President Kamala Harris, Democratic nominee for president, speaks during a rally at Burns Park in Ann Arbor, Mich© Tom Williams

Kamala Harris: See her incredible throwback pictures from over the years

Kamala, 60, is running for President of the United States

Rebecca Lewis - Los Angeles
Los Angeles correspondentLos Angeles
October 31, 2024

Kamala Harris has become a popular face on TV screens and billboards in recent months as she unexpectedly became the Democratic nominee for President of the United States.

Vice-President for Joe Biden for four years, Kamala had been quite working behind the scenes but was thrust into the spotlight when Biden stepped aside for the 2024 election.

Kamala, 60, has now been sharing her story with the American people allowing them to get to know her in a shortened period of time, and so we've seen lots of incredible throwback pictures that help contextualize her life.

Kamala Harris: From Trailblazing Upbringing To White House Aspirations
© Kamala Harris

One picture she posted showed Kamala in her late teens in the late 1970s at a protest, revealing that her desire to fight for equality for all was instilled in her at an early age.

Rocking a maroon rugby sweater with an oversized collar, she paired her look with a quilted leather jacket and her hair was styled in a faux mullet, tight on the sides and with her curls piled on top.

© Kamala Harris

Born in 1964 in Oakland, California, Kamala's mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was a biologist from India, and her father,  Donald J. Harris, an Afro-Jamaican who arrived in the United States in 1961. Both studied at UC Berkeley and fell in love, getting married in 1961.

Her mother's first child, Kamala has also shared adorable pictures of herself as a very young girl, first learning to walk with the aid of her mom.

In one, Kamala, perhaps only one-years-old, stands with the help of her mom with a big smile on her face, reminiscent of the smile now seen on podiums across America, in an adorable plaid dress and blue bloomers.

Kamala is also close with her sister Maya, 57, and has shared several pictures over the last few months of their childhood, including an adorable snap of Kamala holding Maya's hands.

Maya's daughter Meena has been a focal point of the campaign, appearing at the Democratic National Convention, as have Meena's two daughters.

© Kamala Harris

Her mother's work led to advances in breast cancer research and her father specialized in development economics, and her grandparents were also academics.

"As a young girl visiting my grandparents in India, my grandfather took me on his morning walks, where he would discuss the importance of fighting for equality and fighting corruption. He was a retired civil servant who had been part of the movement to win India’s independence," Kamala once shared with followers on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"My grandmother traveled across India—bullhorn in hand—to speak with women about accessing birth control. Their commitment to public service and fight for a better future live on in me today."

The picture she included showed Kamala, around the age of eight, in a faux fur hooded jacket with her hair in pigtails as she posed in front of her grandparents and mom, alongside Maya.

© Kamala Harris

Kamala has also told stories that happened during her high school years which led her to become a prosecutor, including the heartbreaking revelation that she discovered as a teen that her best friend Wanda was being sexually abused by her stepfather.

Wanda and Kamala remained close, and one picture taken in the 1970s when they were teens shows Kamala rocking a crisp white shirt tucked into blue jeans, a foreshadow of what would become her off-duty uniform. 

Kamala's mother welcomed Wanda into their home, and Wanda has been a proud supporter of Kamala's campaign for presidency, sharing: "Celebrating a true warrior! For years, she’s championed women’s rights, and now she continues to fight for a better America. Proud of all that you do!"

© Kamala Harris

After high school Kamala attended Vanier College in Montreal and then transferred to Howard University, a historically black university in Washington, D.C, graduating with a degree in political science and economics before attending the University of California, Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco.

She went on to serve as San Francisco District Attorney between 2002 and 2011, and then Attorney General of California between 2011 and 2017, and her experience helped her to be elected to the US Senate in 2017.  

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