I’m a 17-year old senior in high school
and the co-editor-in-chief of my own
online magazine unusual title for my age
I know I started my online magazine the
summer before my senior year I chose to
name it Nyota which means star and
Swahili because the magazine focuses on
finding emerging stars in the areas of
music fashion and culture I noticed
while flipping through magazines such as
nylon and 17 the only famous faces were
being featured and I wanted to create a
magazine that gave young lesser-known
talent the chance to have their faces
seen and voices heard after starting the
second year of a social innovation
program at my school called teach to
serve I decided to add a segment to the
magazine that highlights young people
creating a positive change in their
communities I wanted the magazine to not
only give people the publicity and
recognition they deserved I wanted to
inspire others at the same time for me
the magazine has been one continuous
learning process and today I’ll be
touching on a few of the lessons the
magazine has helped me to learn the
first lesson getting past the why came
about one day when I was in the car with
my mom we were discussing the magazine
and my TEDx talk and she has to be one
simple question
why did you start the magazine I
answered pretty quickly and
matter-of-factly that I started the
magazine to have cool photo shoots my
mom pointed out that I didn’t need a
magazine to do that I could get friends
together anytime and take all the
pictures I wanted for a second that made
me think that my response was a bit
stupid and maybe I had to find a new one
but in my mind my love for photography
is what drove me the most my mom then
began to explain that at times people
myself included often believed we need
this concrete answer when someone asked
us why we feel we need to go into depth
or come up with all these impressive
reasons to answer the question instead
of just answering with the honest truth
which made me realize that getting past
the Y may just be the most important
lesson of all if my mother had asked me
the question of why did I start the
magazine at the very beginning of the
process I may have questions starting it
altogether because I would have focused
more on the
instead of the possibilities the
question why can truly limit our
creativity stop us from pursuing dreams
and make us question our passions and
ideas but if we learn to get past the Y
we won’t have these limits we can start
businesses or projects without giving
ourselves boundaries and start sharing
ideas that may have seemed unrealistic
to us in the past but are now perfectly
ideal to us once we get past the Y we
can begin to ask ourselves why not and
truly push past any limitations others
have tried to set for us and any
limitations we have set for ourselves
once I got past the Y I can start to
focus on the next steps for my magazine
and I continue to learn from my mistakes
because if we’re going to be honest our
mistakes are our best teachers my second
lesson is follow your passions
throughout my life my parents have
always taught me to do what I love and
love what I do and for most of my life I
have tried to live by that but I didn’t
truly realized how important following
your passions is until it came to the
magazine because the magazine is
something I’m passionate about my love
for photography is what drove me to
creating Nyota I had the idea that I
wanted to start working more closely
with coding brands and getting my name
out there and one day when I was
flipping through a copy of Teen Vogue I
thought to myself I won’t have cool
photo shoots like this I know how to do
that I’ll create a magazine in that
moment there was no hesitation I had a
goal of working with clothing brands and
having photo shoots and this magazine
was my gateway to doing just that
when you follow your passions not only
does it show in your work but it gets
others excited to work with you I’m
truly dedicated Nyota and I’m always
looking for ways to have it improve and
I’ve gotten the chance to have my
friends and family involved in the
magazine my third lesson is that you
don’t have to be a hundred percent
qualified to start a job sometimes
learning from experience is the best way
to learn when I first decided to start
Nyota the only two things I could do
were take photos and write with those
skills and no graphic design knowledge
there was a good chance the magazine
cover
flop but I didn’t allow that to stop me
and even though my sister knew her
around knew her way around illustrator
her true passion is fashion so that’s
the part of the magazine I knew she
would have more of a clear vision for
together we had skills but not all the
skills we need it to create an online
magazine but I realized that that’s okay
I learned more from just going for it
than I ever could have and try and teach
myself each aspect of creating a
magazine at the end of the day if you
have a vision for a project follow that
project if you know where you want to go
and get started because once you get
started the rest will follow the process
of creating a magazine is a long and
sometimes frustrating one and when we
first decided to create Nyota my sister
and I were going back and forth trying
to come up with ideas to make it
interesting and to make sure we had a
place to publish it
I didn’t you at the time I didn’t even
know how to use illustrator and we
weren’t sure how we were going to how we
were going to go about getting features
but I realized that it’s okay to not
have all the skills when you want to get
started because even though we didn’t
have all the skills our magazine was
published and we continue to make
incredible progress women from having
