Positive change
Teen creates YouTube channel to reach people with real messages and share experiences of growing up in North Preston.
Kardeisha Provo just turned 17, but she’s already determined to help foster positive change in her community of North Preston and beyond via her new YouTube channel.
The Cole Harbour High student is reluctant to describe herself as anything other than “a normal kid.” She describes herself as passionate about math and sciences, and has always planned to go to medical school and work in sports medicine.
A basketball star, community leader and volunteer, Provo’s as passionate about her community as she is about her life. She hopes to help other youth find their voices through her channel and upcoming blog.
“My community is something that’s a part of me. Whenever I go out of the community I rep it to the fullest. When I play basketball, even if I have Cole Harbour High (on my jersey), I’m repping North Preston,” she said.
“I have boy problems, I have friend problems, I have parental problems like all teenagers and I’m learning how to cope and how to navigate my way through, and my community helps me do that. I get to learn these things about life as I’m going through it so why not make a video about it and show someone else so they can learn it with me?”
Last summer Provo came up with the idea of creating a YouTube channel to reach people with what she describes as “real messages” about growing up in the community she feels blessed to be part of.
Her first video was released on Jan. 31 and was an interview with her mother, who shared what it was like to become a mother at 16.
“We’re not going to sugar coat…My idea was to be real, to let out my reality,” she said.
“What I’m going to show, it’s real for a lot of us in North Preston, but we go through a lot of things other people go through. You can hear our reality from us.”
She plans to release at least one video each month, with the next one focusing on Black History Month.
“I find that with me and my friends we try to branch out and learn different black history, stuff we don’t always learn in schools,” Provo said.
“We are going to talk about how we are in school but didn’t learn about these different things, that we have to do our own research.”
Ultimately, she hopes her channel can not only highlight the importance of community, but help other young no matter where they live.
“I’m just a regular 17-year-old teenager finding my way like we all are,” she said.
“I’m going to be as real as I can be on this channel, and I would like everybody to come open-minded.”