Elon Musk's estranged daughter Vivian Wilson says growing up around extreme wealth was "very isolating".

The 21-year-old star, who came out as transgender in 2020, has opened up about growing up feeling like the lifestyle was "a bit gauche", especially as she saw how little other people had.

She told Cosmopolitan magazine: "It was a very strange experience, very isolating...

"The upper class have their own private schools, social circles, and whatever."

After attending the secretive Ad Astra school on the SpaceX campus, Vivian - whose mother is Musk's first wife Justine Wilson - transferred to Crossroads, which is aimed at the Los Angeles elite.

She recalled: "I have unlearned a huge amount, but even as a child, I was like, 'This is a bit gauche'.

"I remember being very young and seeing homelessness and feeling sick to my stomach. People would get on me for being like a dramatic little child.

"But no, I was right to be a dramatic little s*** about that."

Vivian also noticed a strange "illusion" that the wealth is earned while others are struggling.

She said: "[There's a] level of detachment from reality itself, in favour of wealth and this illusion that you deserve it while people are sleeping on the streets...

"Oh, and also Santa Claus is real. I also know that, like, I was a rich kid; I should not be lecturing anyone on materialism."

Meanwhile, Vivian admitted she has "absolutely" witnessed the way immense wealth has warped people in her life.

Without naming anyone, she revealed: "I have seen that s*** firsthand. It will change you, and the desire for power corrupts people from within. It is cartoonish.

"Achieving that and wanting more is a never-ending cycle of greed and gluttony, where nothing is enough and you kind of go insane.

"It turns you into someone different. Which is honestly one of my biggest fears."

Last year, the model - who shares a home in Los Angeles with three other people because it is "cheaper" than living alone - was planning to enrol at a community college to continue her study of languages, and insisted she wasn't rich.

She told The Cut: "College is expensive. I don't have that inheritance.

"People assume I have a lot of money. I don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars at my disposal.

"My mom is rich, right? But obviously the other one is unimaginable degrees of wealthy."

But Vivian insisted she isn't "salty" about the situation because she is still more comfortable than others of her age.

She said: "I don't have a desire to be superrich.

"I can afford food. I have friends, a shelter, and some expendable income, which is nice and much more fortunate than most people my age in Los Angeles."