only 80 or so reads on our first issue
to over 200 on our third and the first
issue while it’s obviously the product
of two young girls learning the ropes
doesn’t compare to our third issue which
is the product of a group of people
coming together to create something
great which leads me to my next point a
symbol a team my sister and I realized
that we didn’t have all the skills
needed to continue to improve Nyota sure
we could have learned the skills but
it’s always good to have knowledgeable
people helping you so we decided to add
people with particular skill sets to the
team so that each issue will come out
looking exactly how we envisioned it
so we added a youtube host a graphic
designer
and editor-at-large a DIY expert and we
built relationships with models as
nyota’s team grew so did our outreach
and the second issue we managed to
feature
a DJ from Oregon a singer from DC
bloggers from New York and a writer from
New Zealand I took no the fact that with
each issue of the magazine
looking more professional and eye
catching more people one to be a part of
it
and for our fourth issue which plan
which is plan to come out in June we
even had a few people contacting us to
be featured and that in itself was
extremely rewarding my mistakes also
taught me that we can’t afford to
procrastinate when it comes to any
aspect of the magazine of course in
school your teachers always teach you
not to procrastinate but that if I
didn’t truly hit home for me until it
came to the magazine because the
magazine is something I created and feel
passionate about it’s not ten page paper
someone’s assigned me to write when you
procrastinate you don’t allow yourself
the time to look over the tiny but
important details in your work my sister
and I realized this when we were staying
up past midnight often trying to put
details and finishing touches to the
first issue the day before you wanted to
publish but now instead of waiting until
the last minute we get our interviews
and features done ahead of time so that
our graphic designer kind of content to
create the pages with early on and we
get our extra content done early so that
we’re not scrambling until the day
before trying to create pages if I had
told myself at the very beginning of the
process so I needed a group of
professionals to help me create the
magazine or that I had to be more
qualified it never would have happened
many of us have untapped talents that we
have yet to discover because we haven’t
given ourselves the time to explore them
or we allow our realities to limit us
but if we stop putting limitations on
ourselves stop believing we’re
unqualified to do certain jobs and
follow the passions that drive us we all
have the ability to create great ideas
and great change we all need to learn
how to get past the why and instead
begin to ask ourselves why not thank you
[Applause]
and the co-editor-in-chief of my own
online magazine unusual title for my age
I know I started my online magazine the
summer before my senior year I chose to
name it Nyota which means star and
Swahili because the magazine focuses on
finding emerging stars in the areas of
music fashion and culture I noticed
while flipping through magazines such as
nylon and 17 the only famous faces were
being featured and I wanted to create a
magazine that gave young lesser-known
talent the chance to have their faces
seen and voices heard after starting the
second year of a social innovation
program at my school called teach to
serve I decided to add a segment to the
magazine that highlights young people
creating a positive change in their
communities I wanted the magazine to not
only give people the publicity and
recognition they deserved I wanted to
inspire others at the same time for me
the magazine has been one continuous
learning process and today I’ll be
touching on a few of the lessons the
magazine has helped me to learn the
first lesson getting past the why came
about one day when I was in the car with
my mom we were discussing the magazine
and my TEDx talk and she has to be one
simple question
why did you start the magazine I
answered pretty quickly and
matter-of-factly that I started the
magazine to have cool photo shoots my
mom pointed out that I didn’t need a
magazine to do that I could get friends
together anytime and take all the
pictures I wanted for a second that made
me think that my response was a bit
stupid and maybe I had to find a new one
but in my mind my love for photography
is what drove me the most my mom then
began to explain that at times people
myself included often believed we need
this concrete answer when someone asked
us why we feel we need to go into depth
or come up with all these impressive
reasons to answer the question instead
of just answering with the honest truth
which made me realize that getting past
the Y may just be the most important
lesson of all if my mother had asked me
the question of why did I start the
magazine at the very beginning of the
process I may have questions starting it
altogether because I would have focused
more on the
instead of the possibilities the
question why can truly limit our
creativity stop us from pursuing dreams
and make us question our passions and
ideas but if we learn to get past the Y
we won’t have these limits we can start
businesses or projects without giving
ourselves boundaries and start sharing
ideas that may have seemed unrealistic
to us in the past but are now perfectly
ideal to us once we get past the Y we
can begin to ask ourselves why not and
truly push past any limitations others
have tried to set for us and any
limitations we have set for ourselves
once I got past the Y I can start to
focus on the next steps for my magazine
and I continue to learn from my mistakes
