HOW TIME NAMES KID OF THE YEAR 2021 - ORION JEAN! (4582 hits)
For Immediate Release From TIME!
“If you see a problem, fix it.” That’s the simplicity with which humanitarian Orion Jean speaks about his work with actor and humanitarian Angelina Jolie, over Zoom, from his home in Fort Worth, Tex. Just 11 years old, Jean has been selected from a field of thousands of nominees as TIME’s Kid of the Year for 2021. Jean sees himself as an ambassador for kindness—he jumps in wherever he sees a need, whether it’s collecting and donating 100,000 meals to food insecure families across the country, or getting 500,000 books to kids with none at home. At a time when isolation and division are rampant, Jean sees the world as it could be if more people brought their communities together to help their neediest members.
ANGELINA JOLIE: I’ve met many different leaders around the world, and one of the things that most people forget is how to explain a simple truth about what matters. That’s why I’m so impressed with you. You really reminded me of that.
ORION JEAN: Thank you. That means a lot coming from you.
AJ: Will you explain the focus of your work and how it came about?
OJ: I’ve always been able to, when I get home school, just watch the news with my parents and find out what’s going on in the world. And when the pandemic began, I saw a lot of things were happening, people were losing their jobs and losing access to food and homes and all of these essential things. And I knew right then that I wanted to do something to help, but the opportunity actually came around when my teacher suggested that I enter into a speech contest. And if I won the prize money that came with the contest, that means I could start a kindness initiative to help these people.
AJ: What is a kindness initiative?
OJ: Well, to me, it can be a number of things. And the one that I started was the race to kindness. The race to kindness is not just a series of events, but also a call to action. It’s a way to get people involved in the community, you know, and when they see something happening now they can go out and do something about it.
AJ: You wrote that kindness is about a choice, wha choice, which I think is so important. It’s something that’s attainable, that everybody can choose to do right now. How would you suggest someone do that?
OJ: Well, you’re absolutely right, kindness is a choice and while we can’t force others to be kind, we can be kind ourselves and hope to inspire other people. So many people have great ideas, but never act on them. I think it’s all about really caring about the issues that you’re seeing. Someone told me that you have to find something that breaks your heart for you to really get out there and make a difference in that area. And I want others to know that they can start today. If there’s an issue or problem or something that they see that they want to solve, all it takes is really just knowing deep down inside that it’s something you care about, and you can go out and get started.
