“You think u can hurt my feelings? lol my mom is kellyanne conway,” read the text in one of Claudia Conway’s TikToks, in which her smudged mascara and red nose indicate that she had been crying.

We have all heard of Claudia’s mother, Kellyanne Conway: the controversial political figure who successfully ran Trump’s campaign in the 2016 election and is one of his most passionate supporters. But as America began to face much more political and economic turmoil with the rapid spread of the coronavirus and the upcoming presidential election, Claudia’s platform on TikTok and Twitter grew enormously when she began speaking out against the Trump administration and her own mother. Only fifteen years old, Claudia has accumulated close to 496K followers on Tiktok and over 190K on Twitter. Though one would assume that after growing up in a conservative household, she would have simply adopted her mother's views, she could not have been more opposed to them, highlighting the generational gap in political beliefs (younger people tend to be more progressive, while older people are more conservative). Unafraid to call out Trump and Kellyanne’s ignorant tweets, such as those concerning the reopening of schools in the midst of a pandemic, Claudia has made her position incredibly clear. Whether it’s criticizing Trump’s mindless claim that “if we tested less there would be less cases,” or a witty remark at her mother, “@KellyannePolls funny how all my tweets get more attention than yours,” Claudia never fails to speak her mind.

Despite receiving praise and admiration, being in the public eye has brought Claudia hate and negativity as well, bringing about the question: is a child allowed to have different beliefs? She would say yes, tweeting, “i possess just as much respect and intellect as you do. what i do and how i use my platform is for the betterment of my generation.” Yet people still call her disrespectful and tell her to resolve her problems with her mother in private, to which she usually responds with something along the lines of “then you clearly do not know my life. don’t assume. you don’t know my trauma lol.”

All everyone is talking about are her clever comebacks against her mother, but no one seems to realize the true implications this fame may have on her emotional well-being. Claudia, only a teenager and not even old enough to drive, revealed in a TikTok the many struggles she has already gone through in this past year alone: clinical depression, toxic breakups, the death of her grandfather, panic disorder, major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, OCD, sexual assault, two suicide attempts, and multiple investigations by child protective services due to her abusive parents. 

While it is truly heartbreaking for a fifteen-year-old girl to have to go through so much––no thanks to her parents––it’s saddening to see that many fail to recognize Claudia’s strength and instead bash her for standing up for herself, making assumptions about her character despite her numerous tweets hinting at her parents’ abusive behavior. Recently, Claudia tweeted “i’m officially pushing for emancipation,” saying that the reason why “is because of years of childhood trauma and abuse.”

Claudia had previously made statements about her mother’s decisions to neglect her despite her obvious battle with mental health: “if she cared about MY suicidality, she wouldn’t still be working in the trump administration.” Going viral on social media for speaking out against her mother has only strained their relationship even more, with her parents taking away her phone and attempting to delete her accounts, but most shockingly, she stated in a TikTok that Kellyanne had even had her arrested for making false statements about her online. 

Just a little over a week ago, following Claudia’s tweet denouncing her mother for selfishly putting her work above her own children, many Americans were shocked at the news of both of her parents’ unexpected resignations from their prominent jobs. While they both claimed it was for the benefit of their family, in the comment section one of Claudia’s TikToks, she called it “SUCH BULLSHIT ITS INSANE,” and in another, she wrote that it would not stop her from pursuing emancipation. However, in the face of it all, Claudia has still proved to be unstoppable.

She perfectly exemplifies the passionate nature of Gen Z: independent and willing to voice her own thoughts against that of her parents despite struggling with mental health beneath the fierce and strong facade she displays online. “Fault vs. responsibility. there’s a big difference,” she tweeted, “it may not be your fault that you’re in the situation you’re in, but it IS your responsibility to react productively or get yourself out of it. life is 10% what others do and 90% how you react to it.”

Conway, Claudia. “Claudia Conway's Twitter Profile Picture.” Twitter, 2020, twitter.com/claudiamconwayy.