Ella Emhoff is the daughter of Kamala Harris's husband Doug Emhoff and his first wife. Photo / Instagram @ellaemhoff
Ella Emhoff is the daughter of Kamala Harris's husband Doug Emhoff and his first wife. Photo / Instagram @ellaemhoff
Ella Emhoff has a huge following online, posting about clothes, politics and her vice-president stepmother.
When Kamala Harris’s stepdaughter described what her parents thought of her tattoos and quirky hair, she said: “I think they’re all in the realm of, like: ‘I don’t understand it, but I wantyou to be who you want to b’”.
A far cry from her strait-laced former prosecutor stepmother, Ms Emhoff, 25, has modelled topless at New York Fashion Week, doesn’t shave her armpits and runs a $60-a-pop knitting club.
The vice-president has often spoken of her strong relationship with her stepchildren, describing Emhoff and her elder brother Cole, who are from her husband Doug’s former marriage to film producer wife Kerstin, as “my endless source of love and pure joy”.
“First of all, she’s an influencer, she’s a content creator, she has a level of celebrity”, Mark Beal, Rutgers University School of Communication and Information assistant professor said.
Raised in California, Emhoff attended the “independent and progressive” US$51,000-a-year ($86,000) Wildwood School in Los Angeles before studying at Parsons School of Design in New York’s Greenwich Village.
She has since walked the catwalk for major brands including Balenciaga, Miu Miu and Proenza Schouler and has been an ambassador for Stella McCartney, Mulberry and Calvin Klein.
The model lives in a US$1.2 million flat in Lower Manhattan and has been dubbed “the first daughter of Bushwick”, in reference to the hipster Brooklyn area where she previously lived.
Last month she signed with the Hollywood talent agency UTA hoping to “do more knitwear collaborations with fashion brands”, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
In a 2021 interview with the New York Times, Emhoff said she and her 29-year-old brother were “really in” politics and “learning behind the scenes”.
Palestinian causes
But the politically engaged creative has twice come under fire for promoting fundraising pages for pro-Palestinian groups.
In November 2023, she shared a link for a fundraiser for the “urgent relief for Gaza’s children” by the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund and was criticised for not mentioning the Israeli children killed in the attack by Hamas.
While her father is Jewish, Emhoff has previously said she does not consider herself to be.
“Ella truly has no qualms with the faith,” her representative told The Forward in 2021, “but she does not want to speak on behalf of Judaism, as she does not celebrate herself.”
Emhoff has also supported transgender people, having previously held a knitting raffle to raise money for black, transgender groups For the Gworls and The Okra Project.
‘Vote for our future’
Last week, Emhoff urged her followers to register to vote, writing on Instagram: “You already know what time it is. This is not the time to sit back and defer the responsibility”.
Charli XCX (L), the British singer who labelled Harris ‘brat’. Photos / Getty Images
Emhoff also hit back at Vance’s recently resurfaced comments likening Harris to a “childless cat lady”, writing on social media: “How can you be ‘childless’ when you have cutie-pie kids like Cole and I... I love my three parents”.
Beal said while he does not think Emhoff’s support would be a “major factor” in the 2024 election, it could help Harris appeal to younger voters who are more “issue-focused”.
“Everything she comments, shares, produces, distributes, it just needs to be genuine and authentic to her and her voice and her storytelling that she’s been doing for the last year or two, or three or four, that has led to … 330,000 followers,” he said.
“If she’s doing it [promoting Harris’s campaign] in the same voice... it could be very effective. It could be very influential.”
