Yara Shahidi, welcome to The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Yay. Thank you.
You may be the first person I've actually spoken to
who's actually experienced, um, doing school virtually.
-Yeah. -You know, what has... what has that been like?
'Cause a lot of people say it's horrible.
Right. I'm pretty grateful because I was able to come home
to a place where I was like, "I have my Wi-Fi connection,
I have a family that's feeding me and such."
And so, it was pretty good.
And I've also done distance learning in the past
for high school while I was working full-time.
-Right, right. -And so, I've gotten used to that schedule,
so I think I had less of a transition than most,
-just because I was used to the format. -Mm-hmm.
But it is pretty rigorous, and I have so many friends,
uh, in school right now, and it's been a rough transition,
to say the least, because many schools don't know really
how to transition and fully support the students
with the work that they were already doing.
You're one of those people who genuinely actually loves school,
and going to school and learning at school,
and, like, this is a real thing.
Like, you are that person in life.
You're like a proud nerd, and you always say this.
(laughs) I am.
So what advice would you give other learners
who are struggling right now who go like,
"Yara, I don't know if I want to go back to school
"if it's going to be distance learning next year.
"I don't know if I want to learn
over my laptop or my iPad or whatever."
Like, what advice would you give to them?
I think what distance learning has done for me in the past
is given me the ability to figure out
how my education will align with my life at large.
And so being... doing distance learning-- it really...
I used it as an opportunity to figure out,
like, what are my other passions,
what are my other interests,
and how will I incorporate that into my life.
No longer being in a brick-and-mortar school
for high school, I was able to figure out like,
"Okay, if I'm working 15 hours a day,
"this is what my education looks like,
and this is how I get to shift it to what I want."
And so, if anything, I think it's about finding ways
in which you can really personalize your education
and use that opportunity to say like,
"I'm making this experience unabashedly mine."
You've always been somebody
who's been, um, politically motivated.
You know, you come from a family of activists.
You've always been somebody who, um, strives
to find a purpose beyond yourself.
What is the thing Yara Shahidi is looking at
in this new corona world?
I mean, at first, my purpose has always been,
how can I make this moment greater
than myself in terms of...
I've had a crazy, amazing childhood
of access to the resources
that made me feel like I belonged in this world,
whether it be the stories that were being told to me,
or the opportunities that were given to me.
-Mm-hmm. -And I was like, "How do I share that?"
And I think, under this new world, it's been...
I think it's about...
Really, I've been so big-picture.
It's been about kind of going reverse, and it's like,
what's the smallest picture, what's the smallest action
that is tangible, that can help somebody?
And so, I think right now, even looking
at the situation that we're talking about with students,
it was like, "What's the smallest action
"that can be done right now
to just make the lives of students easier?"
And so, it's been a mix of like,
"Okay, what resources can be provided?"
And then, in terms of Grown-ish,
and as well as the media that we're making,
what stories need to be told,
um, I think, to reflect the times that we're in?
You have this class of-of young people who are graduating,
and some of them don't have the motivation
that normally would come with a graduation.
But I know you're teaming up with a few...
few interesting people.
I mean, some people might know them.
And, uh, you're teaming up with them to try and,
I guess, motivate the graduating class of 2020.
Tell us about that.
Yeah, so, Graduate Together is a program
that will be held on Saturday.
And it's really just a part
of how do we help celebrate this class?
I think exactly to your point, it's really hard to figure out.
You've been on a 12-year journey,
for all these high schoolers graduating right now,
and haven't been able to have that kind of ceremony
that reflects the hard work that goes into it.
And I think, given the sociopolitical state
that we were in prior to this pandemic,
school life and our life
had already been made more complicated and difficult,
trying to manage what was happening in the world.
And so I think this seems to be yet another thing
that overly complicates one's ability to be like,
"I'm pursuing my education.
-I get to dive head-first into this." -Right.
And so, what we're really hoping to do is,
as much as possible,
reinstate that kind of ceremony and celebration.
And what I love is that everyone...
Yeah, the couple people I'm doing it with,
from LeBron, uh,
to Mr. Obama and everybody else, um,
is really about how do we reinstate
that kind of celebratory magic,
and also just shine a light
on all the work that's gone into it.
So, it's a really cool ceremony that's mixing in,
uh, highlighting amazing things
that students have accomplished this year,
to just being in conversation
and trying to reinstate what you get
from an actual graduation ceremony.
Yeah, I mean, it feels like, in many ways,
a lot of students are going to, you know, on the bad side,
not get the graduation ceremony that they expected,
but on the upside, get the graduation ceremony
that they definitely never expected.
And that's going to be, you know, Yara Shahidi teaming up
with LeBron James and former president Barack Obama.
I mean, like, how does that even work?
Do you guys have, like, a text chain
where you guys are bouncing ideas now?
It has been so hilarious, trying to get all of us together,
um, and even the process of like,
how do we make a high-quality ceremony?
And we're all kind of in our houses.
But it's been really cool.
And I think to your point about hope,
I feel like I've always had to remain hopeful,
'cause, otherwise, why do you do any of the work?
Um, and you have to believe in some sense of future
to feel like what I'm investing in right now
is so much greater than myself that it doesn't matter
how I feel about the world, because I'm investing
in how my brother's going to feel about the world
and what they inherit.
Um, and so I think, Graduate Together,
along with everything else that's been happening,
to really come and hug all the graduates
that have gone through this experience
has really been about, like, how do we just say,
a lot is happening right now.
We're all trying to figure out how to change the world,
but let's take a moment to just celebrate.
That's beautiful. Life is still worth celebrating.
Yara, thank you so much for being a guest
on the The Daily Social Distancing Show.
Can't wait to see you in your tiny little address
with those, um, tiny celebrities--
Barack Obama and LeBron James.
-Thank you for-for joining us. -Thank you.