Ever try to keep track of the world of influencers? It can be tough to keep track of who’s who, much less how they became famous.
But Claudia Conway is a special case. As the daughter of famous parents, Conway could have achieved basic fame by following in their political footsteps. Instead, she used TikTok and teenage rebellion to become a genuine icon of youthful revolution.
But who is Claudia Conway when you get right down to it? We’ve got all the news you need to know about this unexpected political firebrand,
Who is Claudia Conway?
Our guide is going to let you know all the dirt worth dishing about when it comes to Claudia Conway. Before we go any further, though, we need to answer a much more basic question: just who is this influential young woman?
The short answer is that she is the daughter of George and Kellyanne Conway. George is a prominent lawyer and extremely vocal critic of Donald Trump who helped create the Lincoln Project to take Trump’s presidency down. This made things awkward, as his wife Kellyanne Conway was a prominent adviser to Donald Trump for much of his presidency, as well as his 2016 campaign manager.
Claudia could have remained relatively unknown, like most children of famous couples. But she ended up becoming famous in a very unexpected way!
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Viral TikToks add up to fame
@claudiamconway
Claudia Conway achieved serious viral fame in 2020 at just 15 years old thanks to her infamous TikToks and good, old-fashioned teenage rebellion.
Her parents are both deeply conservative (including her father, whose hatred of Trump didn’t exactly turn him into a liberal). In response, Claudia created a number of leftist TikTok videos supporting Black Lives Matter, mocking Trump’s inability to denounce white supremacy, and criticizing police for brutality against citizens (particularly citizens of color).
Claudia ended up deleting many of these TikToks. However, she only did so after achieving viral fame. Her use of TikTok would soon affect her family in a major way as her battles with her mother became known.
Claudia’s emancipation struggle
As Claudia Conway became internet famous, we began seeing her publicly duking it out with her parents. And while Claudia would sometimes delete the worst of her posts, she often used platforms such as Twitter to decry things like the state of her parents’ marriage.
It all came to a head in August 2020 when she tweeted that would be seeking emancipation from her parents:
In response, Claudia received many tweets joking that Kellyanne Conway working for Trump was not a good reason to seek emancipation. In response, Claudia tweeted that she is seeking emancipation thanks to “years of childhood trauma and abuse.”
The reaction to these tweets was nearly instantaneous. Less than a day later, Kellyanne Conway resigned from Trump’s administration to spend more time with her family. Soon afterward, George Conway also stepped away from his job to focus on his family.
In the coming weeks and months, Claudia would take occasional breaks from social media to focus on her own well-being. But she always came back, offering stories about her parents sabotaging her emancipation efforts and about their reaction to COVID-19.
This seemingly came to a head when Claudia revealed that Kellyanne had COVID-19 in early October 2020.
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The drama continues
Revealing Kellyanne’s COVID diagnosis triggered another round of very public family drama. Claudia had claimed that Kellyanne initially lied about her positive result. Eventually, Claudia released a TikTok claiming that her mother had three tests done, with the first being negative and the next two being positive.
However, the video makes it clear that Kellyanne is instructing Claudia to stick to some kind of prearranged script. And in another video that has since been deleted, we can hear Kellyanne accusing Claudia of causing “disruption” by lying to people about her mother and about COVID:
Eventually, Claudia and Kellyanne buried the hatchet. But they did so in a most unexpected way!
Her time on American Idol
Fast-forward to February 2021. Claudia actually pops up on American Idol to audition!
At the time, Katy Perry asked Claudia about her relationship with her mother and Claudia said their relationship was “iffy.” As it turns out, “iffy” is actually a pretty good summary of her time on American Idol!
At first, Claudia auditioned by singing Rihanna’s “Love On the Brain.” Katy Perry stopped her and then Claudia sang Adele’s “When We Were Young.” This resulted in two of the judges voting “yes” and one voting “no,” so Claudia advanced to the next round.
In the Hollywood round, Claudia sang in a duet with Hannah Everhart. Claudia sang “Sign of the Times” by Harry Styles and was eliminated while Hanna moved on to the next round. But perhaps the weirdest part of the whole American Idol thing was Kellyanne’s involvement.
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Claudia makes up with mom
Both George and Kellyanne Conway were in attendance to support Claudia during the audition. If it was any other set of parents and their child, this would have seemed perfectly normal.
However, this very public show of support came after months of public fighting in 2020. And just like that, Kellyanne is on national television giving her daughter enthusiastic hugs and praising her accomplishments.
Public reaction to all this PDA was divided. Some saw this as a happy ending to a long family feud. Others thought this was a cynical way of pretending everything was all right after Claudia spent half of the previous year airing the family’s dirty laundry on social media.
Appendicitis scare
Not all of Claudia’s news in 2021 was great. While she surprised us all with her singing abilities on American Idol, she ended up having a major health scare on March 31.
This was when the young influencer was rushed to the hospital with a possible case of appendicitis. As The Sun reports, she shot video of herself receiving an IV drip and joking about how she hopes her appendix had not burst.
She never gave an official follow-up to her followers, but it looks like Claudia Conway is nice and healthy now.
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Claudia’s relationship with Kellyanne today
As of July 2021, Claudia appears to have patched things up with her mom Kellyanne.
Claudia posted the following message to Twitter on July 2: “i can finally and fortunately tell you, with all the elation in my heart, that i am happy and safe. forgiveness has taught me a lot. i love my mother and she will always inspire me, despite our public conflicts. i am proud that we are living proof of breaking the cycle.”
At just 16 years old, Claudia’s social media fame is probably just beginning.