- - Hi everyone, I'm Olga Villaverde today we have a very special edition of the Balancing
Act.
As we focus on issues that are affecting today's youth as seen and produced through eyes of
our young staffers.
From the unexpected joys and obstacles of motherhood, to look at why vocational school
might be a better option for you, and we can all use a lesson in the kitchen, especially
when it comes to french cuisine, Chef Mark is in the kitchen, bonjour Mark.
- Bonjour Olga, you want to help me make some crepes today?
- Absolutely, oui, oui, as I would say in Spanish, Si, si.
So Balancing Act starts, right now.
Imagine finding out at the age of 18 that you're about to become a mother.
Now while your parents are supportive it isn't what you had planned.
Well today I'm joined by one young woman, who despite the struggle of the unknown, found
peace, joy, and success, her name is Mackenzie.
Good morning.
- Hi, thank you for having me.
- We actually got to visit Mackenzie and her mom and Beckham, who is soon to be three.
So much joy in the house, take a look.
- Who's that?
- Elsa - That's Elsa What do you want then baby, what do you want?
- Juice - Okay, juice for breakfast - Hello I don't want to go to school - You love school,
come on - No I don't want to go to school - Okay, okay, come on.
- So good - Let's talk about what happened at that moment.
First of all, did you feel something different, did you kind of have a could I be pregnant?
- It was just one of those things where it was like your body knows, the woman body,
yes.
- So I'm going to assume you did a pregnancy test.
- [Mackenzie] Yes I did - Did you do it by yourself?
- I did it by myself, but my sister was at the house with me so we both had kind of talked
about it that morning that was I was feeling different.
And then I was like let's just get a pregnancy test, let's just see, and she was at the house
with me, I mean I was in the room by myself, but I freaked out.
- So that moment that you see the two lines - Yeah, I think I screamed, I think I cried,
me and her hugged each other for ten minutes, I just cried and it wasn't like...
- Were they tears of oh, I'm so happy, or tears like oh my gosh, what have I done.
- It was definitely tears of oh my gosh, what have I done.
- Did you think in those ten minutes, what am I going to do, am I going to have this
baby, am I not?
Did that go through your mind?
- I knew in my heart that I was going to keep the baby.
I just knew, immediately I knew that's what I wanted to do.
My heart just told me that's what I needed to do.
I knew he was my baby, so I was like this is it.
I mean obviously that crosses mind at some point.
I think anyone that goes through it, that it was unplanned, I was only 18, that crosses
your mind because you're like my life is completely change.
- So how long did it take after that to tell your parents.
- It took two weeks to tell my parents.
- Two weeks?
- Yes - You held that for two weeks in the house - yes - because you live with them did
they notice, I mean that's pretty good poker face.
- Oh yeah, no, it was, but they definitely noticed.
My mom, one day, the day I ended up telling her, I wasn't planning on telling her that
day, I had planned on telling both of them at the same time, and we were in the bathroom
together talking and she basically was like what's wrong.
- Mom's know, mom's know.
- She's like something's off, something's going on, I don't know what it is, but let's
talk about it.
- [Olga] Did you tell her?
- Told her right then, yeah.
- Her reaction?
- She screamed, she cried for a very long time, cried and cried, and I had to give her
some space.
So I gave her some space.
- So now you have to tell your father.
Were you more worried about that?
- Was scared for his reaction more than her reaction because I'm his little girl, you
know?
We did it together, we sat down, and that was the moment when we told my dad that we
were like we're having the baby.
This is literally what he said, alright, we're having a baby.
So when he said that to me, everything was like...
- How did that feel, having that support, how fantastic.
- The most family in the whole world.
- Beckham, do you want to go to the park, are you ready?
Let's go Here we go Ready, get your arms up, good job - Now for sand Whoa - Look all these
people in the school bus Mommy's here - [Mackenzie] Did you have a good day at school, wow - Its
a ball - oh that's cool - I missed you - I missed you too - Kiss?
