Ayanna Moten

Ayanna Moten – Texas
Interview by Claire Plath
Nomination and Photography by Sande Bilton Photography
Issue 38 of Inspiring Teens Magazine
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The Nomination:  Ayanna Moten is an inspiring teen with amazing leadership qualities and is also very athletic. Ayanna is captain of the cheer team, the Secretary of the Christian Honor Society, participated in State Final 4 Basketball Tournament, All-Star Cheer Competition, was a State Qualifier in Track, and was nominated as AdvoSports Student Athlete of the Year!
Plus she takes her studies very serious, she had the highest GPA in both 9th Grade and second highest in 10th Grade and is on her second year of taking dual credit classes. She is honorary charter member of ABWA WGTEN chapter, & recently started her own business to inspire girls and young women called Uniquely Colorful.

Photography by Sande Bilton Photography

​What do you enjoy most about being involved in so many different sports and what achievements have you received from them?
As a junior in high school, the thing I enjoy most about being involved in various sports like basketball, track, and cheer is the ability to socialize with different people. Not every sport holds the same participants, so it is a great way of meeting new people and creating friends from my own school and other schools. Also, I enjoy the spirit of healthy competition in sports. The competitive nature of team and individual sports pushes me to perform my absolute best even when I feel at times that I have nothing more to give. Last year, I played basketball for the first time. There was a definite learning curve in understanding the plays and the game itself. I was blessed to have an exceptional coach who wanted us to understand offense and defense and not just run plays. So, in my first year ever of playing basketball, we placed 3rd in the State Championship. It was an amazing experience! I also made it to the State Track meet in 9th grade with our relay team and it showed me what could be accomplished with hard work and faith. In cheer, I have been in a leadership role for the past 3 years. This past year, I was nominated as Student Athlete of the Year in Cheerleading in our region.

Photography by Sande Bilton Photography

Tell me a little bit about the different extracurricular activities and clubs you are a part of at your school including being Secretary of the Christian Honor Society.
This is my 3rd year in the Christian Honor Student Association and I am very excited about the upcoming year. First, I am holding an officer position in the organization. Being in leadership will allow me to have a voice in the future direction of our club. Secondly, we have significantly increased the number of service projects we are doing in the community this year and this will help me and my peers become better servant leaders.

I also hold another leadership role as Captain of the Cheer team. This is my 4th year as a cheerleader and 3rd year in leadership. I’ve developed much stronger leadership skills because I must ensure each team member knows how important they are to the team. We don’t always agree but I try to make sure everyone knows they have a voice and their thoughts will be heard. This year I have been significantly more involved in the “business and economics” side of cheer. For example, I sought out multiple vendors and led all communication with them, compared pricing and payment terms, negotiated discounts, designed our uniforms and the customization on our gear, worked out the numbers on the total expense for cheer and helped set up a payment plan for parents to pay out the expense over several months. My mom, who is a business consultant and our Team Mom for the squad, taught me a lot of questions to ask and business things to consider but she always left the final decision to me on which direction to go.

I am also on a recreational competition cheer team and it is helping me exponentially grow my cheer skills and talents. Each week, I have two days of 3 hour practices for our recreational team. For my school cheer team, we have 3-6 hours of practice each week and several of our practices begin at
6 AM. In addition, I am taking 2 dual credit classes for college so I can start getting more college hours under my belt before high school graduation. My academic accomplishments are extremely important to me. In my freshman year, I had the highest GPA in our class and in my sophomore year, I had the second highest GPA. It definitely takes time management skills with all the activities in which I am involved and the study time I need to put in each week.

Photography by Sande Bilton Photography

How has your faith impacted your life and who you are?
Proverbs 31:30 says “Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” It is through God that I have been able to accomplish the things I have in the past 15 years. My dad is a pastor and my mom is a minister so before I was even born, faith was already a very important part of my life. My dad has always stressed the importance of living a saved life. As a teenager, living for Jesus and having fun does not have to be mutually exclusive.

