Meghan Trainer

She's all about positivity! By: Grace

To get to know her, you should know...

Meghan Trainor is a pop sensation who makes sure all girls feel like they matter. With a flawless balance of sassy pop ballads and encouraging social posts, Meghan, whom I most likely will call “Meggy” somewhere in here, will probably end up saving girls all over with her Don’t-hate-yourself-okay? vibes, and I absolutely love her music, I’ve loved her music since before I was old enough to know what any of it meant.

In contrast, may I say that influencers tend to make girls feel horrible about themselves because all girls look at nowadays is people being little human stick bugs??? These influencers often promote unrealistic body standards that can lead to feelings of inadequacy and shame among young girls. Meghan Trainor's music offers a refreshing counter-narrative, encouraging girls to love their bodies just the way they are and reject these harmful ideals.

But moving on to little meggy!

Meghan started singing at a very young age, as she did not wish to have any formal music training, so she just winged it! She was in a cover band made up of her family members called Island Fusion, which, if you ask me, sounds more like a Pina Colada than a cover band, but whatever. Anyway, she did the whole Island Fusion thing until she was twelve when she started using GarageBand to make her compositions. She began writing songs for others to sing by eighteen. She didn’t like her figure and the fact that she was one of the girls who had a thicker body type (sorry if that’s offensive, Meggy) and she was discouraged by this, but that quickly changed and she said “Nah to the Ah to the No No No” to her self hatred (that was a quote from Meghan’s hit song “No”) and she absolutely dominated the stage after she got a record deal with Epic Records’ own L.A. Reid! After all that, you can thank her Mom for supporting her through all of it! She says in her song “Mom” that “You might have a mom, she might be the bomb but ain’t nobody got a mom like mine.”

Music Career

Meghan was, as I mentioned, in a cover band that consisted of some of her family members called Island Fusion (again, Pina Colada), and she had played Bob Marley and all sorts of other stuff, but more importantly, they played Meghan’s compositions, so the world got a taste of Meghan before she even started writing lyrics, which she began at eighteen, even though that wasn’t very successful, and she wrote her song “Give Me A Chance” to pass the time, which gave her the idea to go to a music conference. There she meets former NRBQ employee Al Anderson, and he liked her music and personality in general, so he referred her to his boss, Carla Wallace, and Carla pointed her in the vague direction of Epic Records, so Meggy tried to find someone to sing her song, “All About That Bass” for the chairmen, but no one could or would or wanted to, and so Meggy had to sing it herself over a recording from the studio. L.A. Reid, the chairman who was reviewing the recording, sent for Meggy the same day he heard her, and according to an interview, she had no cell phone in the waiting room to distract herself and was so nervous that she could’ve sworn she may have hurled on the floor at any given moment. L.A Reid gave Meghan a record label that proved she could do practically anything music related and also boosted her confidence.

Marriage and Motherhood

Meghan Married Daryl Sabara, who played Juni Cortez in his most famous act, “Spy Kids,” whom some of you may recognize him from. They then had two kids who were soon named Riley and Barry. So far, Riley is 4 and Barry is 1 and 8 months, and the parade won’t stop there since she’s planning to have four kids, at least! (so she says) Meghan has said Daryl has measured up to all of the things she said in “Dear Future Husband” Like you would expect, pregnancy wasn’t easy, but thanks to that we now have a book written by her, called Dear Future Mama, a guide to how to handle pregnancy and tiny children.

Outroduction

This go-getter gal is the queen of self-positivity, so it's best to take it all as a reminder that not only is everyone worthy of praise, but everyone can also get it thanks to us considerate kids. The future of us starts now, so we had all better get out there and let everyone know they’re all equally loved.

Good Luck Changing the World, my friends!


Sources:

Kiddle.com https://www.kiddle.co/s.php?q=Meghan+Trainor

Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meghan_Trainor

People //people.com

Dear Future Mama: A TMI Guide to Pregnancy, Birth, and New Motherhood

Jane of Gombe

By: Grace

Hello everyone! Welcome to JANE OF GOMBE, hosted by myself, Jane Goodall. I will be taking all of you on a wild (life) ride: my exotic and extraordinary life! You will meet adorable chimpanzees, a particularly talented photographer, and volunteers who changed the world! (For the most part, at least.) Anyways, seatbelts, everyone! My childhood starts...NOW!! 

I had a very intriguing childhood that was based around one main thing: animals. That is what I loved. 

I was born on April 3, 1934, in London, England. When I was one and a half years old, I was gifted a chimpanzee toy that was named Jubilee, and she sparked my passion for animals (not started; the word sparked here means encouraged). 

