What Is Anna Nicole Smith’s Daughter Dannielynn Doing Now? She Just Turned 20
Dannielynn Birkhead has spent her entire life being introduced through someone else’s name: Anna Nicole Smith’s daughter. Now that she has turned 20, the question people are searching is becoming more interesting: what is Dannielynn doing now, and who is she becoming outside the tragedy the public already knows?
Dannielynn, the daughter of Anna Nicole Smith and photographer Larry Birkhead, celebrated her 20th birthday on September 7. She is now a college sophomore studying forensic science and has talked about possibly adding culinary arts because she loves baking. She remains close to her father, who has raised her largely outside the celebrity machine that surrounded her mother.
Her story still carries extraordinary loss. Anna Nicole Smith died from an accidental drug overdose in 2007 when Dannielynn was only five months old. Dannielynn’s half-brother Daniel had also died from a drug overdose shortly after her birth. Those facts are part of her family history, but they are not a complete description of the adult she is becoming.
How old is Dannielynn Birkhead now?
Dannielynn turned 20 in September 2026. Recent birthday posts from Larry Birkhead showed her experimenting with different hairstyles and a more individual, goth-influenced style. The photos drew attention partly because people still compare her appearance with her mother’s.
That comparison is understandable, but it also reveals the unusual position Dannielynn occupies. Most 20-year-olds get to change their hair, try a new style and decide what they want to study without the internet treating every choice as evidence about a parent who died before they could remember her.
What is Dannielynn Birkhead studying?
Recent reporting says she is studying forensic science in college and considering a double major in culinary arts. Her interest in baking gives the second field a very ordinary explanation—which may be exactly what makes it meaningful.
For years, coverage of Dannielynn has centered on inheritance, paternity, Anna Nicole’s death or the resemblance between mother and daughter. A college major is a different kind of story. It is about a young adult choosing what she wants to learn.
Who raised Dannielynn after Anna Nicole Smith died?
Larry Birkhead was confirmed as Dannielynn’s biological father through paternity testing in 2007 and received custody after Anna Nicole’s death. He has generally kept Dannielynn’s life comparatively private, while still appearing with her at selected public events such as the Kentucky Derby.
They have also found ways to preserve Anna Nicole’s memory. Dannielynn has worn pieces from her mother’s wardrobe, and father and daughter have spoken about remembering her without making tragedy the only story in the family.
How do you inherit a story without letting it become your identity?
Children inherit more than photographs and genetics. Sometimes they inherit a public narrative before they are old enough to object to it.
For Dannielynn, that narrative includes fame, addiction, overdose, grief, legal conflict and constant comparison. None of that is imaginary. But there is a difference between knowing your family history and being asked to live inside it forever.
This is also a familiar tension in families affected by addiction. A child may grow up knowing what happened to a parent and still need space to become a person whose identity is not “the child of addiction.” Family history can inform a life without dictating its ending.
OliviaC: remembering someone is not the same as becoming them
OliviaC reflection: People often tell children that they “look just like” a parent, have the same laugh, the same temper, the same talent. Usually it is affectionate. But when the parent’s life ended painfully, resemblance can begin to sound like prediction.
That is a heavy thing to place on a young person.
One of the quiet forms of healing in a family is allowing the next generation to carry love without carrying a sentence. You can keep your mother’s dress and choose your own hairstyle. You can know the story of addiction and choose a completely different relationship with your own life. You can miss someone you barely had time to know and still build an identity from experiences that belong only to you.
Maybe the better question for Dannielynn at 20 is not, “How much is she like Anna Nicole?” It is: What is she interested in, what is she building, and what parts of her life are finally being allowed to belong to her?
For families navigating addiction and recovery, Family Support Without Control explores how love can stay close without taking over another person’s identity. How to Begin Again Without Shame looks at building forward without denying the past.
Continue the Story
Go Deeper
Sources
People — what Dannielynn is doing at 20
Page Six — her 20th birthday and new style
Wikimedia Commons — Anna Nicole Smith archival image and license