Teens are mad-talented.
Two weeks ago, teenager Kyemah McEntyre wowed the internet with am astounding dress she designed and created herself for prom. The senior student, studying at Cicely Tyson School of Performing Arts in New Jersey, wore it to the main event — needless to say, heads turned, jaws dropped, and she won the Internet… and the title of Prom Queen for the night.
Not only did her sense of style and grace amaze us, she also delivered a heart-felt message on her instagram account:
A budding self-identity activist, we can see she takes a lot of pride in her heritage and expresses it through her craft. Unfortunately, not everyone saw this in the same light, and chose to throw spiteful comments her way. she takes them and treats the situation with so much grace: ““This is for always being labeled as, ‘ugly’ or ‘angry’. Thank God, stereotypes are just opinions,” she responded via another instagram post.
However, this wasn’t quite the end of Kyemah’s story, as her creation would soom take her skills and genius to the red carpet. Singer-actress Naturi Naughton, former member of 3LW and star of the Starz drama “Power”, emailed her right away for for her first big-event commission just three days after her graduation.
“Naturi contacted me through e-mail, and we talked over the phone about her ideal dress,” Kyemah shared. “She explained to me that she wanted to connect with her African roots as well. I explained to her that my prom dress was my first design ever and that her design would be my second. So, of course, I asked her to bare with me. Naturi and her beautiful soul welcomed me despite my experience with Fashion Designing. She wanted to shed light on young people from her community [East Orange, New Jersey] and that she did. I enlisted a local seamstress by the name of Markell Mockabee, who brought my design to life.” This lady just keeps getting lovelier and lovelier.
And the dress is just as astounding. Naturi wore it with pride to the BET Awards last weekends, and it slayed so hard on the red carpet.
Kyemah is grateful for all the acclaim and praise heaped on her creations. However, this has not steered her away from her main focus as an artist. “As a result of going viral, my mailbox has changed in numbers, but my faith and my drive has not changed. People ask me all the time how does it feel, and I tell them it’s just amazing to be celebrated for just being myself. I consider myself to be an artist, fashion designer, and self-identity activist. I actually planned on people to recognize my dress locally, because I wanted to inspire little girls to be themselves, however, this has definitely exceeded my expectations.”
We feel this is not the last we’re going to hear of her. Hats off to you, Kyemah! The world needs more brave, passionate artists like you!
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