The greatest thing anyone can ever be is kind. One act of kindness can literally make a persons life, whereas another can literally destroy it!You can make a difference no matter how old you are. -Ashton Kutcher, Yes, you can! If you know who to ask... All it takes is for one person to support an ideal, it can also just take one to destroy... In my teen’s, I studied acting at a prestigious Beverly Hills school that put me at social events with Sugar Ray Leonard (whom I still talk to done 20+ years later..) and sat at a bar with Denzel Washington, and even attended a breakfast at the Costner’s. I went from several under 5 tv shows, to being featured, to eventually speaking- acting along side Leah Remini, Alyssa Milano, and Halle Berry. I also broached into film- a Tom Cruise/Rob Reiner film. But, I realized I didn’t want to be center stage, nor did I want fame... and although I loved the craft, I believe acting was a necessary evil to do the most good... I wanted to speak about the many ills facing our kids, and needed the most vulnerable to hear- what better way than as an actor? So, I joined several children’s organizations, and like Meghan I too wrote letters.. Sam Neil sent me a personalized letter of support... Andy Garcia called me on the phone to discuss... Annie Lennox sent me a lovely note of encouragement, as did Oprah Winfrey, Barbra Streisand, Barbara Sinatra, president Bill Clinton, Rosie O’Donnell, Madonna, and even Michael Jackson to name a few! Although, I was just a kid, these phone calls, and letters kept me disciplined and dedicated to then become a Sandy Hook first responder of trauma/PTSD support and it afforded my organization to build a CenTer in CT to honor the 26 lives taken, support the bereaved left behind, and help encourage gun reform as we did... There was one hero who diffused us all, therefore forcing us to be late to our very own party. But, again we had truer heroes keeping us on point. Jake Gyllenhaal, Hugh Jackman, and Julianne Moore... The greatest thing anyone can ever be is kind. One act of kindness can literally make a persons life, whereas another can literally destroy it! Meghan Markle
UN WOMEN 2015 “I want to tell you a story that’ll sort of give context to my being here and my work with UN Women. When I was just eleven years old, I unknowingly and somehow accidentally became a female advocate. It was around the same time as the Beijing conference, so a little over twenty years ago, where in my hometown of Los Angeles a pivotal moment reshaped my notion of what is possible. See I had been in school watching a TV show in elementary school and, um, this commercial came on with the tag line for this dish washing liquid and the tag line said, ‘Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans’. Two boys from my class said, ‘Yeah, that’s where women belong, in the kitchen’. I remember feeling shocked and angry and also just feeling so hurt; it just wasn’t right, and something needed to be done. So I went home and told my dad what had happened, and he encouraged me to write letters, so I did, to the most powerful people I could think of. “Now my eleven year old self worked out that if I really wanted someone to hear me, well then I should write a letter to the First Lady. So off I went, scribbling away to our First Lady at the time, Hillary Clinton. I also put pen to paper and I wrote a letter to my news source at the time, Linda Ellerbee, who hosted a kids news program, and then to powerhouse attorney Gloria Allred, because even at eleven I wanted to cover all my bases. Finally I wrote to the soap manufacturer. And a few weeks went by and to my surprise I received letters of encouragement from Hillary Clinton, from Linda Ellerbee, and from Gloria Allred. It was amazing. The kids news show, they sent a camera crew to my home to cover the story, and it was roughly a month later when the soap manufacturer, Proctor & Gamble, changed the commercial for their ivory clear dish washing liquid. They changed it from ‘Women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans’ to ‘People all over America’. It was at that moment that I realized the magnitude of my actions. At the age of eleven I had created my small level of impact by standing up for equality.
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