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Chelsea Clinton: Growing up in White House was 'normal'

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Chelsea Clinton has spoken about her experiences growing up in the White House. The 34-year-old was just 12 years old when her father Bill Clinton began his first Presidential term in 1993, and spent her teenage years calling 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue home.

"I was always deeply aware that I was living in history," Chelsea told Marlo Thomas in an interview shared by Huffington Post. "But then I would have dinner with my parents at the kitchen table every night," she said with a laugh. "There was so much about my life that also was normal."

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Last week during a visit to Texas, Chelsea shared some anecdotes about growing up as a teenager in the 90s.

"I definitely taught my parents how to text and how to charge their phones," she told a crowd of 3,000 at the SXSW conference and festival in Austin. "I'm sure that's not uncommon for many people in this room."

Chelsea admitted to Mario that going through her formative years in the spotlight wasn't always easy. And despite the numerous celebrations that took place in the White House during her father's two consecutive terms there, she only attended two state dinners and the annual Christmas parties.

"My parents were very firm about me always getting my homework done," only-child Chelsea revealed. "But I'd get to attend special musical performances and shows sometimes."

© Photo: Getty Images

Now Chelsea is a wife and working woman who serves as the Vice Chair of her father's Clinton Foundation.

Speaking about juggling her busy schedule and her home life with husband of four years, Marc Mezvinsky, she added, "My marriage is incredibly important to me. It's the place from which I engage in the world every day, and the place to which I return every day."

By her own admission, Chelsea is hoping that this is the year she starts a family of her own. In an interview with Glamour in November, she explained that she and Marc would like to make 2014 "the year of the baby".

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And no-one would be more thrilled than her mum and dad.

"There is completely unapologetic pressure," Chelsea laughed while discussing Bill and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in an October interview with Rachael Ray.

"If one of my parents were sitting here, they would tell you without blinking an eye that it would make them the happiest thing on earth if I were to make them grandparents, and they would say it so effusively, and I would feel a bit of pressure!"

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