The best bond! Kamala Harris may be Vice President of the United States — but she’s also a great-aunt to her niece Meena Harris’ two daughters.
Meena welcomed Amara and Leela in June 2016 and February 2018, respectively, with her husband, Nikolas Ajagu. The Phenomenal founder has shown her support for her aunt’s career over the years, from encouraging her Instagram followers to vote to attending Pride parades with the politician, and her kids have often joined in on the fun as well.
When Kamala was elected as the first female VP in November 2020 alongside President Joe Biden, Amara and Leela adorably celebrated their aunt in matching white outfits. They held her hands while posing for pics at the end of the night.
The little ones also expressed their excitement over the California native and Biden’s January 2021 inauguration and previously carried around mini “Senator’s briefcases” in her honor.
Meena is already teaching her children to be ambitious, publishing her second book, Ambitious Girl, in her aunt’s honor in January 2021.
“My mom, aunt, and grandma raised me to believe that ambition was a good thing,” Meena told British Vogue at the time. “They taught me that ambition means owning and living your purpose. It means determination. It never occurred to me until I was much older that this could be anything but positive, something to be celebrated.”
The book was also inspired by Amara and Leela, the lawyer added, explaining, “As a mom to Black daughters, diversity and representation in children’s books has always been important to me. When I was growing up, I almost never saw faces like mine in picture books. And while things have got ever so slightly better, think about this: in 2018, there were as many kids’ books with animals as main characters as there were books with Black, Latinx, Asian or Native main characters combined. That same year, only a fifth of children’s books were written or illustrated by people of color.”
Meena found that “outrageous” and took matters into her own hands. “I was tired of coloring in my daughter’s books with a brown marker, so I became an author myself,” the entrepreneur said.
Kamala became a step-mom to Cole and Emma in August 2014 when she married Doug Emhoff. The teenagers call her “Momala,” she told CNN six years later.
Keep scrolling to see Meena’s daughters having fun with their aunt over the years.
