Youth Projects

Share Your Passions and Love With All Your Heart


The world and the people around you could always enjoy some more love💞 so give it away, and give yourself and your gifts to others with all your heart💝! Here’s one way I give away love and share my passions…a few months back I found a livestreaming site kinda like Periscope but the audience is mostly kids & teens (some of my favorite kinda people:). I really felt led to be a light & start streaming fun, uplifting broadcasts sharing characters I sketch to inspire my stories🎨, singing songs I write🎤 and just sprinkling some inspiration and love to the awesome peeps who tune in. It turned out to be really fun especially getting to encourage people & talk about dreams✨, life & fun stuff with a spontaneous dance-off here and there (fun, hilarious times😁) with people I meet and guest who sometimes also share their art with me.

If you’ve got a passion for art or music or anything else but feel amateur or disqualified I say go for it anyways – that’s what I share with young artists on my broadcasts – the more you create and hone your craft, even if for fun and therapy to relieve stress and make life brighter, the better you get and the more light🔥 & love 💖you spread into the world! This is me, #drawingwhileblack. Follow the hashtag to see more work by inspiring artists!🎨






Diary of a Shy Teen: My Teaser of a Short Film About Reclaiming Your Voice and Identity (for Youth Speaker University) & Inspiration from Emeli Sande’s Read All About It

I’ve always wanted to inspire youth as an actress🎭 but was always to shy and paralyzed by anxiety to try – not anymore! Here’s my debut starring role playing a teen girl in a *homemade* short film (made for a scholarship entry), based on a true story (my diaries and embarrassing stories as a teen, find out never -shared before 🔐 secrets like who I was crushing on at age 15;).

The Tyler Perry-inspired “Diary of a Sad Shy Teen” (“unfortunately” Madea couldn’t be in this one, halleluyer;) is playing in schools across the country in kids who don’t have a voice. My dream is to reach teens like me and creatively give them a light of hope.

After over 20 years of severe social anxiety and stage fright I’m finally living out my dream of shining inspiration by merging my passion for acting and singing in imaginative presentations.

Here’s a flashback into my tumultuous teenhood, inspired by Josh Shipp’s Youth Speaker University – an awesome opportunity for those with a passion for empowering young people and giving them a voice.

Emeli Sande’s song Read All About It is exactly the message that I’d like to share with the younger me and other people like me who feel like they don’t have a voice:

Emeli Sande’s song Read All About It Lyrics

You’ve got the words to change a nation
But you’re biting your tongue
You’ve spent a life time stuck in silence
afraid you’ll say something wrong
If no one ever hears it how we gonna learn your song?
So come on, come on
Come on, come on

You’ve got a heart as loud as lions
So why let your voice be tamed?
Baby we’re a little different
there’s no need to be ashamed
You’ve got the light to fight the shadows
so stop hiding it away
Come on, Come on

I wanna sing, I wanna shout
I wanna scream till the words dry out
so put it in all of the papers,
I’m not afraid
they can read all about it
read all about it oh
oh-oh-oh

At night we’re waking up the neighbors
while we sing away the blues
making sure that we remember yeah
cause we all matter too
if the truth has been forbidden
then we’re breaking all the rules
so come on, come on
come on, come on

lets get the TV and the radio
to play our tune again
its ’bout time we got some airplay of our version of events
there’s no need to be afraid
i will sing with you my friend
Come on, come on

I wanna sing, I wanna shout
I wanna scream till the words dry out
so put it in all of the papers,
I’m not afraid
they can read all about it
read all about it oh
oh-oh-oh

Yeah we’re all wonderful, wonderful people
so when did we all get so fearful?
Now we’re finally finding our voices
so take a chance, come help me sing this
Yeah we’re all wonderful, wonderful people
so when did we all get so fearful?
and now we’re finally finding our voices
so take a chance, come help me sing this

I wanna sing, I wanna shout
I wanna scream till the words dry out
so put it in all of the papers,
I’m not afraid
they can read all about it
read all about it oh
oh-oh-oh

I wanna sing, I wanna shout
I wanna scream till the words dry out
so put it in all of the papers,
I’m not afraid
they can read all about it
read all about it oh
Read more at http://www.lyrics.com/read-all-about-it-lyrics-emeli-sande.html#vqsiXFOSM7JQ3tpZ.99





Dreamfleur Project: Actress Yara Shahidi Interactive Interview Design

Yara Shahidi is a young talented model and actress, most recently seen in the film “Imagine That” alongside Eddie Murphy. I recently created this fun interactive interview header for the awesome organization Young Black Starz for an interview they did with Yara. Roll over an object below to find out more about Yara and click here for the interview.