As the world fell in love with her as a baby born under the brightest and most tragic of spotlights, Dannielynn Birkhead is slowly rewriting her own story. Where most people would have thought the only child of Anna Nicole Smith would naturally drift towards the flashing cameras and high-glamour world her mother once dominated, Dannielynn has instead chosen a course that even those who are closest to her find surprising. Her father, Larry Birkhead, has recently come out of the closet about this unexpected twist of fate, in an appearance at the Barnstable Brown Gala.
The question of whether Dannielynn is a human being or not, has been on the minds of many people over the years. Having grown up as the daughter of one of the most iconic and polarizing figures of the 1990s and early 2000s inevitably put her under a silent yet steady microscope. There is always the assumption by people that she would pursue the established route of modeling, reality TV or entertainment. And, after all, the presence of Anna Nicole Smith was bigger than life- a Playmate who had become a fashion muse and then a tabloid star whose every move was followed by the audience. But Dannielynn has taken little interest in re-creating that image. Instead, she has made herself a discipline in which patience, precision, and a very different form of attention to detail is required.
In his speech at the gala, Larry Birkhead told the audience that his daughter is already in college and that she is so concentrated on her studies. Instead of strolling on the red carpets and on the covers of magazines, she has decided to maje in forensic science, a course that is in no way related to the red carpets and the magazine covers many people would have imagined her walking. Dannielynn has even thought of increasing her academic work twice, according to what she said, which was recounted by her father. She said that she might consider the addition of a second major in culinary arts, just because she loves to bake. Something about that confession is quietly balancing, a young woman who has found the pleasure in both the scientific study of evidence and the mere, imaginative act of making something with her hands in a kitchen.
Larry Birkhead did not conceal the fact that there have been other people projecting a different future on his daughter. He observed that many of them wish that she should be like her mother. He admitted that Dannielynn has considered that possibility and has not completely ruled it out. She may, said he, change back to that some day. However, in the meantime she is resolute to make her own way in forensics and criminal studies. Such open-ended, pressure-free parental support is, in any family, exceptionally rare, but in such a family, where the parent has led so much of its life in the public spotlight, this kind of open-ended, pressure-free parental support is extremely rare. Birkhead did not sound defensive or dismissive of the legacy of Anna Nicole. Rather, he sounded like a father who has observed his child develop into her own person and he is just proud of the path his child is taking.
Dannielynn is nineteen years old at a time when many young adults are still trying to figure out who they would like to become. What makes her story so interesting is not only the famous name she carries but also the silent determination she apparently has inherited both parents- her mother, who fears nothing when faced with judgment and her father, who seems to have consistently stood behind the camera, protecting her. Forensic science is a category that involves keen observation, emotional stability and an appreciation of facts and evidence. And, as it were, we can easily understand why a girl brought up in so much speculation and mythology may be attracted towards a science which deals with facts.
Larry Birkhead even took time to look back at what has taken them to this point. He explained that the years that preceded the graduation and college admission of Dannielynn were somewhat a struggle to cross the finish line. He likened it to the horse races that the Barnstable Brown Gala is known to celebrate- a gradual build-up, a requirement of stamina, and then a final burst of energy just when it is needed the most. He said she got the steam at the end and she pushed it across. She did a superb job. So I am proud of her in all aspects. That confession is something imminently human. It is always difficult to parent a teenager. Raising a teen whose every move is observed and reported on by strangers is a complex issue most families will never have to tackle.
The most outstanding thing about the recent remarks made by Birkhead is that there is no agenda. He is not attempting to create a story or to dismanage a popular myth. He is merely telling where his daughter is today. And, by the mouth of her father, and by the few words of her own, she is refreshingly self-possessed. She does not deny the memory of her mother. She is not fleeing the limelight altogether. She is merely taking the option to find another form of light- the light that comes about through finding solutions, tracing evidence, and crafting a career that has nothing to do with being photographed.
People who will always question whether Dannielynn will ever change her mind. The entertainment business is long-remembering, and the popularity of legacy casting is a fact. Yet as a young person demands to make his/her own identity, particularly when the world has already decided who they are supposed to be, is a quiet inspiration. She has already accomplished something that many people would not even consider even once when she was twice as old as she is now: she has decided to become herself first.
There is, of course, a more bittersweet underlay to this story. Anna Nicole Smith passed away in 2007, a few months after Dannielynn was born. The daughter has never really known the mother in whose shadow she has been compared to. In that regard, the decision of Dannielynn to become a forensic scientist has little to do with personal interest. It can also represent a silent desire to know the truth in a world where so much of the life of her mother was shrouded in rumor, legal conflicts and theatrical display. It is rather poetic justice that a young woman would opt to study how evidence discloses what actually took place.
