Throughout her adolescence, Chelsea Clinton wished she could retreat into the background. She wants Charlotte, Aidan, and Jasper to have that option. “I am fiercely protective of my children’s privacy. They are the most important part of my life,” she said at a CBS panel discussion for Mental Health Awareness Month in 2023 (via People). To give them that benefit, she never shares photos of them on any public forums and avoids taking them to highly publicized events.
That’s also partly the reason Chelsea never got on Instagram or TikTok, social media platforms that emphasize visual over written communication. “I would never show a picture of their faces or our family’s faces, and it would feel just weird to me to be on Instagram, a visual media,” she explained. But she doesn’t want her children to feel like they have to hide. Instead, she strives to teach them self-preservation and give them the tools to act accordingly in light of hateful attacks.
“As I think about raising brave, resilient kids, I try to think more about what I want to learn from my experience as a child instead of being reactionary to it,” she said on Variety’s “Power of Women” issue in 2022. Hillary Clinton couldn’t be more proud of her daughter’s capacity to turn a negative experience into a powerful lifelong lesson. “She’s been so consistent, and I really respect that,” the former U.S. Secretary of State said.
