LEGACY OF TRAGIC B’WAY KID
‘Scholar’ Laurel’s soulful prose
Not only was she a gifted actress with an impressive career, Laurel Griggs was also a skilled writer.
The 13-year-old rising Broadway performer penned an inspiring poem titled “Society Is Wrong” before her death last week of a massive asthma attack, her grandfather said.
“Laurel was a scholar more than an actress,” David B. Rivlin said of his granddaughter in a Facebook post Monday, where he also shared the verses she’d written for a friend.
The teenage stage star — who debuted on Broadway at age 6 and appeared in hundreds of performances — encouraged her friend to reject pressure to conform to societal expectations and to just be herself.
“Why do we feel we must meet society’s expectations for us?” Laurel asked in the poem.
“We go along with society’s norms even if we don’t agree with them,” she wrote. “It’s what we’ve been taught so we don’t question it.”
In the composition, she appears to address herself as much as she does her pal.
“Why do I feel I need to be skinny?” she asks, before noting that no one is perfect.
Alongside a photo of the poem, her grandfather marveled at how wise beyond her years Laurel was — and what more she may have achieved had her life not been cut so short. “Society can only dream of what a difference she would have made if her life continued,” Rivlin wrote.
While building an impressive career, Laurel also took on a full workload at the Clinton School in Chelsea, her relatives said.
Days before her death, she auditioned to attend La Guardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts.
“She did in 13 years what most people can’t do in a lifetime,” Rivlin previously told The Post. “She was incredibly multi-talented, and her life was a balancing act.”
Praise poured in for the composition. “Brilliant . . . despite being so young she had so much wisdom to share,” Facebook user Bonnie Hillman commented.
“Beautifully written . . . This is amazing especially for a 13 year old,” wrote Marda Schnitzer Segermeister.
The young actress suffered an asthma attack Nov. 5 while doing homework in her family’s Stuyvesant Town apartment.
She was rushed to Mount Sinai Hospital, where she died four hours later, police said.
She was known for her appearances in productions such as “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof ” and the musical “Once.”