A look at a foster child who had an unlikely achievement twenty-five years ago, after the jump ….
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Charlotte Ayanna has an acting career today, which was something one might expect of someone who came from a stable, perhaps even prosperous family. Yet she spent many years in foster care — and it was nearly twenty-five years ago when I first learned of her … as she was crowned Miss Teen USA of 1993 (and representing neighboring Vermont, she received even more publicity in my area).
She was born Charlotte Lopez in San Juan, Puerto Rico in 1976, to a mother who suffered from mental illness … so much that one year later she moved her family to Vermont, convinced that “the demons” would not follow her to such a cold-weather place.
The family struggled, needless to say, and when Charlotte was age three, her mother Emma was deemed unfit and Charlotte (plus her two siblings) were placed in foster homes. In those days, there was a reluctance to sever bonds between children and their birth parents, so she and her siblings were moved from home to home while the authorities attempted reconciliation … to no avail.
At age fourteen, she was sent to a group home … run by a woman who showed her more care than she had before. She participated in sports, found a part-time job, then went to a new foster couple living near Rutland, Vermont … and at age 17 decided to enter the Miss Teen USA pageant.
She had to raise nearly $600 to enter and upon arriving said, “Some of the girls were really stiff and worried about winning … and I was there just to have a good time”. She described her foster care experience during her time to address the judges, saying that if she won: she’d seek to change the system she grew up in.
When I read about her victory back then, one factoid stood out: she won the pageant wearing a dress that cost …. thirty-seven dollars. I can only imagine what many parents (who certainly shelled-out much, much more for their daughters) must have thought when they read that.
Not long afterwards, she told her caseworker that she wanted to be adopted .. and the last foster parent couple did so, to her delight. With her pageant scholarship money she attended the University of California — Irvine.
In 1996 she released this book about her experience (Lost in the System) and later became an ambassador for foster children, giving addresses across the nation (even appearing on-stage with attorney general Janet Reno). One book quote:
“Kids give up in the foster system. It rewards them with attention for bad behavior, but for good behavior: it rewards them with exactly zippo”.
In beginning an acting career, she made a decision about her name: learning that her last name Lopez came from her maternal grandfather (whom she believed abandoned her mother) she chose the last name Ayanna — which has been attributed to the Cherokee language (meaning “blessed”) although this may/may not be accurate. Either way, she believes that she has indeed been blessed.
She has not become an acting star, yet has made her mark. She had appearances in the television shows Weird Science and Entourage, then (after seeing her photo) another Puerto Rico native (Ricky Martin) cast her in his 1999 video She’s All I Ever Had. In more recent years, she has had film roles in Training Day (with Ethan Hawke) and Love the Hard Way (with Adrien Brody). And at age 41, we may not have heard the last from Charlotte Ayanna just yet.
Now, on to Top Comments:
From noweasels:
In the front-page story about a Trumpster aide complaining about family-based immigration — and then be subjected to some genealogy of his own — MTmofo sets up the pitch ... and then whereistony hits it out of the park.
Also from noweasels:
In the front-page diary about the Trumpster’s latest remarks — JoanMar’s has an eloquent remark.
And from Ed Tracey, your faithful correspondent this evening ........
In the front-page story about the troubles that former Rep. Pete Hoekstra is having in his ancestral Holland, now that he has been made ambassador to the Netherlands (and being confronted with several right-wing assertions he made back in the US) — Ice Blue gives some background as to the reasons why some emigrated to Michigan in the past.
TOP PHOTOS
January 10th, 2018
Next - enjoy jotter's wonderful *PictureQuilt™* below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo.
(NOTE: Any missing images in the Quilt were removed because (a) they were from an unapproved source that somehow snuck through in the comments, or (b) it was an image from the DailyKos Image Library which didn't have permissions set to allow others to use it.)
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And lastly: yesterday's Top Mojo - mega-mojo to the intrepid mik ...... who rescued this feature from oblivion: