Much has changed for Barbara and Jenna Bush in the four years since
their father, George W. Bush, was elected and re-elected president.
In 2000, the twins were
camera-shy Texas high school students who made it clear they wanted no
part of his campaign to become the second Bush elected president.
Four years later, and
perhaps pressured by the visibility of Democratic Sen. John Kerry's two
daughters, "the girls" — as their mother, Laura Bush, often refers to
them — assumed public roles in their dad's campaign, appearing with
their parents or braving the crowds on their own.
Now, with their
parents' futures set for the next four years, 23-year-old Barbara and
Jenna Bush — who graduated from college last year — are getting to work
on their own.
Jenna Bush plans to
live in the District of Columbia — where exactly isn't known — and put
her English degree from the University of Texas at Austin to use
teaching at one of the city's public elementary schools, following her
mother's career path into education.
Barbara Bush's plans
have not yet been announced. She earned a humanities degree from Yale
and is said to be interested in working with people with AIDS, inspired
perhaps after joining her parents on their first official trip to Africa
in July 2003.
Husbands and children?
Probably not in the immediate future, but Mrs. Bush, 58, recently spoke
wistfully of her desire for grandchildren when asked if she wanted the
twins to get married.
"Sure, absolutely,
right away and start having kids," she told CNN's Larry King a few weeks
before the Nov. 2 election. Mrs. Bush added: "I'd love to be grandfolks.
Don't worry. They're not about to get married. Neither one of them have
somebody they're going to marry, but I wish."
Few ever had seen the
twins, let alone heard them speak, before their debut at last summer's
Republican convention in New York.
"Jenna and I are really
not very political, but we love our dad too much to stand back and watch
from the sidelines," Barbara Bush said during their five-minute,
coming-out speech. "We realized that this would be his last campaign,
and we wanted to be a part of it."
They delivered a
tongue-in-cheek, though widely panned, speech in which they made fun of
being "young and irresponsible" — borrowing Dad's description of his
bouts with youthful drinking. They also poked fun at their parents and
famous grandmother, former first lady Barbara Bush.
"You know all those
times when you're growing up and your parents embarrass you?" Jenna Bush
said. "Well, this is payback time on live TV."
The twins, each named
for a grandmother, spent most of Bush's first term avoiding the media
glare but didn't always succeed.
There was an
embarrassing run-in with the law in Texas for underage drinking in May
2001, their father's first year in the White House. It was Jenna Bush's
second offense for violating state alcoholic beverage laws, coming after
a no contest plea two weeks earlier, and Barbara Bush's first.
There also were tales
about their habit of ditching their Secret Service agents, photos of
Barbara Bush's dirty dancing and gossip-column accounts of Jenna Bush's
public makeout session.
A transformation of
sorts began last year with an interview and glamorous photo spread in
the July issue of Vogue magazine, in which they traded their trendy tops
and tight jeans for strapless, designer gowns and diamond jewelry. They
also went to work at Bush campaign headquarters.
But while seeming to
accept their place in the family dynasty, the twins didn't lose their
spunk.
That month, Jenna Bush
was photographed sticking out her tongue at the media during a campaign
stop in Missouri with her father.
