By the time Avianna reached middle school, she had already spent years fighting racism, self-hatred and suicidal thoughts.
A twelve-year-old Afro-Latina, Avianna went through two Denver schools being bullied by her classmates, including one who called her and other Black students the N-word and hit them, she says. And her difficulties didn’t end at school: In the last six months, Avianna lost both her fourteen-year-old brother and her grandfather to cancer.
“I have been through a lot in my life,” Avianna told the Denver City Council on October 28. But when her mother signed her up for the African American Young Ladies Summit program, “it was life-changing,” she says…