- We are still celebrating women's history month.
And at just 10 years old, my next guest realized
that boys were getting way better access to sports
than the girls in her hometown of Tampa.
So of course she's 10 and she's awesome.
And she put pen to paper and wrote to her mayor.
That letter became a real catalyst for change
and she is what we in our season long partner,
Pilot G2 Pen, call an unstoppable overachiever.
Everybody say hi to Evangeline.
- Hi.
(audience cheering)
First meet Jessica, meet Rose.
- Hi. - Hi.
- Lovely to meet you.
- Jessica, Rose, Evangeline
this is like a great novel so far ladies.
(ladies laughing)
Yes. I was like, your names are all...
So you've been into sports for a while now, right?
- Yeah, I've played softball for about five years,
so, half of my life.
(ladies laughing)
I have...
- [Kelly] Aww
My sister Isabella, she played softball,
so she kind of got me into playing softball.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- My dad played baseball, my mom played softball,
and my mom and my dad are now my softball coach.
- I was gonna say, y'all could start your own league
with your family alone.
That's amazing.
So wait, when did you realize that girls sports
weren't getting the same kind of resources
that boys sports were?
- In my hometown, I realized that at my little league,
there was four baseball fields and only one softball field.
So, like sometimes our practices would be getting canceled
'cause there was a game taking place
on our only softball field.
So, we would have to move our practices
to like the Tee-ball field,
which is really bumpy and has barely any grass.
- Oh gosh, okay.
So, do you remember facing any kind
of gender issues like this in your...
I mean, in our school, in the South, (laughs)
everything was about football.
- Yeah, really.
- So, yeah,
and then there were just like girls did play volleyball
and like we got some stuff.
But it was always more about the, yeah,
it was a more male dominated kind of field where I'm from.
- Yeah, I never had...
'cause I went to an all girls school.
I always, I always noticed cause I was a
I was like an AV nerd and stuff and it always found
that that boys were always taught more about cameras.
Like they were like, there was always a
an age where girls wouldn't be taught
about the technical aspects of like making movies and stuff.
And I always felt that it's quite, it was quite sad.
- I know they teach us like home economics.
- [Rose] Yeah, exactly.
Yeah. How to bake a cake.
- Yeah, and I'd be like
I wanna know how to build a computer.
Like yeah
- Exactly. - Did you?
I would say the same
for me when it comes to sports, I played baseball
and then there was an age where they were like
you can't play baseball, you have to play softball now.
And I was like, I don't, I don't get it.
I was used to playing baseball.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- But they were like
no girls play softball, boys play baseball.
And there was one same thing.
Yeah. One field, one league and
verse like many different op- options and opportunity
for boys.
So yeah.
It, it in the inland empire
in Southern California, same thing.
- [Kelly] Oh my gosh.
- So I think it, yeah, I think what you're doing is,
you know, pretty awesome, and necessary.
And you're like, we are half the population, so
what about that?
- And here's the thing too thought
you maybe thought about like this isn't right.
But like Evangeline thought about this isn't right.
And you actually wrote a letter.
- [Evangeline] Yeah.
- You actually like took action.
Which a lot of kids your age don't do.
I don't feel like, but that's awesome.
- That's so cool.
- What, what inspired you to do that?
(audience applause)
They're clapping for you. (laughs)
- [Evangeline] Yeah. So I wrote a letter to the Tampa mayor
saying that we need more softball fields
because like everywhere
like there's only a couple softball fields
and it's just not fair.
- [Kelly] It's just not fair that y'all don't have.
It's not equal. - [Evangeline] Yeah.
- [Kelly] Yeah. I love that you did that.
Can you tell us like some of what you wrote in the letter?
- Yes. So I actually have some right here.
- [Kelly] I love that.
- So I can like read you a few sentences
of my letter, in my letter.
I said, I understand baseball was invented first
and I'm also aware that boys usually play more sports
but it's not the 1800's anymore.
And girls are starting to play sports too.
(audience applause)
(ladies laugh)
- That's amazing. That's amazing.
- That's good.
- You just said it's not the 1800's anymore.
You just became my favorite child.
That's ever been on the show.
Oh my God. That is so funny.
I bet you made so many people laugh at first and go is true.
So did you hear back?
- Yeah. So I think I wrote the letter on a Monday
and our city being so great that they responded on Friday.
The Parks and Recreation Department of Tampa.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- They called me back saying that they wanted to meet me
and like discuss a few like solutions.
- So what happened next?
- Next they applied for a grant
from NRPA and Disney to get $40,000.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
To help us.
