Celebrity parents are often left with a choice of how they want to handle fame and their family. Photographers can be relentless when it comes to capturing the million dollar shot and the tabloids are all too happy to pay them handsomely for their work. This means that the paparazzi works overtime to snap celebs as they go about their everyday business.

There are those famous moms who work hard to shield their children from the spotlight. Many of these ladies took matters into their own hands and campaigned to pass new laws that protect their children from being stalked by photographers. Some of these moms will go to any length to keep their little ones safe.

Then there are the moms of Hollywood that actually thrust their children into the limelight. They encourage their kids to work in the industry at a young age. These famous families can be seen on the red carpet often and have learned to embrace their fame. From modelling careers to starring alongside their parents in movies, these kids learn the price of fame, first hand. Please enjoy this list of 15 celeb moms that shield their children from the spotlight (and 5 who put them front and center).

20 Totally Private: Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman is the mom of two children, Aleph and Amelia. She values privacy above all else and refuses to have a social media presence. She explained why she made the decision to keep her personal life private with Business Insider.

“It feels like the last thing you want to do,” Portman said. “It’s so much unwanted interest in your privacy that you don’t want to invite any more.” She went on to say that she worries about online bullying. “You see the amount of bullying and negativity that goes on that is really, really intense, and I feel lucky that I came of age before all of that came on.”

19 Protective Mom: Mila Kunis

Mila Kunis and Ashton Kutcher have two kids, Wyatt and Demitri. They’ve made a decision as parents to shield their children from the spotlight. The Sun reported that Ashton explained their choice during an interview on the Thrive Global podcast with iHeartRadio.

"My wife and I have chosen a career where we're in the public light, but my kids have not so I think they have the right to choose that."

Ashton shared. "It's their private life, it's not mine to give away. Your social profile is yours to create not for someone else to create for you."

18 Lives In The Limelight: Kim Kardashian

Kim Kardashian is the mom of three kids, North, Saint, and Chicago. Her children have grown up in the spotlight and are often seen on the hit E! series, Keeping Up With The Kardashians. From appearing front row at fashion shows to walking the streets of Beverly Hills, it seems like Kim’s kids are always being photographed.

So much so that Kims’ oldest daughter, North, went off on the paparazzi one day. She was just 3 years old when she was snapped exiting an ice cream shop. According to Life and Style, North screamed: “No pictures” at photographers. Sometimes a girl’s just reaches her limit.

17 Avoids The Spotlight: Julia Roberts

Julia Roberts may be America’s sweetheart but that doesn’t mean that she thrusts her children into the spotlight. She and her husband, Danny Moder, chose to raise their kids, Henry, Phineas, and Hazel on a ranch in New Mexico. She revealed to USA Today why they left Hollywood.

"We just want to have our family life and not have that intruded upon,"

she said. Julia works hard to find a balance between her public face and private life by only sharing some details about her home life and finding “what can satisfy most people from me." It takes effort, but she's found a way to pull it off.

16 Blew Up At The Paparazzi: Reese Witherspoon

Actress Reese Witherspoon may take fame in stride but doesn’t seem to handle it so well when photographers invade her time with her children. A quiet shopping day with her kids, Ava and Deacon, turned bad when she berated the paparazzi.

Another incident appeared on YouTube of Witherspoon lecturing the paparazzi about their dangerous driving. She can be heard saying, "Excuse me, I want to talk to all y'all," she said waving an angry finger their way "I will pay your bills," then called the cameraman's driving "inexcusable." She demanded that they slow down and quit putting people’s lives in danger.

15 Demands Privacy: Hillary Duff

Hillary Duff is fiercely protective of her children, Luca and Banks. When her son was just an infant, she often exploded at the paparazzi when they invaded Luca’s space. Hillary opened up about the difficulties of raising a child in Hollywood to The Huffington Post.