- [Olga] Oh my gosh, he's so much fun!
- I know, he's so funny.
- Is he always like that?
- Yes, he's crazy - So now, everything obviously, you look happy, it's all a blessing, but has
it been a little tough to kind of juggle?
- Yeah - how have you done it?
- Well basically, I have my mom, she helps me a lot - [Mackenzie] God bless mom - I know
for real I decided to go to beauty school so I did night classes there.
I was just really passionate about makeup and skin care and the hours were very flexible
and easy for someone with a baby.
- So you were able to finish - Yes - Did it make you more determined to finish?
- Definitely, I wanted to just make a good life for me and him, so very determined to
do that.
- What advice would you give, Mackenzie, to maybe someone out there that might be going
through, might have just taken a test and found out their pregnant, and right now they're
crying, in this situation.
- Well my advice would be to breathe and to think about it and to really consider your
life and yourself and your family and I think that everyone has a different path and everyone
has a different life, so I think obviously you have to do what's best for you, but I
would just say follow your heart and don't lose sight of who you are, that's a big thing.
- I know my mom the day I told her I was pregnant she told me you're never going to love anything
more and now you understand too, right?
- It's very true, so true - It is, thank you so much, God bless you and Beckham, wish you
all the luck and to your parents, God bless them for their support.
And up next, we are going to learning even more about Mackenzie's passion, she talked
about cosmetology and why vocational schools might be the right answer you, the Balancing
Act is coming right back Okay, so you've graduated from high school and the next step is college,
but for some that may not be the best avenue to take.
And reasons can be economical, personal, I mean there are just so many reasons.
Sky rocketing tuition, and no assurance of a job.
Vocational schooling, it's a great alternative to a traditional bachelor's degree.
Today, Tamara Figueroa, a beauty educator, and one of her graduates, Lushawnda.
They are here to talk about why a trade school certification is truly a viable option.
Good morning.
- Good morning - thanks for being here - Oh happy to be here.
- Also we have a beautiful model, we have Courtney.
And then Lushawnda, good morning Lushawnda.
- So tell me what are you doing today on Courtney.
- I'm actually doing a day time smoky eye that you can leave from work and go to straight
to happy hour - Oh I love smokey eyes and you make it look flawless and easy, but it
can be done, right?
- [Lawshawnda] It can be done, yes - And it can be done at a beauty school.
So let's talk about this alternative for some students who really may not think college
is the way to go.
Vocational training, let's talk about it.
- So getting into vocational training is amazing for people who have perhaps had to put their
life on hold to raise families, to go to work, just to be a provider.
And the difference between that and college is that as in college you have to go through
the electives before you tap into your passions.
With vocational trade school, you get to jump right in to the thing that's in your heart
to do.
- And we were talking to Mackenzie, obviously who goes to this school, and she felt like
it was really good for her with her son, the flexibility, and even the cost factor as well,
it's a good option for some people.
- Yeah for Mackenzie, she's an amazing, amazing student and a great mom, and to see her thrive
into the program and take it and have the flexibility to work with the schedule and
to also just tap into her passion is such a great thing to see.
Lawshawnda, let me bring you in as you're doing the lovely Courtney, how has it helped
you in terms of your life, and professionally as well?
- Well I'm also a single mother as well too so it is very accommodating to be able to
go to a school where the schedule's flexible and you know it's not rush anything, and the
curriculum is excellent, and you go straight into the field of doing what you want.
- [Olga] And you've enjoyed it - And I've enjoyed it, yes - Okay I can see you have
a passionate for it, you're absolutely beautiful at that.
- I know you teach, Tamara, it must be very fulfilling to help Lawshawnda and Mackenzie
and so many others.
- It's beyond fulfilling because to see someone tap into their passion and also to just tap
into hope because a lot of time when people go through their life and they're looking
at well, I wish I would've, could've, should've, being able to go back to a trade school and
do that thing that they wanted to do, they felt they were born to do, it reignites hope
and enlighten them.
- [Olga] And I think it's always great to have options out there, absolutely important.