So we skinned a softball, not a softball field.
We skinned a baseball field.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- To turn it into a multipurpose field with that money.
- I love that multipurpose and that's all inclusive.
That's cool.
So the first new field has been built, right?
- Yes.
- That's amazing. Look what you did.
You did that.
Does everybody do you just stand there
and go, you're welcome.
As they enter, I would.
- Should have like a plaque with your name on it.
- Yeah I know.
I'm like, that's amazing that you did that just
with your one letter and you changed it.
Not just for you, but so many other girls out
there that are like, you know, it's good to feel
like people care about what you're doing too.
And they care about your sports, not just their brothers.
You know. So that's awesome.
- Yeah. - That's is amazing.
I don't know if I ever did anything
like this when I was young.
- I definitely didn't do (indistinct).
- That's a shame.
OK. It's embarrassing.
- Like this is so cool.
- We were not as cool as you.
- So tell, tell us, how did
how did y'all end up building the field?
- Well, the Princeton rowing team came down from New Jersey
and they helped us the skin in the field.
And I actually went rowing with them after that.
- [Kelly] What?
- Yeah. They helped us skin in the field because obviously
they're so strong cause they do rowing and I
couldn't have skinned the field because I'm not that strong.
- [Kelly] Yeah.
- So they helped us. And-
- It's also good to put other people to work
and you can delegate.
- Delegate.
- It's a nice lesson to learn.
- Yeah. And that's kind of how we skinned the field
and now we're turning it
into a multipurpose field where everyone can play.
- That's so cool. I love that
they came down and helped out too.
That's also a good lesson that kids know.
Everybody can pitch in and help other people out too.
It's all just such a great story.
So this is a, a great accomplishment.
So what impresses you the most about her?
Just curious.
- I mean, you're so brave for being here.
You're so brave for
like having an idea and actually turning it into something.
That's not just gonna unpack- impact you and your friends
but like think of the generations
of girls that now know that they can do something like this.
So thank you for are being so inspiring.
(audience applause)
- Evangeline. I just wanna say I'm impressed.
You actually wrote a letter by hand.
(ladies laugh)
- You're like 10 years old where this is 2022.
You could have sent an email,
but you took that stationary.
You took a pen and paper and wrote some.
I'm just I'm really.
You probably got really good penmanship as well.
Pen-woman-ship, pen-woman-ship,
- [Kelly] Pen-woman-ship. - [Rose] Pen-woman-ship.
- Oh my God. I've never thought about that.
- Yeah. Yeah. Pen woman ship.
Evangeline, I'm so proud of you for writing a letter.
- [Evangeline] Thank you. - That's fantastic.
- [Kelly] You wanna create real change?
- Yeah. So I did.
So you never get what you don't ask for.
- Yeah.
- And before we end.
- Oh my gosh, girl never get what you don't ask for. Okay.
- Well, before we end, I wanted to give this to river.
It's a softball.
So maybe she can like start playing or something.
- Oh my gosh. You just made a best friend.
She is literally gonna think, first of all, I'm not kidding.
She's going to reach out and send you a video.
She is like, my daughter's never met a stranger.
And she literally is going to love that you thought of her.
So expect a video of us playing with this, this is so sweet.
Thank you.
(audience applause)
Ah, Well we know someone who's truly impressed
with your leadership skills ma'am and she's tied
up in meetings, but she did want to send you a message.
So check this out.
- Hello Evangeline and Kelly.
It's mayor Jane here.
Wow. Evangeline I am so proud
of what you've been able to accomplish.
When you wrote the letter to me asking
for more spaces for girls to play softball in city parks.
I'm sure you didn't know just how far that would go.
I also heard you've been running
for student government as well.
That's incredible.
I was hoping you may be able to stop
by my office soon and share some of your other ideas.
Kelly, I think we may have a future mayor right here
in our midst. Thank you both.
And Evangeline,
I can't wait to see what you're gonna do next.
(audience applause)
- I'm just saying, pull out that stationary
start writing some ideas down.
You've got their eyes on you now.
So, what do you think? That's pretty cool, right?
- I did not expect that.
- [Kelly] I know.
I'm just saying you should write some more letters.
It ha it, you got like a straight line
to God or something and building fields, everything.
Well, that's not all our season long partner,
Pilot G2 jell ink pen,
the go-to pin of the Kelly Clarkson show.
They want to make sure
that you continue writing yourself into the history books.
So they're gonna give you $5,000 just because you're rad.
(audience applause)
- How's that sound? Is that all right?
(Kelly laughs)