because if we’re going to be honest our
mistakes are our best teachers my second
lesson is follow your passions
throughout my life my parents have
always taught me to do what I love and
love what I do and for most of my life I
have tried to live by that but I didn’t
truly realized how important following
your passions is until it came to the
magazine because the magazine is
something I’m passionate about my love
for photography is what drove me to
creating Nyota I had the idea that I
wanted to start working more closely
with coding brands and getting my name
out there and one day when I was
flipping through a copy of Teen Vogue I
thought to myself I won’t have cool
photo shoots like this I know how to do
that I’ll create a magazine in that
moment there was no hesitation I had a
goal of working with clothing brands and
having photo shoots and this magazine
was my gateway to doing just that
when you follow your passions not only
does it show in your work but it gets
others excited to work with you I’m
truly dedicated Nyota and I’m always
looking for ways to have it improve and
I’ve gotten the chance to have my
friends and family involved in the
magazine my third lesson is that you
don’t have to be a hundred percent
qualified to start a job sometimes
learning from experience is the best way
to learn when I first decided to start
Nyota the only two things I could do
were take photos and write with those
skills and no graphic design knowledge
there was a good chance the magazine
cover
flop but I didn’t allow that to stop me
and even though my sister knew her
around knew her way around illustrator
her true passion is fashion so that’s
the part of the magazine I knew she
would have more of a clear vision for
together we had skills but not all the
skills we need it to create an online
magazine but I realized that that’s okay
I learned more from just going for it
than I ever could have and try and teach
myself each aspect of creating a
magazine at the end of the day if you
have a vision for a project follow that
project if you know where you want to go
and get started because once you get
started the rest will follow the process
of creating a magazine is a long and
sometimes frustrating one and when we
first decided to create Nyota my sister
and I were going back and forth trying
to come up with ideas to make it
interesting and to make sure we had a
place to publish it
I didn’t you at the time I didn’t even
know how to use illustrator and we
weren’t sure how we were going to how we
were going to go about getting features
but I realized that it’s okay to not
have all the skills when you want to get
started because even though we didn’t
have all the skills our magazine was
published and we continue to make
incredible progress women from having
only 80 or so reads on our first issue
to over 200 on our third and the first
issue while it’s obviously the product
of two young girls learning the ropes
doesn’t compare to our third issue which
is the product of a group of people
coming together to create something
great which leads me to my next point a
symbol a team my sister and I realized
that we didn’t have all the skills
needed to continue to improve Nyota sure
we could have learned the skills but
it’s always good to have knowledgeable
people helping you so we decided to add
people with particular skill sets to the
team so that each issue will come out
looking exactly how we envisioned it
so we added a youtube host a graphic
designer
and editor-at-large a DIY expert and we
built relationships with models as
nyota’s team grew so did our outreach
and the second issue we managed to
feature
a DJ from Oregon a singer from DC
bloggers from New York and a writer from
New Zealand I took no the fact that with
each issue of the magazine
looking more professional and eye
catching more people one to be a part of
it
and for our fourth issue which plan
which is plan to come out in June we
even had a few people contacting us to
be featured and that in itself was
extremely rewarding my mistakes also
taught me that we can’t afford to
procrastinate when it comes to any
aspect of the magazine of course in
school your teachers always teach you
not to procrastinate but that if I
didn’t truly hit home for me until it
came to the magazine because the
magazine is something I created and feel
passionate about it’s not ten page paper
someone’s assigned me to write when you
procrastinate you don’t allow yourself
the time to look over the tiny but
important details in your work my sister
and I realized this when we were staying
up past midnight often trying to put
details and finishing touches to the
first issue the day before you wanted to
publish but now instead of waiting until
the last minute we get our interviews
and features done ahead of time so that
our graphic designer kind of content to
create the pages with early on and we
get our extra content done early so that
we’re not scrambling until the day
before trying to create pages if I had
told myself at the very beginning of the
process so I needed a group of
professionals to help me create the
magazine or that I had to be more
qualified it never would have happened
many of us have untapped talents that we
have yet to discover because we haven’t
given ourselves the time to explore them
or we allow our realities to limit us
but if we stop putting limitations on
ourselves stop believing we’re
unqualified to do certain jobs and
follow the passions that drive us we all
have the ability to create great ideas
and great change we all need to learn
how to get past the why and instead
begin to ask ourselves why not thank you
[Applause]
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