Kay Layne

Transcript

good evening I remember shopping with my mom must have been about four years old and I showed her this toy car that I really really really really wanted and I was overjoyed when she bought it for me I remember leaving the store with my chest held high cradling my prize possession you see my parents were quite Progressive they didn't believe leave in gender roles and toys so I had a doll her name was Wendy she was almost the same height as me and I had Legos and cars and life was wonderful and then I started kindergarten and I found out that girls do not like

or play with cars and if they do they're weird apply label here I learned at an early age that the world is not made of walls made of bricks but of expectations expectations based on race gender stereotypes and these expectations or labels they try to map our journey and as I grew up those labels just kept coming I interned at a television station in a newsroom one of my colleagues asked me what type of reporter do you want to be upon graduation before I can even answer this producer who was standing nearby whipped around and piped in and said come on now K Smart she

knows she's fat and black and not just black dark skin and we already have a black reporter she'll never be on air but she'll get a job behind the scenes she's here sometimes Society The Giver of labels just seems off do you know that tall people get paid more yes studies show that for each year when we take into account things like gender and weight tall people get paid $789 per inch that they are above average so I guess some labels do pay but what does that say why is it that we believe tall people are more commanding are we saying that shorter people can't

be leaders have you ever up stopped yourself from doing something because of a label I'll do it when I lose the weight people like me don't these labels or expect ations are like a heavy cloak that weighs us down and shuts off our true selves you see the Prejudice I faced it it it created this narrow narrative that had me afraid to take center stage in my own life I had a medical and emergency once and the doctor told me that I will never walk uned again was time for a walker I refused I've been told so many times that people like me can't that

I decided this is one label I'm not claiming not only will I walk properly I will run and dance so I ask that you join me as we shed labels you see yes I am big and black and right now bald and cute I am female and a lover of all things Automotive yes despite the labels that were thrown at me I became a reporter I've interviewed world leaders like the Daly Lama because I chose to live life in my Lane after all I am and I became an automotive journalist so I still play with cars and I didn't stop there I'm also a corporate

trainer that helps other people shed their labels so that their light can shine before Society snuffs it out so as we reinvent ourselves tonight I ask that you shake off your label and if you take one thing from my talk remember we are not nouns confined by labels we are verbs we are actions waiting to unfold so go do

Transcript generated from the recording and lightly cleaned. Some names and wording may differ from the spoken speech.