- We're not going to have any beauty school dropouts here, this is not Grease, these are
all graduates.
Where can they get information.
- Our viewers can go to trade-schools.net - Do you have an Instagram you can...
- They can find me at Tamara beauty educator.
- Fantastic, and I think we're going to get final looks and Courtney, and let's see how
beautiful she looks.
Look at those eyes, fabulous job Lawshawnda.
And because you're so beautiful, for anyone out there who's maybe thinking about going
to beauty school, what would say?
- I would say follow your dreams and go for it.
- Well, that is the best way to end this segment.
Thank you Lawshawnda, Courtney, absolutely beautiful.
Tamara, thank you for everything you do.
- Thank you - Thank you for helping Mackenzie along the way as well.
Alright well coming up next, we're going to the kitchen for some traditional french cooking
with my friend Chef mark, we'll be right back.
Alright here we go, it's time to make crepes, french pancakes, in honor of France's recent
win in the World Cup.
Our very own chef Mark is here to show us how to make the perfect crepe - crepe - I
was about to say it like you.
Alright, well good morning.
- Good morning, how are you?
- You know I wanted Croatia to win - Yeah too bad, it was a beautiful thing - I'm sure,
viva France.
Alright so I love crepes, they are fantastic are they easy to make?
- They are very easy to make, just a few simple ingredients, we're going to throw it all into
a blender.
- That's it?
_ Yup, we're cooking crepes.
- Okay so let's start with the milk.
- Well we're going to start, right in the blender, we're going to put the wet ingredients
first.
So your milk, your eggs, sugar - [Olga] Azucar -your vanilla, your butter, and last the flour.
Here we go, and then we're going to put the lid on it.
There we go.
And that's it.
- That's it?
- That's it you got your batter right there.
We're going to take it off the blender.
- That's fantastic - Pour it right into a bowl and then if you'd like, you can put the
bowl of batter in the fridge - [Olga] For how long?
- We're going to let it rest for about an hour - Okay so when you get the crepe down,
look at the magnificent thing you've put together here.
- Absolutely, we've done a breakfast idea, great way to get the kids to eat their fruits.
And then the last thing you can do is just yummy, a little bit of honey.
Drizzle right over top.
- [Olga] So healthy and so fabulous.
- And good way, again, to get the kids to eat some fruits.
- This is lunch?
- This is lunch So we did a little Persian bistro lunch, we stuffed a couple crepe with
some andouille , little crumble blue cheese over the top and a little side salad.
- And this is cute - Yeah this your set up - Oh I love the way he says that - So gather
a couple of friends, have a drink, we have crepe stuffed with smoked salmon, cream cheese,
and herb cheese, and pimento cheese with a little olive in the middle, you just wrap
it all up, slice it, and you're done.
- I didn't know you could do so much with crepes, this...
- This is beautiful, this is just layer of crepe, little pastry cream in between each
layer, you doom, doom, doom, doom, and then a little chocolate sauce around the top, some
bananas on top.
Beautiful cake, slice very easy, and kids will love that.
- Great idea, why don't you turn on the grill.
You have some here, yup here's the batter.
- Batter is all ready, we're going to brush the pan with just a little bit of butter.
- [Olga] And this has been there again for an hour.
- This has been in the fridge for a few hours, nice and refrigerated and all you have to
do is take a little bit of butter in you ladle and just basically bring the pan, the butter,
and roll it all up.
Roll it, roll it, roll it, roll it.
And get a nice coverage all over.
And get it back on the stove to cook.
It's going to take about anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute, you are looking for the
edges to get just a little bit brown.
So now that it's set up, and you can see how it's set up, and it's starting to get a little
brown, you're just going to take your spatula and you're flipping your crepe.
Now we have a couple that are ready, absolutely.
- Look how fabulous this looks.
- And then my favorite is always the simplest just little bit of granulated sugar.
