How this teen created her own TV show on a major media network

This is a journey into multimedia and the entertainment industry.

Ainara Alleyne…

• Is an actress and red carpet correspondent (interviews include Timothée Chalamet 🤩)

• Hosts her own TV show on TVO Kids, Ainara’s Bookshelf, highlighting diversity and representation in literature 📚️ 

• Serves as a CBC Kids News Contributor 📺️ 

…all at the age of 15.

In this candid interview, Ainara details how she came into this career at such an early age and shares insights from her journey so far, many of which may resonate with your teen. These include:

• Her perspective on failure and rejection (including when you feel you did your best and it still wasn’t enough),

• Disconnecting self-worth from grades (despite her need for ‘academic validation’), and

• The magic that happens when you find people who share your passions.

Tune in to learn more about Ainara’s unique journey:

Some takeaways:

Failure vs. regret.

Ainara explains why she’d rather feel failure than regret, even amidst the constant rejection and ‘failure’ that comes with auditions - at least with failure, you know you tried.

Do what you love and good things follow.

In Ainara’s case, she loved reading, especially books that had characters who looked like her. She created an Instagram account to share what she was reading with her close friends and family. This grew, became an educational resource for her teachers and others, and ultimately caught the attention of a major media company.

Even if you pick stuff up easily right now, school gets harder.

At some point in high school, the workload picks up, exams are hard and grades start counting more for university. Put in the time to learn the skills and strategies to manage your schoolwork, especially before things get hard, so that you can enjoy free time without schoolwork weighing on you.

Learn more about Ainara’s work on her Instagram page here.