Childhood & Early Years
Michelle Malkin was born Michelle Perez Maglalang, on October 20, 1970, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. At the time of her birth, her father, Apolo DeCastro Maglalang, was a physician-in-training, while her mother, Rafaela Perez, was a teacher. She also has younger brother, whose name is not known.
After her father finished his medical training, the family moved to Absecon, New Jersey, where she studied at the ‘Holy Spirit Roman Catholic High School,’ graduating in 1988. During her senior years, she edited the school newspaper. However, her ambition was to become a concert pianist.
In 1988, she joined ‘Oberlin College’ in Ohio, intending to pursue a bachelor’s degree in music. However, soon, she changed her major to English, graduating in 1992. During this period, she held various jobs, working as a press inserter, a tax-preparation aide, and a network news librarian.
Towards the end of her college years, she also worked for an independent campus newspaper that was being started by her future husband, Jesse Malkin. Her first assignment was on ‘Oberlin's affirmative action program, which she denounced. However, her fellow students found the article offensive and were vocal about it.
The students’ displeasure at her article had a profound effect on her. She later said, “It was seeing the violent paroxysms it caused on the Left that really put me on my way to a career in opinion journalism.”
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Career
In 1992, soon after earning her BA degree, she moved to Washington, DC, to try her luck in broadcast journalism, joining ‘NBC’ as an intern. However, her stint ended without any significant on-air experience, because she quit her job later that year, moving to Los Angeles to be with Jesse Malkin.
In Los Angeles, she found employment with the ‘Los Angeles Daily News,’ as a reporter and editorial writer, remaining with them till 1994. Meanwhile, in 1993, she married Jesse and changed her name to “Michelle Malkin.”
In 1995, she moved to Washington, DC, once again, to work as a journalism fellow at the ‘Competitive Enterprise Institute.’ The following year, when her husband’s career took him to Seattle, Washington, she accompanied him. There, she quickly bagged a job with ‘The Seattle Times.’
Soon, her columns began to attract attention for their rightist views. Through them, she criticized the government on various issues and also rallied against the ‘University of Washington's affirmative action policy.
In 1999, with the birth of her daughter, she decided to quit ‘The Seattle Times’ and become a nationally syndicated columnist with ‘Creators Syndicate.’ Later that year, she followed her husband to Maryland, where she began to work from home, living first in Germantown and then in North Bethesda.
By 2000, freed from all restraints, her bi-weekly columns became more aggressive. Soon, she started attacking prominent figures and groups such as the Chinese–American organization ‘The Committee of 100,’ painting them as pro-China.
In 2002, she published her first book, ‘Invasion: How America Still Welcomes Terrorists, Criminals, and Other Foreign Menaces to Our Shores’. This was followed by ‘In Defense of Internment: The Case for 'Racial Profiling' in World War II and the War on Terror’ (2004) and ‘Unhinged: Exposing Liberals Gone Wild’ (2005).
In 2004, she launched a political blog, ‘MichelleMalkin.com.’ It was revamped in 2007 and was moved to a larger server on ‘WordPress.’ Meanwhile, in April 2006, she took over ‘Hot Air,’ a conservative political blog, serving as its publisher and CEO until February 2010. She later sold it off.
In 2009, she published her fourth book, 'Culture of Corruption: Obama and His Team of Tax Cheats, Crooks, and Cronies.’ Soon, her weekly syndicated columns began to appear in newspapers and on websites.
In 2012, she founded a ‘Twitter’ content-creation and news website called ‘Twitchy.’ Concurrently, she began to appear regularly on TV, contributing for well-known channels such as ‘Fox News’.
In 2015, she published two more books: ‘Who Built That: Awe-Inspiring Stories of American Tinkerpreneurs' and 'Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires & Bipartisan Beltway Crapweasels Are Screwing America's Best & Brightest Workers.’
