Promise Sawyers, a 10-year-old girl in Nashville, Tenn., is inspiring people old and young after making a video before going to school "bigger and better" with her natural hair, just one day after she was made fun of for her afro.
Promise Sawyers' motivational video was posted online by her mom Qui Daugherty, after the 5th-grader secretly recorded it on Daugherty's phone. In it, Sawyers explained that she was feeling "some type of way" after her classmates had mean things to say after she wore her natural hair the day before. But she was determined not to let it bring her down, and wore it the same way the following day. "Don't allow anyone to steal your joy," Promise said. "Don't give them that much power."
Daugherty says that Promise has been surrounded by that type of positivity her whole life. She's always taught her daughter to "meet a negative with a positive", even when somebody is trying to bring her down. And although this example seems like one of the more disheartening(令人气馁的) ones that Promise has faced after starting at a new school, her video proved that she took her mom's advice to heart.
Now, nearly 2 million views later, people everywhere are responding to the video. "We had no idea the impact that it was going to make and the amount of messages," Daugherty said. "It's made a huge impact behind the scenes that has blessed me personally."
Daugherty jokes that Promise doesn't understand how influential her words are. Instead, the 10-year-old is just excited about the millions of views.
"I just tell her not to focus on the numbers," Daugherty says. "Let's find a way we can be impactful behind this and make an influence and inspire people. That's all we want."
