Kids Can Be Role Models Jack Bonneau TEDxBoulder

am not role model. I'm not paid to be role model. get paid to wreak havoc on the court. Parents should be role models. Just because can dunk basketball doesn't mean should raise your kids. These are the famous words from the 1993 Nike commercial with NBA Hall of Famer and NBA analyst Charles Barkley from 25 years ago. Webster's dictionary defines role model as person whose behavior in particular role is imitated by others. Parents are role models. Certainly mine are for me, but who can kids look to outside of their parents, teachers, and mentors to inspire us, to provide direction to achieve the heights that we hope to? Our society has been focused around entertainment, media, sports, and political figures as role models. Sports stars like LeBron James and Steph Curry are looked up to by millions. And icons like Lance Armstrong and Tiger Woods have disappointed millions with professional and personal problems. Entertainment stars like Ellen and Oprah aspire to our better selves versus the Harvey Weinsteins and the Bill Cosbys who are examples of those who were once held in high esteem only to find out some terrible truths. Superheroes you should be just be white guys like Spider-Man and Iron Man. But now we have Black Panther and Wonder Woman. And it's great that minorities and women are finally being represented in these superhero roles, but they are just fictional characters. The Kardashians have huge social media following, over 100 million, and are looked up to by many. And but their biggest accomplishment is being famous. Is this something that kid like me should aspire to? Or should we look to someone, role model, who is more inspiring, more relatable that us kids can see ourselves in them? believe that kids can be their own best role models. Kids who have no fear to start something that they're interested in or passionate about. Kids who have been on amazing experiences and journeys and are examples to all of us. Kids like Mikaila Ulmer, who when she was four was stung by bee twice. So she did she learned up all about the bees and saw the challenges that they were facing. So she took her 1940 Granny's Helen Granny Helen's black seed lemonade recipe and sweetened it with local honey. She went from simple lemonade stand and now she's 13, has four different types of lemonade, and has them in hundreds of Whole Foods across the country, and donates percentage of her profits to international organizations working to save the bees. Or Australian Jade Hameister, who by age 16 was the youngest girl and the first girl to ski the North Pole and the South Pole and across the largest polar ice cap in Greenland. Or Moziah Bridges, who know personally. Mo wanted to wear bow ties, but didn't like any of the bow ties that he saw. So he asked his grandmother how to sew them. Started his own business, got on Shark Tank, didn't get deal, but kept at it and now has multi-million dollar deal with the NBA. Yeah. Or the Parkland teenagers like Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, and others. Or Malala, who won the Nobel Peace Prize. And all of these kids were teenagers when they achieved these great peaks. These could go on, but these are just few of the examples of kids whose lives can serve as role models for other kids and adults to aspire to in their own lives. These kids can be great role models for other kids because they show what is possible as kid. But how does kid go from being just normal kid to aspire their own path, journey, and experiences just like few of the kids that just mentioned? For me, would say just go do it. My story started or my story started five summers ago when wanted LEGO Star Wars Death Star. asked my parents if could get it. They said could, but would have to pay for it. was 8 years old and it cost $400. was like, well, how am going to make that much money? I'm 8 years old. couldn't get paper route and lemonade stand at the end of my street would take forever. So my dad suggested that put my own lemonade stand at my local farmers market. had my parents and farmers market manager encouraged me to treat this like real business with proper permits and licenses. After 1 year, sold $2,000 worth of lemonade and after expenses made $900 in profit. And yes, got my LEGO Death Star. had such great experience that wanted to share this with other kids. So created my own business where kids and their families could sign up at website to sign up for date and time and location to operate my stands. There were was getting so many customers that also reached out to other young entrepreneurs to sell their products at my stands. In both cases, just did it. Mo didn't give up on finding the type of bow tie that he liked. With the help of his grandmother and his mom, he started designing and making the bow ties that he liked. He just went ahead and did it. Mikaila didn't let two bees sting stop her. With the support of her parents, she's successful social entrepreneur, bee ambassador, educator, and student. She just did it. Jade, when she was 12, made the trek to Everest Base Camp and was inspired by two women she met there to go on her own quest, Jade's Polar Quest. These kids had no expectation of being role models to us in the world. They just had the courage to just go do it and to just figure it out with the support of their parents, school, and mentor along the way. It was simple effort of having interest, passion, aid cause, or solving problem and the courage to just go do it. There are so many kids that we can look to to see ourselves in their shoes, their journey to inspire us to embark on our own journey, our own path. We can see ourselves in them because they are just like us. They are us. am inspired by Mikaila, Mo, Jade, Emma, and David. And see myself in them. If they can do it, then maybe we can do it. Whatever our it is. Thank you.