hopefully isn’t still looked at as a role model. At one time he was because of the success he found. All that changed though in 2009 when he beat up his girlfriend Rihanna. Since then it has been all downhill for him and deservedly so.

He actually tried to play himself off as the victim when he told the world about his unresolved anger issues leading the public to misunderstand him. Whatever, Chris. Since then he has been arrested numerous times and once he was even accused of faking the community service that he had been sentenced to. There are countless reasons that Chris Brown is a terrible person and not a role model.

14. Abby Lee Miller

Everyone knows who Abby Miller is. Just in case you don’t, she is the very mean woman that runs the show on Dance Moms. She is also the Director of Reign Dance Productions so do what you will with that info. Maybe it means that the entire show is fake and she really isn’t as abusive as she comes across on the show. Then again, maybe she is.

Some of her favorite methods of training these little girls on the show include embarrassment, shame, insulting, screaming and flat out scaring the hell out of the kids. She even tries to get the parents to take part, not only toward their own children, but against the other parents as well.

She isn’t a good role model for teaching or parenting and we can only hope the show is a fraud and she really isn’t that terrible in real life.

13. Kobe Bryant

Kobe Bryant just finished up a Hall of Fame basketball career. In 1996 he became the youngest player ever in the NBA when he was drafted right out of high school and he started to play for the Los Angeles Lakers. His accomplishments on the court are why he is a sure fire Hall of Famer. His antics off the court however, leave a lot to be desired.

He raped a hotel worker in Denver, has used racial slurs on more than one occasion and is just as friendly to the fans away from the arena. These are all reasons that he shouldn’t be a role model for any kids that are growing up looking for one.

12. Alex Rodriguez

Alex Rodriguez is finally finished with his Major League career. We hope so anyway. His contract was one of the biggest in the sport’s history and he got extremely rich playing baseball.

For a long time he was the guy everyone looked at in terms of not cheating and doing things the right way. That’s what made his impressive career statistics that much more impressive. Until he got caught cheating. Then all of that went out the window. After that everything around him spiraled out of control.

He got suspended from the game for a year, allowed his cousin to be arrested and serve jail time to protect himself, cheated on his wife, threatened to sue Major League Baseball and then to top it off he threatened to sue his own union. You know who they are, right? The very people that represented him and tried to keep him out of trouble.

He’s a disgrace and shouldn’t be a role model for anyone.

11. Justin Bieber

Some of the younger generation wants to look at Justin Bieber as a role model. Here are a few reasons they shouldn’t: He flashes people, attacks members of the paparazzi, spits on people, relieves himself in public, gets involved in hit and run accidents, assaults his own bodyguards, abandons his pets, vandalizes things with graffiti, hangs out in brothels, eggs neighbors’ houses and was arrested for DUI.

Does anything else need to be said about Mr. Bieber? All of the above coupled with the fact that he can’t sing, dance or act, show you why he shouldn’t be a role model to anyone.

10. Kanye West

When most people don’t win an award they graciously congratulate the winner and keep their mouth shut. Apparently Kanye West was brought up differently. In 2004 when he didn’t win the award for Best New Artist, he told the AP in an interview that he was “robbed.” He did win an award a few years later but during the same ceremony he lost out on another and got angry again. During the winner’s acceptance speech he interrupted things and went on a long tear of bad language to show how angry he was.

One time he broke a camera that belonged to a member of the paparazzi and doesn’t he have ties to that Kardashian family? Enough said.

9. Michael Vick

Michael Vick was once the #1 overall draft pick by the Atlanta Falcons. However, most people have forgotten about that now because he has done some pretty heinous stuff off the field. At one time he was one of the most promising quarterbacks in the NFL and he was carving out a pretty good career for himself. Every young quarterback wanted to be Vick. He could run and pass and defenses couldn’t stop him.

Then one day he got busted for running a dog fighting operation. The details of what took place are pretty disturbing and we won’t go into them here. He was sentenced to almost two years in prison and when he finally returned to the football field he wasn’t even a shadow of what he once was.

His off the field actions that led to his arrest make him a terrible person, not worthy of being a role model to anyone.

8. Adam “Pacman” Jones

Jones is another NFL player that people used to look up to as a role model simply because he played football. The fact is though, that he got into trouble before he ever stepped on an NFL field.

In 2005 he was drafted by the Tennessee Titans and before his first training camp even started he was arrested on assault charges. Those charges were dropped but later in life he would show the world they were probably true.

