Ella Emhoff shares climate anxiety concerns while using plastic bags in social media posts

Fox News

a day ago

Ella Emhoff, stepdaughter of former Vice President Kamala Harris, complained to her TikTok followers that she was struggling with "climate anxiety" — after showcasing a plastic bag or two online the day before.
The 26-year-old model and designer posted a six-minute video Friday lamenting the "weight" of environmental concerns, but shared an Instagram clip on Thursday where she held a plastic bag on her bed at home, as well as outside a Pasadena thrift store.
The juxtaposition drew some criticism online, with one follower accusing Emhoff of hypocrisy — a charge complicated further by Harris' own past calls to ban single-use plastics.
In Friday's TikTok, Emhoff, who goes by the name of @smellaemhoff said: "I think everything with the environment is really f---ing getting to me, and it is — I experience a lot of climate anxiety, like all of us do."
She added that while she tries to fight for change, "it's really hard not to sit in those moments where it just feels so heavy."
The day before, Emhoff posted a different clip to her Instagram page.
She can be seen sitting on her bed dressed in black jeans and a vest top with her dog running about next to her. Emhoff proudly shows off bundles of different colored yarn and fabric, in one part, a plastic bag.
Emhoff's Instagram footage also shows her visiting Remainders, one of her favorite thrift stores in California. She's filmed outside holding another plastic bag and kicking up her leg, before heading inside and looking for items in plastic containers.
While some followers cheered her thrifting trip, one criticized the plastic-heavy displays shown in the shop.
"Should probably not support a store filled with excessive plastic bins as shelves," one follower wrote.
"Not surprised one bit by the hypocrisy. People like you are truly doing a great amount of damage to our country. It's dangerous," they added.
It's not the first time the Emhoffs have been spotted with plastic, despite the former VP herself once calling for bans on single-use plastics.
In 2019, Harris said during a CNN town hall that "we do need to ban the plastic straws." By early 2024, however, her campaign shifted its position.
In January, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, were also photographed leaving a California store with groceries packed in a plastic bag.
Harris is stepmother to Doug Emhoff's two kids, Ella and Cole, 30, who he shares with lawyer Kerstin Emhoff.
Harris and Doug Emhoff met in 2013 on a blind date and married the following year. At the time, Ella was 15. She has since garnered attention for her political activism and reactions.
Earlier this year, she complained about experiencing "a little trauma" on her way to vote for socialist candidate Zohran Mamdani in New York City's Democratic mayoral primary — held at the same polling place where she once cast a ballot for Harris, who lost the election in November 2024.
Ella Emhoff did not respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.