“It’s tough because people take our picture every day; there’s paparazzi outside our house every day,”

she said. “And he’s too young to know what’s going on but when he is old enough, it’s going to be unfair for him to feel he’s being treated different than all the other kids. That’s going to be really hard.”

14 Front And Center: Jada Pinkett Smith

Jada Pinkett Smith and Will Smith pushed their children, Willow and Jaden, into the spotlight. Both of their kids began working when they were just 10 years old, Jaden started his acting career and Willow forged her singing career. According to ET Online, Willow opened up about her experience with fame on her mom’s Facebook Watch Series, Red Table Talk.

"I only have one terrible experience, which is 'Whip My Hair,'" Willow said. "Just that the values of the people around me should have been the opposite. You and daddy should have been like, 'Okay, we value her musical growth and knowledge more than her popularity.'"

13 Totally Protective: Sandra Bullock

Sandra Bullock is a single mom to her two children, Louis and Laila. She has a very good reason for shielding her little ones from the spotlight. The photographers were desperate to get a pic of Laila and Sandra opened up to InStyle about the challenges of adopting a child in the Hollywood bubble.

"I had to figure out how to hide the kids' faces because there was a bounty on our heads,"

she told the magazine. "When you adopt a child, there's a placement period, and if something goes sideways, they have the right to take the child away. It's a tenuous, strenuous six months."

12 Out Of The Limelight: Gwyneth Paltrow

Gwyneth Paltrow has two children with her ex-husband, Chris Martin. The exes make an effort to keep their children, Apple and Moses, from the limelight. According to People, Gwyneth told Page Six that she would wage war with the paparazzi to protect her kids.

"If I have my daughter in the car and they are making me nervous, I'll do whatever I have to do,” she said. "I keep a whole log. I take pictures of their cars, write down license plate numbers, everything. If they do it again, I can go to the police.

I know my rights and believe me, I will have them arrested. I will stop at nothing."

11 Protective Mom: Halle Berry

Halle Berry found herself in an altercation with the paparazzi at LAX when photographers swarmed her daughter Nahlia. This led her to speak to a committee at the state assembly in Sacramento to argue that California needed to tighten their laws to protect celeb’s kids. According to The Guardian, she had this to say to the committee:

“We're moms here who are just trying to protect our children. These are little innocent children who didn't ask to be celebrities. They didn't ask to be thrown into this game and they don't have the wherewithal to process what's happening.

We don't have a law in place to protect them from this."

10 Thrust Into The Spotlight: Cindy Crawford

Cindy Crawford’s kids are following in her beautiful footsteps and have entered the world of modelling. Kaia and Presley Gerber have already graced the runway on high-end fashions shows and covers of magazines. Each of them started their career as models when they were just teenagers. Kaia was only 16 years old.

Cindy really doesn’t seem too concerned for them to be in the spotlight. According to Daily Mail, Cindy has bigger things to worry about. “My daughter just got her driver’s license. I’m a lot more concerned about her driving by herself than her entering the world of modelling,” she said.

9 Beyond Private: Eva Menendez

You will be hard-pressed to find pics of Eve Mendez and Ryan Gosling’s daughters, Esmeralda and Amanda. The couple is famously private with their relationship and even more so when it comes to their little girls. They go to great lengths to shield them from a Hollywood lifestyle.

"Whether we like it or not, privacy is going to be very difficult for Esmeralda. I think it's unfair but that's our reality,"

Mendes told Violet Grey in 2014. "So Ryan and I decided early on to give her as much privacy as we could. And my pregnancy was the first opportunity to give her that.

8 Shields Her Children: Jennifer Garner

Jennifer Garner has three children but her son, Samuel, despises them the most. According to TODAY, Jennifer opened up about the topic while she was a guest on The Dr. Oz Show. “Of all my kids, he hates [the paparazzi] the most," she said. "He hates them." Garner told Dr. Oz that Samuel counts “men with cameras” as one of his least-favorite things.

“We have to talk about the fact they can’t hurt you,” Garner said she tells Samuel. “They can’t touch you. They’re far away. We can’t make them go away.