He was arrested multiple times before his infamous 2007 incident at a strip club in Las Vegas. He was “making it rain” with money on the dance stage and got strippers fighting over the cash. During the fight the bouncers got involved and three people ended up getting shot. One of the bouncers was left paralyzed. Later that same year Jones was involved in a shooting outside of an Atlanta strip joint. This guy is just pure bad news.

7. Bill Clinton

Any man that cheats on his wife shouldn’t be considered a role model for anyone. In the case of Bill Clinton though, that’s not all he did to qualify him for this list.

His involvement in a very shady real estate deal was borderline against the law, depending on who you ask. Then he was sued for sexual harassment by Paula Jones while he was the President of the United States. Then of course you have the entire Monica Lewinsky scandal where Bill lied and lied for a very long time, even under oath, before finally admitting the truth.

If you are looking for a good role model you have just read a few reasons why Clinton isn’t a good pick.

6. Charlie Sheen

When looking for reasons why Charlie Sheen is a terrible guy, one has to wonder where to start. A man that once was a role model for those that look up to actors, has become one of the most hated men in Hollywood, and he has nobody to blame but himself.

He shot his wife, has been in and out of rehab countless times, hangs out with porn stars and spent over $50,000 on Heidi Fleiss’s women. Who knows how much he spent on other women not in the Fleiss stable?

He has assaulted girlfriends and wives, lost custody of his children, had countless restraining orders placed against him and then got fired from his hit TV show Two and a Half Men. This isn’t even mentioning the fact that he was diagnosed with HIV and didn’t tell anyone for a very long time.

Sheen is no longer role model material and hasn’t been for quite a long time now. Calling him a terrible person is being nice to him.

5. J.R. Smith

Smith is a guy that has been in trouble since the day his name hit the news when he made the NBA. Did you know that during the time frame of April 22, 2005 until January 10, 2006, he received twenty seven points against his driver’s license? To get the full effect, read that last sentence one more time. In about nine months he was stopped for eight traffic violations, on seven different dates. Yes, one day he was stopped twice.

He was even involved in a car accident that saw one of his best friends killed. He’s been in fights in nightclubs and has been suspended by the NBA multiple times. Smith just isn’t a very good person to look up to.

4. Aaron Hernandez

Aaron Hernandez had a world of talent but a very tiny brain. At no point should he ever have been considered a role model. Once again however, since he was in the sports headlines every week, there were plenty of young people that looked at him as a role model.

When the New England Patriots drafted him they waited until the 4^th round because there were several concerns about his drug use. He had failed many drug tests and nobody wanted to take a chance on him. When the Pats did he became a record breaker. If he stopped at just that he would have been ok.

Hernandez went on to become a murderer and is now spending the rest of his life in prison. No more needs to be said.

3. Heidi Montag

First of all, nobody that is on MTV should ever be a role model for anyone. The channel is filled with shows that are barely watchable and the people in them are not your average stand up kind of people.

Heidi Montag became famous on the channel and that tells you all you need to know. She had too many plastic surgeries to keep count and the young women around the world think she is cool. She’s not.

The example she sets for young women is too much based on self-image and not enough about the people they are. She even said so herself in a recent interview. “In the beauty department I’ve been a really bad role model and that’s a hard thing to digest.” She added that she no longer compares her looks to others. “That’s completely the devil and his schemes. That’s the opposite of what God wants for our lives.”

2. Floyd Mayweather

Floyd Mayweather is one of the baddest dudes to ever walk the face of the earth – inside of the boxing ring. His success in the boxing ring is unmatched by most that ever do battle in there. There is no denying what he has done as a professional boxer. That’s why lots of people use him as a role model.

There is another side to him though. Outside of the ring he isn’t a good guy at all. His obsession with money goes way beyond the normal use of that word. Not to mention the fact that he likes to beat up women. His domestic violence record is about as impressive as is his record inside of the ring, and that’s not a good thing at all. Nobody should look up to him for inspiration in any way shape or form.

1. Nicki Minaj

In 2015 Nicki Minaj was voted as one of the top two worst role models in the world. The vote was open to only parents and Miley Cyrus was the other top candidate. Parents are smart enough to see the countless reasons that Minaj shouldn’t be looked up to but the younger generation is usually blind to all of these things until they get older.

The way she conducts herself in public is more of an embarrassment than anything else. Just about every time she opens her mouth something stupid comes out of it. Why do you think the paparazzi are always around her? It certainly isn’t because she is a talented singer.

Sources: huffingtonpost.com, todaysparent.com, relevantmagazine.com