There are so many factors that affect how our lives turn out, but one of the most interesting is how our backgrounds give us unique strengths and perspectives that affect who we are as adults. We asked rising stars from the community to tell us about their background and upbringing and how they feel it’s impacted who they are today.

Zion Young | Professional Basketball Player & Athlete

Growing up in Chicago, you got to have tough skin. Throughout my life, I was always challenged and pushed to my limits; from my physical health and not being able to play, to my mental health and being told I would never be able to walk again. I learned at an early age about adversity and how to overcome it, this taught me to be mentally strong and helped me to look past what others had to say. Witnessing gun violence and losing close loved ones made me be cautious of my surroundings, choose the right path and continue to stay true to who I am because I was always being challenged. Read more>>

Maamoun Tobbo | Creative design director

I come from Tripoli, Lebanon a country with veins of acient history, contradictions and resilience. For nearly a decade, Beirut was my world before I crossed an ocean to New York City, which has now been my home for eight years. My heritage is woven from contrasting threads: my parents are from different ethnic backgrounds, each with its own traditions and nuances, and I was raised in a house where multiple religions and cultures mingled, sometimes clashed, yet always coexisted. I went to a French school where any visible display of religion was prohibited, which, in a way, sharpened my sense of what identity and expression mean in a world of unspoken rules. Read more>>

Yellowbear (yb) Nakota | Traditional Sioux singer

I am from treaty six territory Paul’s first nation, also known as Paul band and Alberta Canada. Well I grew up fighting the effects of Intergenerational trauma. My grandma was a residential school Survivor my mother day, school and us. We got the end of day school so we all have this type of abuse And trauma living inside of our body, this compressed energy and most of my people in my family. You know suffer with addictions because we have so much negative pressed energy in our body and we don’t know how to let that out because it’s generations of generations. I grew up in foster care. Read more>>

Powerpaola | Visual Artist, illustrator and Cartoonist

I was born in Quito, Ecuador, but my family is Colombian and now I live in Argentina. I have lived in many countries throughout my life: Ecuador, Colombia, France, Australia, El Salvador, Germany and Argentina. I have been an immigrant since I was born and I feel nomadic. I believe that all these cultures are part of myself , my creative process and have influenced my work and way of perceiving everything around me. Read more>>