By Andréa Butler

Yara Shahidi has been woke.

At just 16 years old, she’s already made a name for herself not only as an actress on the hit show Black-ish but also as an ardent activist. We’ve watched her rep at the DNC, speak on panels about diversity, and use her social media platforms to educate and inspire.

But when we didn’t see any new posts after the ones encouraging people to vote, we new she had to be feeling what we were all feeling: Something so painful it was hard to find the words to describe it.

Back on the scene today, Yara penned an amazing, personal essay of her own feelings and the work we all need to do to make a change. Check out a piece of what she had to say below, and then read the entire post here.

Now that millions of Americans feel as though their vocalized hate and aggression are justified, what do we do? How do we break this cycle? How do we transform this energy?

We must ensure that the baton of progress that President Obama has ran forth with is not dropped.  We cannot lose our focus or momentum because of this scary, tumultuous change of course.

It starts by each and every one of us becoming our personalized version and manifestation of the Hope and Change … Before I take action, I must realign myself and ensure that my words and actions are not “in spite of” anyone, even if others spend every waking moment spiting me … We must unite with love, change potential to kinetic and actively transform this energy into constructive action.

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