Good Enough Mother Shout Out!
Teen Creates Conference to Empower Girls of Color

At a time when most 13-year-olds girls are busy texting friends about what to wear to school, Mikaela Sydney Smith is taking the world by storm by helping to build a better society for girls of color.

Smith, an aspiring actress, has created the Brown Girl Magic conference. Its theme: “Activating Your Inner Magic.”  The goal: to develop “a sisterhood of positivity” among other girls of color around the globe.

“It’s all about teaching girls of color how to find and appreciate the beauty in themselves while using their power and voices to help change the world,” Smith said, noting that the sessions to be held “will feed into the hearts and minds of so many young girls of color,” whether Black, Latino, Native American, Middle Eastern, Mexican, or mixed racial background.

Brown Girl Magic was founded by Smith, who started the organization at the age of 11 after creating her “Crazy Knee Socks for a Cause” campaign to collect socks for kids in need during the winter.

Smith was inspired to take on what is admittedly a major project for a teen after reading the book, “Chicken Soup for the Preteen Soul.” Like the heroic teens outlined in the book, she decided to extend her charitable services to brown girls like herself and develop a conference to empower and charge all brown girls to realize their inner magic to make a difference in their communities.

She sees a real need for this kind of gathering, and she’s happy to lead the charge.

 

“It makes me feel really good because I know some of (the girls) are too scared to talk to their parents. Sometimes you need to hear from someone who looks like you. It doesn’t have to be an adult. Sometimes you need to hear it from a kid.”

Being a brown girl with natural hair and curves, she has witnessed firsthand at her young age the negativity resulting from mainstream failing to valuing her beauty inside and out. That’s what drives Smith to make a difference. She plans to invite her Brown Girl Magic Ambassadors from nations around the world to join her on a day filled with inspiration from powerful speakers and interactive sessions.

“Kids can make a big impact. We are the future. We are growing up seeing people with so much power who don’t even care,” Smith added.”Kids (of color) can know that they are special and people do care about them.”

Smith has already booked a dozen high-profile presenters for the conference, planned for May, including New York Times bestselling author Denene Millner and Gabrielle Goodwin, the young entrepreneur who created GaBBYBows.com. The conference is to be held May 7, 2017 in Sutton Hall in Douglasville, GA (20 minutes outside of Atlanta). Contact Kia Morgan at BrownGirlMagic@gmail.com to set up an interview with Mikaela.

Visit BrownGirlMagic.com for more info.