Chelsea Clinton has decided to take on a more public role after years of avoiding the spotlight as the daughter of a former president and current secretary of state. Over casual dinners with friends, she said she wanted to stop pretending she wasn't Chelsea Clinton. In the past year, she has taken positions on the board of Barry Diller's company and NBC News, and has participated in more public events for causes like AIDS research. Her grandmother had advised her that being Chelsea Clinton was something that had happened to her and she needed to lead a purposefully public life.

1. Chelsea deja de fingir que no es una Clinton
La pasada primavera, en varias cenas informales en restaurantes cercanos a su
apartamento del distrito de Flatiron, en Nueva York, Chelsea Clinton comentó con amigos
algo que llevaba tiempo meditando.
Quería dejar de fingir que no era Chelsea Clinton, hija de un expresidente de EE UU y la
actual secretaria de Estado. Tras pasar la mayor parte de sus 31 años alejada de los focos,
en los últimos 12 meses se ha incorporado al consejo de administración de
IAC/InterActiveCorp, la empresa internáutica del magnate de la comunicación Barry Diller,
marido de Diane von Fürstenberg; ha recaudado fondos para amfAR (Fundación para la
Investigación sobre el Sida); ha desempeñado un papel más público con la Iniciativa Global
Clinton, y ha organizado el 65º cumpleaños de su padre en una gala benéfica en Hollywood
para la Fundación Clinton, con invitados como Lady Gaga y Bono, de U2. Incluso ha abierto
una página en Facebook.
Su decisión más sonada ha sido aceptar un trabajo de reportera en NBC News, donde
cuenta historias de gente corriente haciendo cosas extraordinarias. El lunes se estrenó en
el programa Rock Center, con el veterano Brian Williams como padrino, presentando una
pieza sobre una asociación caritativa infantil en Arkansas. Mientras se dirigía al aeropuerto
de Little Rock (Arkansas) tras rodarla, Chelsea explicaba en una entrevista telefónica su
decisión de desempeñar un papel más público. "Mis padres me enseñaron a plantearme el
mundo de forma crítica, pero también con un sentido de la responsabilidad".
Tras hacer campaña para la candidatura presidencial de su madre en 2008, se dio cuenta
de que le gustaba hablar en público. Su abuela, Dorothy Rodham, le dio algunos consejos.
"Me dijo que me había tocado ser Chelsea Clinton", recuerda, "y aparte de mi trabajo de
asesora y del de hacer campaña por mi madre, no estaba haciendo lo suficiente en el
mundo". Cuando la abuela murió, el pasado noviembre, Chelsea confiesa que "me tomé en
serio lo de empezar a llevar una vida con un propósito".
Antes, en una fría noche de febrero, la hija de Bill y Hillary asistió a la gala benéfica anual
de amfAR en Nueva York. Allí saludó a Elton John y a Richard Gere. Al subir a entregar un
premio a su padre, besó en la mejilla al productor Harvey Weinstein, amigo de la familia.
"Me crie en una casa en la que oía más el nombre de Mathilde Krim [fundadora de amFAR]
que el de la gente que Harvey saca en sus películas". Barry Diller, presidente de
IAC/InterActiveCorp, también estaba entregando un premio. Poco después recomendó a
Chelsea para el consejo de administración de su empresa, donde se incorporó a finales de
noviembre en un puesto por el que recibe un anticipo anual de 50.000 dólares y acciones
con derechos aplazados por 250.000.
Para su aterrizaje televisivo, NBC News utilizó durante semanas un seudónimo con el fin de
evitar que se supiera que se había incorporado al equipo. El presentador Brian Williams
describe su primer encuentro, excesivamente discreto, en una mesa de atrás de un
restaurante italiano como "El padrino sin un arma escondida en el cuarto de baño". Una
mañana de mediados de noviembre, Chelsea estrechaba manos por los pasillos de la
emisora en el Centro Rockefeller, donde tiene un despacho provisional.
El País, 17 de diciembre de 2011.

2. Chelsea Clinton, Living Up to the Family Name
OVER a series of casual dinners at neighborhood restaurants near her Flatiron District
apartment in the spring, Chelsea Clinton began talking to a couple of longtime friends
about something she’d been mulling for a while.
She wanted to stop pretending she was not Chelsea Clinton.
It was quite an assertion from someone who — despite the very public profile of her
parents, one a former president and the other the current secretary of state — had lived
most of her 31 years at a far remove from the spotlight. (…)
Thus, in the past 12 months, she has joined the board of Barry Diller’s Internet media
holding company, IAC/InterActiveCorp; spoken at fund-raisers for organizations like
amfAR; taken an increasingly public role with the Clinton Global Initiative; presented an
award to her mother at Diane Von Furstenberg’s International Women’s Day event; and
hosted her father’s 65th birthday at a Hollywood benefit for the Clinton Foundation with
fellow guests Lady Gaga and Bono. She has even started a Facebook page.
And in her most high-profile move so far, she has taken a job with NBC News as a special
correspondent, contributing to the network’s “Making a Difference” franchise. On Dec. 12,
Ms. Clinton will make her first appearance on the prime-time newsmagazine “Rock Center
With Brian Williams,” with a segment she developed about a nonprofit organization in Pine
Bluff, Ark.
As she headed to the airport in Little Rock, Ark., on Friday evening, after filming her NBC
segment, Ms. Clinton discussed in a phone interview her decision to take on a more public
role. “My parents taught me to approach the world critically, but also to approach it with a
sense of responsibility,” she said. (…)
But after campaigning for her mother’s presidential bid in 2008, Ms. Clinton realized that
she liked speaking publicly about issues she felt strongly about. Her grandmother, Dorothy
Rodham, gave her some advice. “She told me being Chelsea Clinton had happened to me,”
Ms. Clinton said, “and outside of my advocacy work and campaigning for my mom, I wasn’t
doing enough in the world.”
(Those conversations continued over the next couple of years — often coming up “when
Marc and I were being hounded by the paparazzi for the silly reason du jour”)— until Mrs.
Rodham died in November. “I took what she said seriously — that I had led an
inadvertently public life for a long time and maybe it was time to start leading a
purposefully public life.”
ON a chilly February night, Ms. Clinton headed to Cipriani Wall Street to attend the annual
gala of the AIDS research foundation amfAR, a benefit that kicked off New York Fashion
Week. There, she greeted Elton John and Richard Gere. She kissed Harvey Weinstein, a
family friend, on the cheek as she took the podium to present an award to her father. “I
grew up in a house where I heard Mathilde Krim’s name more frequently than I heard the
people that Harvey puts in his movies,” Ms. Clinton said, referring to the doctor and AIDS
activist who founded amfAR.
Also presenting an award that night was Mr. Diller. Not long after the gala, Mr. Diller
recommended Ms. Clinton to the nominating committee of the board of
IAC/InterActiveCorp, (…) -a position- which pays an annual retainer of $50,000 and a
$250,000 grant of restricted stock (…).
For weeks, NBC News used a pseudonym on planning schedules so no one would find out
Ms. Clinton had joined the team. Brian Williams described his first exceedingly discreet
meeting with Ms. Clinton at a quiet table in the back of an Italian restaurant in Midtown as
“ ‘The Godfather’ without a gun hidden in the bathroom.”
One morning last week, Ms. Clinton shook hands as she made her way through the halls of
NBC News at Rockefeller Center, where she now has a temporary office.
The New York Times, December 3rd 2011