Now, let me tell you a funny story that happened when I was 3, and very curious. My family had a chicken coop at the time, and I loved the chickens we had, so one day, I went out to the chicken coop and stayed there for a whopping 3 hours! My parents were deathly afraid that I had gone missing and searched the whole place for any sign of me, but found nothing, and eventually called the cops! 

Finally, my mother spotted an extremely excited Jane all covered in hay running toward the house. Honestly, that is probably more embarrassing than when I was a little older and brought a handful of worms into my room!   

When I was about 6, I would climb my favorite tree, and read the adventures of my heroes, such as Tarzan and Dr. Dolittle. I would dream at night of being a man adventuring in Africa. 

By the age of 22, my animal-lover dreams of African adventures came true. On that day, I was invited by a friend to Kenya, Africa. When I was in Africa, I immediately met up with Luis Leakey, a professional journalist and researcher who had been working in Africa. I became his secretary, and he sent me out on a dig to hunt for the bones of our ancestors. That was how he tested me, and I did so well that I passed the test! Luis immediately sent me word that he would try to get a loan to fund my research.  

That did not go as planned. You see, few supported my expedition, so it took a while to get a loan from anyone until the Wilkie Brothers Foundation sponsored us. By now, there was enough money, and I was thrown into the field, supplied with little more than a few small snacks, binoculars, some nice boots, and a small but thick notebook. But believe me, that is more than enough to get me going.  

It was 1960, and it was unheard of for women to do that kind of work. I even had to bring my mother with me because people thought it was unsafe for me to go alone.  

 

My Research 

I researched differently. My methods were called crazy, mostly for naming my subjects once I got to know them. (But who would name a chimpanzee no. 3? Like, why are we the only ones that get names? I mean, I guess I get it, but think about it! #3 is NOT a name! Oh, sorry, back to the point.) Also, I did not keep my distance from the chimps and was eventually accepted as a very low-ranking member of the chimpanzee community. 

The most groundbreaking discovery was with the first chimp who really let me watch him: DAVID GREYBEARD! I saw David take a leafy twig, strip it of its leaves, and gently push it into a termite mound, before removing it and calmly plucking at the bugs with his teeth. This may not seem major, but it was a major discovery because at the time, chimpanzees were thought to be vegetarian, and although bugs aren’t much, they are still meat. It was also thought that humans were the only creatures on this planet that used and made tools. But here was the first step of toolmaking: object modification.  

Many began to notice my research and National Geographic wanted to send a photographer to document my work. I (hesitantly) accepted this offer. The photographer was named Hugo van Lawick, and we quickly got to work. Oddly enough, during his photography, not only was the wildlife a subject of interest, but I was also. And then Hugo actually proposed marriage over telegram! (Which was a SHOCKING surprise, yet a pleasant one.)  

Many were interested in being employed, so we employed them! This was nice because I needed to go to Cambridge University to get a PhD in Ethnology, which is the study of cultural groups. They continued my research in my absence. After that, we went broke, went to the Serengeti to make films, and wrote books. We got married and had a child we named Hugo (nicknamed Grub).  

Then some trouble occurred. My husband Hugo was interested in staying in the Serengeti and making films, but the chimps had stolen my heart. Sadly, after almost 10 years of marriage, our road had split, and we each went our separate ways. I almost immediately married another man, and that lasted five years (because he died, oof).   

 

My Activism 

Eventually, it became clear that something was off. The natural chimpanzee habitats were disappearing, and fast. I knew I had to do something about it. This wasn’t a change I would let happen – not without a fight. So I left the chimpanzees, with their lives in mind, and began to raise awareness as far spread over the globe as I possibly could. This is why I created an organization called Roots and Shoots, which still stands today. Its main cause is getting the young people of our generation involved in the cause of protecting nature.  

This April, I turned 90. And all over the place, I'm being celebrated! As you can see, my life is pretty important in today's world. So, next time you see a chimpanzee, or any other animal, know that YOU can make a difference. YOU can make a change. Thank you all, from Jane --  Jane of Gombe. 

Sources: 

• The Chimpanzees I Love by Jane Goodall 

• “First Look at Jane,” National Geographic YouTube video, Oct. 5th, 2017 

• “Jane,” a National Geographic documentary film 

• Jane Goodall Institute Biography: https://janegoodall.org/wp-content/uploads/Janes-Bio-Extended-Length-Version.pdf 

• Wikipedia: Jane Goodall: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Goodall