We just have to live our lives, son, and do the best we can.”

7 Protects Her Child: Adele

Songstress Adele knows all too well how aggressive the paparazzi can be when it comes to photographing celebrity’s children. She proved that she would do anything to protect her son, Angelo when she sued the photo agency Corbis Images UK. According to Redbook, Adele’s lawyer spoke on behalf of her and her husband, Simon.

"Many of his milestone moments, such as his first family outing and his first trip to playgroup, were photographed and published expressly against his family's wishes,"

said her lawyer, Jenny Afia. The argument worked and Angelo won a five-figure sum. The agency agreed to never publish the photos again. Go, Adele!

6 Makes Privacy A Priority: Scarlett Johansson

Scarlett Johansson and is another actress that has taken a stand against children being photographed against their will. She teamed up with Kristen Bell, Halle Berry, and Jennifer Garner to demand that the paparazzi back off when it comes to snapping away at little ones. She told Parade:,

“Its’ a smart idea to let people know how you and your children feel about being harassed or stalked. I’m confident that if the public knew what was going on, they would see it as an ethical issue, and support the 'no kids' policy.

It’s about raising awareness. I was involved with [this issue] before I had a baby.”

5 Pushed Into The Spotlight: Suri Cruise

Katie Holmes and Tom Cruise are the parents of Suri. They have since divorced but there was a time when they were the hottest couple in Hollywood and their daughter seemed to be the most photographed child in the world. According to The Daily Mail, Cruise spoke with Grazia about allowing Suri to be photographed.

"As a parent, you protect your children but Suri is a very open and warm child and she will just wave to people on the street. She is such a happy, fun girl.''

He also said that photographers give them space and he didn’t intend to be difficult.

4 Fiercely Protective: Kristen Bell

Kristen Bell and Dax Shepard have two daughters, Lincoln and Delta. The couple went on a crusade to fight the paparazzi. They went so far as to call for a boycott of all tabloids that publish kid’s picture without permission and it led to a new law becoming a reality. According to Jezebel, Kristin said,

"I feel a lot safer because I'm not followed at all now.

It makes me feel like we all rallied and did something — the good people that were on the side of responsible parenting and passionate about child welfare spoke up and made a difference, and that is a really invigorating feeling."

3 Shields Her Children: Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron fell victim to the prying lenses of the paparazzi when they snapped pics of her son having an epic temper tantrum in a Los Angeles parking lot. Her little boy refused to get in the car and the whole thing went down with lightbulbs flashing.

According to The Independent, Charlize wants to shield him from the spotlight. “Obviously I understand [the media attention],” she said. “I also feel like I want to do everything in the world to protect this very innocent little boy, who is going to have an awesome mom but she has a sucky job that everybody wants to know about.”

2 Protective Mom: Kerry Washington

Kerry Washington is like a ninja when it comes to shielding her kids, Isabelle, and Caleb. The actress is known for keeping her personal life private. She posts no pictures of her kids on social media and is very secretive about them. She opened with ET Online about her reasoning. "I want her to be able to make those decisions in her time," she explained.

"She already has a lot to navigate in life as the daughter of an actor and a former football player.

She should be able to enter this world when it feels right for her, and not [have me] make that decision for her.”

1 The Momager: Kris Jenner

The ultimate stage mom has to be Kris Jenner. She is the manager of her famous daughters, Kim, Khloe, Kourtney, Kendall, and Kylie. From shooting their series Keeping Up with the Kardashians to organizing photo shoots, this momager does it all and puts her family front and center.

When asked by Harper’s Bazaar if she felt like she had sold her family out for fame, she gave an emphatic response: "Nooooo," she replied.

"I made and created a show that my family was all on board with, and we were so excited because we got to work together."

It sounds like Kris has no regrets.

References: Harperbazzar.com, Etonline.com, Independent.co.uk, Parade.com, Redbookmag.com