I’m so excited to catch up with my favorite guest blogger, teen philanthropist and author, Alyssa Antoci. Read more about her travels and some things that surprised her about her recent school visits. Go Alyssa!
Hi everyone,
I’ve been super busy speaking at so many schools before school ended, but now that it’s summer, I have a lot more time to write and ride my horses! I was taken out to be homeschooled for the last six weeks of school so that I could catch up on all of the school speakings that I wasn’t able to go to because of my high school schedule. So now I will be able to speak at more schools and travel with my family.
I was so happy that I got to go to Europe again with my family. This time we were not going on a cruise but got to take planes, trains, and automobiles to sightsee.
As I look back on some of the schools I’ve spoken to, I’m amazed at the different reactions from different audiences. I just recently spoke to a school audience of about 175 kids and it was one of the most engaging, fun audiences ever. The kids were so curious and had so many questions that I couldn’t even get to all of them. I was kind of sad and disappointed when I spoke to another school the same week and they only had about 11 kids come to listen to me. The school chose to only have those kids come who had purchased a copy of my book. I felt so sad that not all of the kids in the school got to hear my message about bullying and that only those that had pre-ordered my book were the ones invited. I could tell my mom was a little disappointed as well when the principal’s assistant told us. I believe every child in the school should’ve been able to hear my message about bullying and kindness, whether they bought a book or not. Maybe it was because they were in testing all week, but it still made me sad.
Now that I have been homeschooling, not only do I have more time to work with my horse on barrel racing, I have more time to work on my book-–a young adult teen novel––as well as go to speak at many more events and schools. I am having a really hard time deciding if I will be homeschooled this next year or if I will go to high school. I am so torn. I’m missing my friends, but I’m loving the flexibility and extra time I have to speak to so many schools because I really feel I am making a difference, at least I hope I am. So I think I’m going to homeschool. We are hoping to plan for a Kindness Concert with some really amazing singers and I’m hoping I will sing again at the next one as well.
Signing off and will write again once again in a few weeks!
Thank you. Love,
Alyssa
Alyssa Antoci is the fifteen-year-old author of an anti-bullying children’s book called The Purple Marble. She speaks regularly in schools as an anti-bullying advocate. She also has a charity called Just a Little Cloth Children’s Charity, where they donate fancy dresses to underprivileged girls, because every young girl deserves to feel beautiful. Follow her on Instagram @alyssabantoci.