The Girl, Interrupted star’s eldest daughter, Zahara Marley Jolie, was born in Hawassa, Ethiopia, on January 8, 2005, and was adopted when she was seven months old.
“My daughter is from Ethiopia, one of my children,” Angelina said of Zahara during a TIME 100 interview in July 2020. “And I have learned so much from her. She is my family, but she is an extraordinary African woman and her connection to her country, her continent, is very – it’s her own, and it’s something I only stand back in awe of.”
Following in her mother’s footsteps, Zahara has joined Angelina in her philanthropic and humanitarian work. The Jolie-Pitt Foundation later created the Zahara Program and the Zahara Children’s Center, named in honor of Zahara. The mother-daughter tandem also spoke with members of Congress and the White House regarding the Justice for All Reauthorization Act of 2022.
When she was 14, Zahara teamed up with jeweler Robert Procop to create the Zahara Collection jewelry line. All proceeds benefited the Los Angeles-based House of Ruth Shelters, which “provided transitional housing for battered women and children.”
In 2022, she began attending Spelman College. She then joined the Mu Pi chapter of the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority in November 2023.
“My name is Zahara Marley Jolie,” Zahara introduced herself when she got inducted into the sorority, dropping Pitt’s last name. “And [I] landed all the way from the Golden State in the city full of angels: Los Angeles, Calif.”
While Zahara is busy carving out her own name, she also makes time to make public appearances with her mother.