Kaitlin’s Got Talent! My girl’s a budding artist!

Every parent has that one kid who is struggling to find their special talent. Maybe you do, maybe you don’t. But with having 5 kids, for me I do have the one kid, Kaitlin, who is indeed smart, but has always felt like she was living in my other daughter Mikaela’s shadow because of Mikaela’s over-the-top personality and likability.

So it was refreshing and I was so excited and happy for Kaitlin when I accidentally found out that at just 10-years-old she is a wonderful ARTIST!

Yes, Kaitlin loves to draw! How could she get this one over on me! Kaitlin is a kid who keeps to herself. She’s very smart and was even invited to interview at the prestigious Ron Clark Academy, but she didn’t make the cut. However she’s gone on to score big this year by BUSTING the state’s CRCT test by making a perfect score in English/Language Arts and exceeding in every other subject area on the test AND she made the highest reading average in the whole 4th grade. She’s in her room a lot and I have to encourage her to come out or even go outside to play with the other kids. I knew she said she liked to sew, so I bought her a sewing machine. I knew she said she wanted to learn to sketch clothing so I bought her all kinds of sketch books. And I knew she was obsessed with Pretty Cure, a Japanese Anime cartoon with scantily-clad girls who fight. What I didn’t know was that she would spend hours inside sketching the cartoons while her sisters and brothers were playing outside. And I didn’t know that she was actually pretty good at it for a 10-year-old!

Kaitlin’s GOT TALENT America!

And I’m so happy she’s found something that she loves that makes her stand out among her siblings. Sibling rivalry is tough. And Kaitlin and Mikaela are always competing for my attention when they don’t even have to. But it’s something innate that kids do regardless of how much you tell them you LOVE them.

So of course I have to support Kaitlin and help her craft and hone her skills. So I’m signing her up for an Art class this summer so she can expand on her skills and learn so much more. There’s a big market for a talented young, African American like Kaitlin who may want to pursue a career in Animation or whatever she chooses to do with her talent. I just want to be there to support her and ensure that she gets exposure to the right resources.

And even though I first didn’t care for the Pretty Cure girls and didn’t want Kaitlin watching them because of the scantily-clad clothing, Kaitlin explains to me why she loves them. She said she loves how the girls are powerful! And they fight while looking cute! She said it’s so much better than a girl just being a princess and not having this kind of power. Understood. 

Go GIRL POWER! 🙂