Nicole Shanahan Openly Embraces Her Mixed Chinese and Caucasian Heritage!

American attorney and Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is of mixed heritage, being half-Asian and half-Caucasian.

Born on September 26, 1985, to her parents Shawn and Amy Shanan (nee Wong) in Placer County, California, Nicole is a mix of German, Irish, and Chinese descent.

The vice-presidential candidate’s father, an American computer specialist of Irish and German heritage, sadly passed away in 2014.

Nicole’s mother, born in China, immigrated to the U.S. from Guangzhou in the 1980s.

The Silicon Valley attorney embraces her cultural heritage and often openly shares about it in public forums.

Nicole’s strong bond with her mother deepened her connection to her Asian heritage!

Nicole Shanahan wholeheartedly embraces her Chinese heritage, inherited from her mother, and uses her political platform to share about it.

The politician is close to her mother and frequently shares pictures of them together on social media. For the same reason, she is close to her Asian heritage.

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A post shared by Nicole Shanahan (@theshanawow)

Further, the attorney shares a daughter with her husband, Sergey Brin, who enjoys spending time with her mom and grandmother.

In an Instagram post, Shanahan shared a vintage picture of her mother and her grandparents in 1972 in Guangzhou City, China, writing about the struggle of her immigrant mother, saying:

She’d never been outside of southern China and would in 10 years set foot for the first time on American soil, a dream she held since childhood. 

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A post shared by Nicole Shanahan (@theshanawow)

Additionally, Shanahan’s childhood was challenging, with her father’s struggle with substance misuse, his diagnoses of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, and occasional instances of violence at home.

Subsequently, the attorney and her brother were raised by their mother, a single parent, in a low-income household. She often reflects on the hardships her mother faced at the time.

Further, Nicole even studied Asian Studies, Mandarin Chinese, and Economics at the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma, which reflects her desire to connect more deeply with her heritage.

Likewise, in 2021, the 39-year-old politician shared her mother’s story of arriving in the US from China at the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation, an organization dedicated to empowering Asian American communities.

Moreover, Nicole takes pride in her Asian American identity and consistently supports and advocates for her community.