As the daughter of FOX Sports Radio commentator Colin Cowherd, Liv Cowherd was used to growing up in the public eye. What she didn’t expect, however, is the amount of attention she would receive once she got to college.
“My dad is kind of a public figure, so I knew this would happen at some point, but I didn’t know it would happen like this,” said Liv Cowherd, a sophomore business management major.
On Sept. 9, a Twitter user posted a photo of Liv Cowherd with the caption, “COLIN COWHERDS DAUGHTER IS FOR THE STREETS.”
Liv Cowherd gets comments like this every day online. From tangents about not wanting a daughter to turn out like her, to remarks on how her father should scold her for the way she dresses, men are always vocalizing their opinions in her comments section.
"Personally, I get kind of fed up for her because I see how incredibly disrespectful some of the comments are," said Molly Pendergast, Liv Cowherd's friend and ASU sophomore studying sports business.
"She truly does stay very positive about the attention and rarely lets it get to her," she said. "For me, personally, it would definitely be hard to stay positive seeing the things some men say."
At first, Liv Cowherd thought the tweets were funny.
Growing up, she was taught to be conservative in what she posted online, and she still tries to uphold this standard in college. Because of this, seeing strangers on the internet post photos of her and making lewd comments was very unusual to her. When she noticed it, she responded with a quote-tweet that simply said “y’all wtf,” which gained over 2,600 retweets and 33,200 likes.
“I started getting more attention on my Instagram, and I got a bunch of followers on Twitter, just from that. So I thought if it was a joke, why not run with it?” Liv Cowherd said.
A month later, when she was trying to come up with a Halloween costume, an idea dawned on her. Frustrated with the construction outside of her Tempe apartment and realizing she already owned a construction worker’s vest, Liv Cowherd began constructing her costume.
On Oct. 30, she revealed the costume on Twitter. After phrases of “she belongs to the streets” flooded her Twitter and Instagram pages, Liv Cowherd dressed the part. In an orange hard-hat, a construction vest and a black tank top and shorts, she posted photos with the caption, “she belongs to the streets.”
With over 1,600 retweets and 24,700 likes, her costume not only gained attention on Twitter, but also got her a write up in Barstool.
“I just wanted to take the joke of belonging to the streets and running with it, and I knew I wanted to do something really original this year. I knew it would get some attention, but I didn’t think I’d get a Barstool article on it,” she said.
Liv Cowherd attributes her newfound internet attention to a number of things. She believes she receives the comments because she is older — she turned 18 in 2018 — and because her dad's audience is predominantly men.
“He (Colin Cowherd) also has expanded his following a lot more in the past few years, so I think that’s why it’s affecting me more,” she said.
When it comes to the way she uses her social media, her father, Colin Cowherd, leaves it up to her.
“I always tell my daughter that there’s a difference (in) getting clicks and what’s good for your brand. I’m not a helicopter parent, though," Colin Cowherd said. "I tell her just be mindful of what you put out there."
With all of the attention surrounding her Halloween post on Twitter, comments came flooding in. After her original Halloween post, which currently has over 500 replies, many users took to her Instagram to further post inappropriate or sexist comments.
It got so bad that Liv Cowherd posted twice asking people to stop. One post read, “please stop calling my dad a bad parent for allowing me to be a female in college.”
“At first I thought it was funny … but I was just getting frustrated at the ignorance," Liv Cowherd said. "I wanted to remind people that I do read what they say and to remind people to be kinder, and I was getting a lot of inappropriate comments, too, so I wanted to set the tone."
Reach the reporter at swindom@asu.edu and follow @SaraWindom on Twitter.
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