Dannielynn Birkhead has inherited not only her late mother Anna Nicole Smith’s looks but also her confidence.
The 19-year-old stepped with a bold new look on Friday May 1 to the Barnstable Brown Gala in Louisville, Kentucky on the eve of the 2026 Kentucky Derby.
Dannielynn joined her dad, Larry Birkhead, at the annual event. She rocked an edgy platinum wolf haircut with black tips and wore a floor-length black dress. The teenager spoke to press at the event, and responded to comments she had received about her hairstyle.
Now at college, she is learning more and more about herself and her style, telling Access Hollywood: “I learned to just be myself and not let anything stop me.”
She added: “Someone’s like, ‘Hey, you actually can’t do your hair like that.’ Who cares! I’m doing it. I’m not gonna let someone dictate what I wanna do or who I wanna be, because life is short, and I think you should be who you wanna be, no matter what.
© Getty Images“I probably feel the most confident and happy and like myself I’ve ever felt right now.”
Proud dad Larry, who has taken his daughter to the annual racing event since she was a little girl, also opened up about Dannielynn’s grown-up look.
Talking to People, he said: This year is a different style for Dannielynn. People [are] always looking for her to wear something of her mom. And she’s done that a couple times, but this is kind of Dannielynn showing off her own sense of style, and she said it’s a goth rock theme.”
© Getty Images for Churchill DownsThe Kentucky Derby has a special connection to Anna Nicole as it was the very place Larry met the late model back in 2003. They began dating a year later.
The proud father previously said that attending the yearly horse racing event was like a “growth chart” for his daughter. Talking to Fox News Digital of the annual affair at the Barnstable Brown Derby Gala for the pre-Derby diabetes fundraiser, he explained: “We had a really great time, and it’s kind of been a tradition that we would go every year.”
© Getty Images for Churchill DownsHe continued: “That’s where I met Anna Nicole Smith. And it’s something that I’ve taken my daughter back every year since. She’s old enough to kind of understand what it is.”
Larry has been raising his only child mainly out of the spotlight following the death of her mom, who died just five months after she was born. Anna was found unresponsive in a Florida hotel room and was pronounced dead in hospital aged 39. Initially, it was Howard J. Marshall who was listed on her birth certificate as Dannielynn’s father. However, photographer Larry claimed paternity and a DNA test later confirmed that he was indeed the little girl’s dad.
© FilmMagicLarry previously opened up about the similarities between his daughter and her late mom, telling People that she was “generous like her mom”.
While Larry has worked hard to give his daughter a private life away from the spotlight, he has occasionally given interviews about fatherhood and now that she is older, he sometimes shares photos on social media to mark special events such as birthdays and public appearances.
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