April Blogger of the Month: Donel Kadima!

I am honoured to introduce our newest blogger of the month, Donel Kadima! Since joining YAA, Donel has written numerous eye-opening and unique posts that I strongly suggest you check out!

A grade 10 student at Ernest Manning high school, Donel is a girl of many talents! Not only a writer with Youth Are Awesome, Donel is also on the YODA committee at Youth Central! To go on, she also plays on Manning’s basketball team and is apart of Model UN, the volunteer club and the debate club at her school. On top of all that, she is also in partial AP, taking classes in social, math, science and French! Talk about talent and dedication!

Donel was inspired to begin writing back in the eighth grade by her now favourite author, Nicole Dennis-Benn, and the way she wrote, after reading her award-winning novel, Here Comes the Sun.

Donel joined Youth Are Awesome because she wanted a platform to speak out on what she believes in and vouches for.

I wanted to branch out, to do something different. I really wanted an outlet or a way to express myself better and I felt like this was a unique way to do that.

Writing, to Donel, means a lot. She considers it as her method of self-representation and showing what she’s capable of. It also helps her understand how she interacts with other people.

I feel like writing is a more comprehensive way of understanding people and understanding the environment around you.

You can definitely notice this in Donel’s blogs. Her posts contain such interesting and refreshing topics, which she deeply explores, resulting in a clear voice in all her writings. By reading even a couple of her blogs, it becomes very obvious how skilled of a writer Donel is! She has written about Dead Poets Society, Black History Month, women’s rights and pieces of original work among others, but her favourite post of her has to be the one about social media.

If you haven’t noticed already, Donel loves to write about society and culture. Her blog ideas come to her randomly, mostly in conversations with friends and sometimes dreams.

It’s really about where I am in life and what I want to talk about.

To Donel, a lot of herself is about advocacy and black culture and representation, that being the reason behind her amazing two-part blog dedicated to Black History Month. She is very passionate about women’s rights and women in sports. Having a few conservative relatives, Donel had been told various stereotypes about women, like how they belong in the kitchen, and Donel was set on proving them wrong, that being a woman meant that you could do anything! She’s incorporated this interest of hers into her writing, notably in her post “Isn’t She Lovely?” Women in Power.

Donel is also very passionate when it comes to science, medicine, math and children. Her love for working with children arose when she was growing up. She spent a lot of time with kids at the hospital since her father was a physician, which also added to her fascination of medicine/science. Having that exposure when she was younger contributed to her love for working with children today. In the future, Donel aspires to be a physician just like her dad.

Donel carries her passions and life philosophies everywhere. If there’s one thing she would like to say to everybody, it would be:

To be real. To advocate for what you actually are passionate about, to do what you actually want to do. To live for what you think is what’s destined for yourself, not necessarily what you’re supposed to do or what needs to happen, but what you feel is what’s supposed to be done for you.

As for Donel’s interests, that stretches a wide range. She’s into politics (especially African politics), international affairs and debate. As Donel put it, she likes debate because she admires the spirit of defending or protecting something. Which, as you can see, is part of the reason she takes part in debate and Model UN. Not only that, Donel is also keen on getting to computer science! I’m telling you guys. Donel is no ordinary girl. Her interests and abilities are literally endless, making her an incredibly creative, talented and driven writer and person. Another big point of interest of Donel’s is something we both share: basketball–playing and watching the NBA.

Especially [basketball] playoff season and stuff like that, I get really into those kinds of things.

The L.A. Lakers are her #1 favourite team, with LeBron James as her #1 favourite player, so, of course, when asked who’s the GOAT, Donel did not hesitate to name Bron. Some of her other favourite players comprise of iconic retired Lakers: Kobe and Magic. However, since Lakers are not in the NBA playoffs this year, Donel has her money on Golden State winning it all. She had hope in the Lakers, but after being eliminated from playoff contention, Donel had to switch it up. Although her second favourite team is the Celtics, she knows that no one’s got a chance against the Warriors…

We spent a good chunk of our time talking about basketball (honestly we probably could’ve went on for hours), during which, Donel hilariously mentioned her NBA family. LeBron is her uncle, Kyrie Irving is her best friend, Joel Embiid is her brother and John Wall is her cousin. Imagine that as a TV series, I mean, Kardashians who? And though they didn’t make it in her family, Donel also pointed out these honorable mentions: Ben Simmons, Dwyane Wade, Gordon Hayward and Kahwi Leonard (who’s also a mood–if you know, you know).

Basketball aside, there were also some other things that we both had in common. For example, Donel absolutely loves Marvel movies, but Black Panther and Infinity War the most! What draws Donel’s to these movies are each character’s drives. It makes the movie go on and stimulates that sense of adrenaline we all love about action movies. As for TV shows, Donel enjoys older stuff, such as One on One and House of Payne, along with shows from the 1990’s. Those 90’s vibes carry on into her music taste too! She listens primarily to R&B and jazz, with popular artists like Chris Brown and smaller underrated singers like LeCrae, Brent Faiyaz and Omar Kadir.

Towards the end of our interview, we moved onto some fun questions. Donel’s favourite place in the world, is none other than her bedroom (relatable), since, like most teenagers, bedrooms can be a safe haven where you can freely cry, laugh or simply talk about people. But as for a country, Donel would love to travel to Greece or Singapore.

Some things Donel thinks are overrated include: Uggs, gossip (I agree), GSW, Raptors, black and white pictures and having too many hashtags. On the contrary, some things Donel thinks are underrated include: being honest (preach!) and windows computers.

When I asked Donel who her favourite person was, I absolutely loved her answer of Michelle Obama!

No one who has lived before or after Michelle Obama will ever be as graceful and as professional and as influential as she was. And I honestly, I feel like everything she stands for is everything I vouch for 100%. Michelle Obama is definitely my favourite person. If I ever meet her, I’d die, I’d cry, I really don’t know what I’d do.

Literally, same. What a queen.

Some other fun facts about Donel:

• She hates neon pink!
• She was born with 6 fingers!
• She learned to ride a bike at age 13!
• She is from South Africa!
• She moved to Canada around 4 years ago!
• She played the saxophone for a bit when she was younger!
• She is not allergic to anything!

To conclude my lovely interview with the even lovelier Donel Kadima, here is what you should know about her:

You should know that I’m very passionate and I really go after what I want. I’m really at it, I’m really driven, so whatever I put my mind to, that’s what’s gonna happen and it’s gonna take a lot to stop me.

And a final quote:

Congratulations to Donel Kadima on being April’s Blogger of the Month! You deserve it!