Claudia Conway Just Made A Big Change To Her TikTok Account
Claudia Conway has been lauded by young people and liberals as a "whistleblower" and political hero of her generation. Daughter of conservative parents, former Trump aide Kellyanne Conway and prominent corporate attorney and founder of the Lincoln Project, George Conway, Claudia Conway became a viral TikTok sensation after she started posting anti-Trump messages to her social media account back in April (via New York Post). With over 1.5 million followers, the 16-year-old Conway had found an outlet for her political and social beliefs which were decidedly different from the rest of her family. In an interview with Insider from June she explained, "Everyone in my family are [sic] Trump supporters except for my dad and I." She confided with the outlet that, "I grew up in a very, very conservative family, so I was only exposed to those views for a very long time."
Vocal about everything from women's rights, the BLM movement, and LGBTQ+ issues, the young Conway told USA Today that "I know a lot of my friends are so informed and I think they wouldn't be if it weren't for social media, which is why I think using one's platform for good and for the education of others is so, so important, especially in our day."
But what started out as an opportunity to express her individuality and rebel against her parents, as teens are supposed to do, has turned her private life into political fodder for media outlets on both sides of the fray. Now with an election looming, Claudia Conway's TikTok has suddenly gone private.
Claudia Conway is a teen in the midst of family crisis
When Claudia Conway first started posting her political and social opinions on social media, it seemed she had her parents' the support. In June, she told USA Today, "My dad is pretty supportive of it, you know, my mom, she's always taught me to stand up for what I believe in." Although her relationship with her parents seems strained as an outsider, Conway has always been adamant that the matriarch of the family is her best friend, even though they fight about politics. She revealed, "A lot of people have been telling me that I'm disrespecting my mother by doing this — I'm not at all. I want nothing but love for her because she is an amazing person."
Things took a turn late in the summer, however. Both of her parents stepped away from the bulk of their professional obligations to devote more time to family, which seemed a lot like code for intervening in the drama surrounding their daughter.
While many heralded Claudia Conway as heroic, as Rolling Stone reports, it's obvious she's a young girl in the midst of family strife, and her calls for emancipation from her family are a cry for help. Her tweets from August address gaining independence from what she calls "childhood trauma and abuse," to her final active tweet which stated, "this is becoming way too much so i am taking a mental health break from social media. see y'all soon. thank you for the love and support. no hate to my parents please."
Claudia Conway broke the news about her mother's COVID-19 diagnosis
Instead of maintaining her position as the unsung voice for Gen Z, Claudia Conway found herself in the role of media outlet last month when she broke the news of her mother's COVID-19 diagnosis after the superspreader Rose Garden event at the White House which resulted in President Trump not only contracting the virus, but being admitted into the hospital soon after. On October 4th she revealed her own positive diagnosis, as well. Somehow she went from rebellious teen to media insider, overnight, but for the core of her followers, Gen Z teens, she's just a relatable voice for her generation (via Vanity Fair ).
18-year-old Jacob Sellers, told Buzzfeed News, "Claudia's content is awesome because it's hers. She uses her platform to express herself and share her views." Bailey Diamond, a 17-year-old in Las Vegas, explained to the outlet, "At the end of the day, she is a young 16-year-old with a voice and opinion with a large platform to show it off," she said. "If she was a child of the same age and the same views but not a child of the Conway family, would the media still report her in the same light?"
With the election just one week away, Claudia Conway has gone silent on social media. And while her TikTok is now private, her profile picture, changed to a rainbow with the worlds"Gen Z for Biden" under it, might be the only message she needs to send until the political wars are over.