This Hanford freshman might one day be on Fox News. She already has her own talk show
Kellyanna Brooking can’t legally drive yet, but she’s already putting the pedal to the metal.
With appearances on Fox News Radio, Newsmax and even some regional Seattle stations, this 14-year-old conservative wunderkind has quickly found a voice of her own and steady footing in the partisan realm of political commentary.
“My goal is to build that bridge between my generation and the older generation — to give my generation a voice,” Brooking, a freshman at Hanford High School, told the Tri-City Herald. “I also want to show we can disagree on certain topics but still have a civil conversation and learn to meet somewhere in the middle because we’re more alike than it may seem.”
Brooking is the host of “Was it Something I Said?,” a reporter-on-the-street style social media segment she periodically shares to Instagram with her 22,500 followers. She’s also the host of the fledgling online political talk show “A Few Words.”
The first two episodes are out now on her YouTube channel, and she touches on a variety of topics — houselessness, crime and the Seattle movement to defund the police.
The show is about understanding the other side, she said, though she isn’t afraid to give her 2 cents.
“I think I can be overlooked sometimes because I’m short and I’m a girl and I’m young — that’s not just being (in conservativism), it’s being involved in media in general,” she said. “I feel like people need to look at women and realize we have a voice, we have something to say and more women need to be involved in media.”
Brooking is a recent Eastern Washington transplant, having moved from “the west side” to Richland a week before fall classes started.
Her father, a recruiter in the health care field who works remotely, moved over here because of Hanford High’s booming and notable broadcast journalism program and because of their personal support of the school board’s vote earlier this year to defy indoor mask mandates.
She’s also a public speaker, having given keynotes at Lincoln Day dinners, conservative rallies and other political events. Brooking is speaking this weekend at the Pierce County Republicans’ fall gala, where she’ll announce herself as the youth campaign adviser for a Tri-Cities candidate who plans to run for governor in 2024.
Her peers at Hanford have been more “accepting” of her political views, though she said there are still people who disagree. She hopes to start a Young Republicans club.
Her politics developed out of the 2020 Capitol Hill protests and the extended flash of the COVID pandemic. She was 12 at the time.
While in middle school, she started her own Turning Point USA chapter. She was named the conservative nonprofit’s “youngest president/ambassador” nationwide. She’s also spoken out against mask mandates and critical race theory during a meeting of the Central Kitsap School Board.
Aspirations and Broadcasting
Brooking said she wants to be a political commentator or news anchor after she graduates. Whether it’s on CNN, Fox News, “The View” or any other channel or television show, Brooking said she just wants to be in the “lion’s den.”
She wouldn’t be the first from the Tri-Cities to make it big on talk show television. She has some good connections so far, though, having rubbed elbows with her personal mentor, Tomi Lahren, a Fox News commentator and her personal idol, and former Donald Trump press secretary Kayleigh McEnany.
The work in her broadcasting class at Hanford High School has been rewarding so far, she said. She’s anchored two morning announcements, which are televised; rolled film; and covered several campus events.
“It’s great. She hit the ground running. She understood that background, which was helpful. She’s not afraid to try new things, ask people questions and get in front of them,” said Cheyenne LaViolette, her broadcasting teacher.
Interest in broadcasting and photojournalism has exploded in recent years at the school of 2,000. During the 2020-21 school year, when fans were not allowed to attend football games, the program added another class period.
“There was an issue with no spectators at games,” LaViolette said. “The program just kept growing because kids just enjoyed the fun aspect of it. They’re learning and they didn’t even know they were learning.”
The next school year, Hanford’s broadcasting program added classes on documentary film making, podcast production and sports broadcasting. Students learn to edit video and improve their public speaking and writing skills, LaViolette said, which lapses into career fields far beyond just broadcast journalism.
DeSantis over Trump
“While many within the youth conservative movement believe in boxing in people and staying within their own echo chamber, Kellyanna is not your common conservative and she’s not afraid to go against the norm,” Adrian Brooking wrote of his daughter.
Brooking describes herself as “Christian light,” meaning her faith in God is important to her, but doesn’t inform her political world view. She describes herself as more of a “constitutional conservative” rather than a “social conservative.”
“A lot of people get mad at me for that, actually,” she said. “I think a lot of people in the conservative movement are quick to judge others ... kind of this ‘holier than though’ mentality.”
A few other notable things about Brooking: She would rather see DeSantis elected president in 2024 over Trump, and she has a healthy disdain for TikTok, a popular video social media site.
“I used to have it, but TikTok is such a stupid app. There’s so many dumb videos. It wasted my time,” she said, describing it as “pointless.”
She might change her mind later.
But on DeSantis? It’s full speed ahead, as far as she’s concerned.
