Introduction
Young people discuss their personal heroes and those who motivate them to reach their highest ambitions.
“One person that inspires me is my mom. I don't know. She pushes me to do stuff that I don't necessarily think I would do, because before, I wouldn't say I'm shy, but I'm shy around doing stuff that I'm not comfortable or used to doing. So, she kind of pushes me. Then, every now and then, she'll send me this big inspirational paragraph of how proud of me she is. I would send one back one day, but that's a lot of typing.”
“My grandma... She inspires me to do everything. I have other people that inspire me, but she inspired me the most. Out of everyone, it's her.”
“But, I'm so proud of her. She's my biggest inspiration, because I saw her go through a lot, and it's crazy. She's got so many kids, and she still pushed through it by herself. So, that's one of my inspirations.”
“She came from nothing. Well, when she came out, I was with her a little while living in this one-bedroom apartment, no blankets on a mattress. Now we all got our own room, best thing ever.
“My mom... she's super strong. She's never gave up no matter how hard life got for her. So that's definitely my inspiration. Like she definitely going through a lot, coming up, believing, having to bury my younger siblings. I don't know how I would be able to do it as a mom. So I admire her in a lot of ways just from even just showing me the simplest things, because it's nothing like your mom being your best friend or your superhero.”
“My auntie...My Auntie Mookie”
“My auntie”
“What she come from and how successful she is.
“She works hard.”
“I'd say my little sister. She wants to sing when she grows up and she's only 11 years old. So she'd be seeing me rapping and making music and stuff like that. And she'll always be telling me, ‘When I get a little older, you can take me to the studio with you.’ Yeah. And she be telling me she wants to be a singer and stuff like that. And I need to hurry up and become famous so she can sing.”
“My bestie, and my mama. My mama first, then my bestie...She's a strong, independent woman...She's been independent for a long time, and I feel like she had to go through a lot of stuff. And she's helping me with my math, because I really hate math and don't understand it at all. But Mama keep on pushing me to do the math, saying, ‘If you want to do the math, and you want to accomplish going to the next grade and things, you going to have to struggle a little bit.’”
“But Marshawn Lynch, yeah, that's who inspired me to play football. Because I knew if he retired, it's just like me going to sit in jail for however long I've been in there. And it's like him retiring for however long I've been in jail. And he went back after that, so I felt like I could go back and go do something like that. So I went back this year and went and played football.”
“My favorite rapper, Lil Uzi Vert. My mama. My nanny. And this man named, Mr. Derek...He's an entrepreneur himself. He took me in back in 2020 and I was cutting grass with him. He got his own landscape business and he really inspired me... to start my own business. I was like, if he could do it and his background is similar to mine, so I was like, if he could do it, I could do it too.”
“Oh, yeah. My mom. Every day...Definitely. Every day. It might be even the smallest things that she does and that inspires me to want more for myself.”
“My biggest fear is not fulfilling a promise that I made to my mama, that I would become a millionaire at 25. By the time I reach 25.”
“My biggest influence right now is myself.”