- [Olga] Azucar - Yeah, just put it on the top, and then we roll it up - [Olga] This
is so much fun - And take a bite, mmm - You look like a little boy having fun in the kitchen,
fantastic - so good - Thank you so much - Another one right here ready to eat.
- That one's going to be for me.
Let me tell our viewers that if they want any of these fabulous recipes, you can go
to the balancingact.com and by the way, stay tuned, we are going to showcase the fabulous,
fabulous interns that put this whole show together.
And I want to thank you, as always, love you very much.
Will you put some azucar on mine?
- Get yours ready right now.
- Fantastic we'll be right back.
- Being able to participate in this military makeover show gives me an opportunity to not
just talk about doing this, but to actual do things and give something back I want to
be able to have maybe draw that connection so that we don't say I support the troops
as a saying we say it because we understand it and that we really should be supporting
our troops.
- Welcome back, as we close out the show, we thought it would be a great opportunity
to introduce the people who brought their ideas to life on today's episode of the Balancing
Act.
So without further ado, we want to showcase our summer production interns at Brand Star.
Bravo, bravo, it was just fantastic.
But I want to hear from you guys.
Samantha, let me start with you, what did you think?
- Wow is all I can say, because it just is a great experience, this is something I want
to do in the future and just see how a show comes together from beginning to end is just
really rewarding.
To see it all come together, it's like our baby.
- And Courtney, it takes work, doesn't it?
A lot of people just see the front of the camera and they think oh...
- It looks really easy and it's not because you're behind the camera and back there and
it's so much going on, you would never guess.
- And also want to let our viewers know that Mackenzie is Courtney's sister.
So proud to have her here today, she did so fantastic, her courage, her faith, the family.
Were you proud of her?
- So proud of her, now, then, so proud of her.
- When Mackenzie left, they both hugged, I love you, I love you too, I was just like
oh my gosh, somebody tug at my heart here, wonderful relationship you both have.
Samantha, let's pass that to Becca.
So Becca, tell me, what was the most challenging?
- I would say that the fact that we produced almost every single aspect of this show and
had to do a lot of selecting of what we would keep and would delete in terms of ideas.
It proved to be a challenge, but something that we could really handle, so we worked
on our problem solving skills a lot.
- Fantastic, Bonnie, I wanted to ask you, I know the whole thing was wow, but your favorite?
- My favorite part of the show, I loved the cooking segment - Isn't Chef mark great?
- Yes and it was so fun just to see it all come to fruition, it was awesome.
- Fantastic, I thought you were going to say our part right now, that's my favorite part.
- Jean-Marc, I love the name, Jean-Marc So for you, good spirits, I know you're studying
economics at FIU, so this is kind of like out of the comfort zone, right?
- Not too much because I have an interest in writing - Oh!
- It was fun to work on the episode.
- Yeah, which episode did you write?
- I wrote the cooking segment.
- Oh you did, great job, bravo, bravo!
Were you going for France?
- Yes, yes I was, with a name like Jean-Marc?
- Of course, of course, and last but not least, Lillie.
Lillie, your experience, did you have a good time sweetheart - I did, yeah - [Olga] What
did you learn?
- I mean I've never worked on a TV show before, I've done a couple of films, so I learned
a lot, it was a lot of fun.
- It was fantastic.
Alright well I just wanted to thank all of you, you did a tremendous job, the efforts,
truly paid off.
And I hope continued success for all of you.
Who's going to take my job?
That's what I want to know, I have to retire soon, come on, someone.
- I can.
- [Olga] Courtney, Courtney's going to be the host Well again, another bravo to all
of of you, continued success, come back, tell us how you've done, when you finished, and
what you're doing in the future, yeah?
- Yes - okay, so that's our show for today, we couldn't have done it without the future
of television sitting right next to me.
One more bravo ladies and gentleman back there.
I'm Olga Villaverde, we'll see you next time.
Remember check out our website, the balancingact.com, we're on Twitter, Facebook, and check out
our Instagram, and of course, who's not on Instagram today, right?
Alright, we'll see you next time, take care.