Chelsea Clinton, who today is 38 years old and the mother of two children, said that years ago she used to try to ignore bullies when they bothered her.
She says she stayed silent in the face of that bullying, which presumably included rudeness, insults, taunts, and far more.
But now it’s a different deal, she said in a new interview, also suggesting that today’s social media platforms and the online activity that goes with those platforms make it impossible to sit back and stay silent.
Out and about on the late-night circuit to promote her new children’s book, “Start Now! You Can Make a Difference” — her fourth book for young readers — the former first daughter told host Jimmy Fallon on “The Tonight Show” Tuesday night, “I don’t want my children to see me ignoring it. I want them to see me engaging with radical kindness and empathy.”
“And that works?” said Fallon.
“I hope so,” she said.
That “radical kindness and empathy” also apparently includes considering whether to toss her liberal hat into the political ring in the near future — along with her recent statements that it would be “un-Christian” to overturn Roe v. Wade.
“When I think about all of the statistics, that are painful, of what women are confronting today in our country, and what even more women confronted pre-Roe, and how many women died, and how many more women were maimed because of unsafe abortion practices,” she said during a town hall not that long ago.
She also said recently of a possible run for office, “For me it’s a definite no now, but it’s a definite maybe in the future because who knows what the future is going to bring” — also slamming President Donald Trump during those remarks.
Related: President Clinton? Chelsea Makes Announcement on Intent to Run for Office
Chelsea Clinton also said Tuesday night, “I used to ignore the trolls. I used to kind of follow the ‘don’t give them oxygen, don’t feed them approach,’ but I think that could have been interpreted as being kind of complicit in that ugliness,” as ABC News and others reported.
“I can’t respond to all of it because that would consume every minute of every day — and maybe part of my soul,” she also said. “But I do think it’s important to respond to some of it and to show that this is not OK.”
And speaking specifically of her new book, she also told Fallon, “I had to kind of tell stories about six-, seven- and eight-year-olds who are making a difference.”
“[The book] tackles some of the questions that I was concerned about at that age.”
Check out this video of her remarks on Tuesday night:
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