I’ve seen God perform miracles with my dad’s health. He had a massive stroke when I was a baby and he probably should have died, but I saw God heal him. Ten years later he had emergency open heart surgery, and again, he probably should have died, but God healed him. So yes, “bad things do happen to good people” but my faith keeps me believing that God will make a way… even when it seems impossible.

In my 9th grade year of track, I kept believing that our 800m relay team would make it to State. I would not let myself believe otherwise. We were not the fastest team in the District, but we made it to Regionals. We were not the fastest team in the Region, but we made it to State. I just kept believing that if we did our part, God would make a way.

Tell me more about how you strive to be a role model for girls of diversity by uplifting others and making sure they all know their worth.
Growing up, I did not see a lot of women in power or in high positions who looked like me. With that missing, it was very hard to find role models in positions of power. I wanted to make sure other girls, especially Black and Brown girls, had someone they could look up to who would be a positive influence in their lives. I don’t think people really realize how hard it is when Black and Brown girls don’t see images of what they want to become when they grow up. You wouldn’t believe how excited and happy I was when I saw The Princess and the Frog when I was 4 years old. Finally, there was a Princess who looked like me! There was Snow White, Cinderella, Belle, and others but now I finally had a Princess I could call my own.

I want little girls to see me and know they can love God, be smart, be an athlete, respect themselves and each other, and remember they are valuable and beautiful. Finally, I want all girls to know they should uplift each other and not tear each other down. As girls and young women, we have the power to completely destroy one another or lift up and encourage each other. I chose to lift up girls and young women.

Photography by Sande Bilton Photography

​In what ways has your love for sports influenced what you want to do with your life and what career you want to pursue?
My love of sports has inspired me to look beyond the present and include them in my future. I would like to attend college and study to form a career as a sports medicine physician. I know first hand how tough sports can be on the bodies of athletes and I want to help keep them as healthy as possible so they can pursue what they enjoy for as long as possible. While studying, I would also like to become a cheerleader at the college I am attending. Collegiate cheer is the next level for me and would allow me to reach new heights and skills in a sport that I truly love.

How can you inspire other teens to know the importance of feeling confident in who they are and embracing the comfort of their skin they were blessed with?
No love matters until you first have self-love. Self-love must be taught. It is not automatic. It is not a given. Had it not been for my parents, I would not know how to love myself, be confident in who I am, and embrace the skin I was blessed to be born in. We live in a time when girls and young see standards of “beauty” that other people impose on them. We are inundated daily with images on social media of what “beauty” should look like and it is easy to become depressed or down because you don’t look like the images you see.

But we are all put here for a purpose. Girls should be taught at a young age that beauty begins within. Next they should know they are beautiful when they look in the mirror. We are all uniquely created by God and when girls are taught that concept at a young age, peer pressure and unrealistic images won’t be so harmful to them. This year, when my mom and I were having a conversation about self-confidence, I told her in elementary school, I hated how my knees looked. Then one year I had an accident in the kitchen, cut my knee pretty badly, and ended up with a very noticeable scar. This caused me not to want to wear shorts where my knees could be seen. Even in a house where I was always taught to embrace my skin and have self-confidence, I still had insecurities. Imagine how hard it is for girls who never taught to love themselves, value themselves, appreciate themselves.

I told my mom that I not only wanted to use my voice but I wanted to build a business that would be created to help girls and young women know that they are wonderfully and fearfully made. My business, which I will be launching before the holidays, will be merchandise with positive messages of affirmations to remind the wearers of their unique qualities.

What advice would you give to someone who wants to be where you are today?
I would let others know that regardless of what is going on, you must persevere and keep pushing forward. It’s better to make small baby steps towards your goals versus giving up completely. Trust in God, put in the work, and things will work out.

Who do you find inspiring?
My mom is one of the most inspiring people I know. She does so many things and I don’t know how she manages it all. She works full-time in medical sales, has her own business, does work in the community, is the Team Mom for cheer, and always makes the time for me and my dad. My mom believes in supporting women and being a positive role model in the community. So many people look up to her and I always see her operate in grace and love. I’m proud she is my mom!

Ayanna will be featured in issue 38 of Inspiring Teens Magazine!

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click here for more info on issue 38

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