Dreamer ENT – Dream. Dare. Soar.

You are browsing the archives of 2010 April.

Here are some cool links and stories of young dreamers to inspire you:

Sweet Success

Check out this article, Teenage baker turns hobby into profitable company and video about a teen girl from Florida who runs her own bakery, and has more than 50 clients that range “from music superstars to local civic clubs.” Visit her website Shea’s Bakery (via NBC WPTV).

Presidential Bloggers

Check out the “Malia and Sasha Fan Club” blog by two tween sisters whose creative coverage of the President’s daughters got them invited to the White House for the Easter Egg Roll 2010 (click here to see pictures and videos of their journey). The blogging duo even published a book called Our Journey with Radiance and Rosebud, and were featured on ABC News Nightline and other news outlets. Though they still haven’t been able to meet the Obama girls they’re still blogging away hoping their dream will come true.

Have you ever thought about what you could do to change the neighborhood or city you live in?

This past March, seven teams consisting of teens from Oakland, California, got seed funding of $1000 per team to start projects that would help address problems they found in their communities. The grants are from Youth Venture, an organization that supports young changemakers and leaders as they create and grow their own social ventures.

Each of the groups ideas are really impressive and unique, like one of the groups that creates positive hip hop music, two that are supporting the poor in other countries and another which will provide healthy food to the Oakland community. Congrats to all of the winning teams! Read about the groups and watch the videos below where each of the teen describe their projects.

The Winning Youth Venture Teams and Members

• Healthy Neighborhood Store Alliance, a service to make fresh produce more accessible in West Oakland: James, Ennis, Jamelah and Alshea.
• Grown Your Own Green, community gardening in West Oakland: Rachelle.
• Oakland Youth for Peace with Police, improving the relationship between Oakland youth and police: Tamara.
• O Zone Music Group Hip-hop with a purpose, youth empowering youth through music: Olondis.
• Youth Roots, Creating a positive-message t-shirt line, sold online and now also distributed through local school uniform programs: Diego, Mario, Hazel, Juan, and Isabel.
• Project Jatropha, supporting rural schools in Haiti and India: Adarsha, Apoorva, and Callie.
• Creating Hope for Future Leaders, sponsoring a school in Nicaragua: Miguel.

Videos from Oaklandlocal.com and Youth Venture

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Youth Venture is a great organization that also gave Dreamer ENT’s founder her first community service grant as a teen. Want to get your own grant to spark change in your community? Read more about the organization below and watch another video of the teams from Oakland presenting for their opportunity to win the grants below:
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Keke Palmer recently talked to Seventeen Magazine about what makes her feel self-conscious, but says she’s learned how to love her imperfections and encourages other girls to love themselves too:

“Love yourself… Nobody’s perfect, I mean come’on, nobody is perfect. Not you, not your mom, even the people on TV – nobody is perfect and there’s always something that nobody likes, but you know you just accept that.

Your imperfections make you beautiful. It’s those things you find you don’t like that someone else finds very special and very unique about you. You just accept it and own it, even if it’s not one of your favorite parts, you just own it because that’s who you are.”
– Keke Palmer

April 12 is the birthday of beloved author and Newbery Award winner Beverly Cleary, and this year she celebrates her 94th birthday. Many schools also celebrate the day as “Drop Everything and Read Day” where students do just that – drop everything and curl up with a good book, something I like to do all the time.

When I was younger I loved the books by Ms. Cleary, like the Ramona Quimby books and Dear Mr. Henshaw. Ms. Cleary is one of the authors who inspired me to read and want to become a children’s author one day. She also has several books for teens you can check out, like The Luckiest Girl which I read and thought was a cute love story.

You can visit Beverly Cleary’s website at www.beverlycleary.com for more information about her life and her works. Have you read any of her books?

Beverly Cleary Tip for Young Writers and On the Love of Reading

Read widely. Master the tools of writing. I know that spelling, punctuation, and grammar are boring, but they are necessary.”

“I think I was fortunate in growing up before television and before many people even had radios, because my mother read aloud every evening to my father and me, and I was — I — I don’t know what I would’ve done in the evening if she hadn’t… She really read quite a variety of things, and I loved those evenings. I wish more people read aloud.

– Beverly Cleary (From her website)

This summer the movie Ramona & Beezus based Ms. Clearly’s books, will be in theaters starring Selena Gomez as older sister ‘Beezus’ and Joey King as the little sister ‘Ramona’ who always finds herself in a new and crazily imaginative situations. (Click here to read the book for free online; even though the book is aimed at kids you could probably relate with Beezus the older sister and it’s a pretty fun read for people of all ages).

Watch the trailer for the movie “Ramona & Beezus,” in theaters July 23rd, below:
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For our Inspiring Entertainment video pick here’s Jordin Sparks‘ song “One Step At A Time” from her previous self-titled album. The song and video remind you that reaching your goal might take some time but not to be discouraged by disappointments. Other doors will open and you’ll reach where you’re meant to go in time if you get up and keep going.

“One step at a time, There’s no need to rush, It’s like learning to fly…”

Jordin recently announced her Battlefield Tour; click here to visit her website for updates and tour dates.