Amanda Gorman wants to use poetry platform to enter public office one day
Gorman has made it clear on many occasions that she plans to run for office in 2036
The young poet who stunned the masses on Inauguration Day is thinking about her future.
Amanda Gorman, who performed her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Joe Biden’s inaugural ceremony, has her eyes set on her future accomplishments. She recently spoke with People magazine and said despite her personal challenges and achieving major success at a young age, she has her eyes on the White House.
“When I was at Harvard, I thought I would have to go down this kind of more orthodox path of ‘Okay, so I’ll go to law school and then maybe I’ll run for local public office,’” the 22-year-old told the publication. “Now I realized that perhaps my path will be a different one, that it might be performing my poetry and touching people that way, and then entering public office from a platform that was built off of my beliefs and thoughts and ideas.”
Read More: Amanda Gorman performs tribute to frontline workers during Super Bowl
Gorman has made it clear on many occasions that she plans to run for office in 2036 when she will be 38. She told Ellen DeGeneres it has been a dream of hers since around the sixth grade. She credits Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, Oprah Winfrey, and Hillary Clinton as mentors.
“I think that will begin with just discussions with them and really absorbing their wisdom,” she added. “And then seeing how I can make that leadership and that path my own.”
Gorman was diagnosed as a child with auditory processing disorder along with a speech impediment.
“There are memories in my mind in which I recognize that my voice was being othered — being asked from a young age, ‘Where are you from?’ and, ‘You talk funny,’” she told the publication. “People were so incessant on trying to pin down why I was different from them.”
Read More: Amanda Gorman interviewed by Michelle Obama for TIME cover
But depite those difficult memories the Harvard University graduate went on to become the national youth poet laureate and the most talked about person at the inauguration.
“The day after the inauguration, I got off the plane in L.A. and my sister was there,” said the Los Angeles native. “She was singing and holding my dog in the air like The Lion King.”
Gorman explained to the publication why words mean so much to her.
“For me, words matter. The words that are coming to me lately are ‘light’ and ‘kindness’ [and] ‘growth’,” she said.
“I get frustrated sometimes,” Gorman added. “But writing poetry is a process. So how do I communicate progress — momentum — in something that’s just a few words on a page?”
Just weeks after reciting the poem that basically changed her life, Gorman was offered a modeling contract with IMG Models. As previously reported by theGrio, the breakout star teamed up with the agency for brand endorsements and editorial opportunities, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Gorman has raked up millions of followers on Twitter and Instagram, and she is a bestseller author but her books aren’t even out yet.
According to Amazon, her titles Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem and The Hill We Climb, have skyrocketed to number 1 and 2 on the Amazon books chart, theGRIO previously reported. Her sales have multiplied on pre-orders alone.
“We’ve braved the belly of the beast,” she recited. “We’ve learned that quiet isn’t always peace, and the norms and notions of what just is, isn’t always justice. And yet the dawn is ours before we knew it, somehow we do it. Somehow we’ve weathered and witnessed a nation that isn’t broken, but simply unfinished.”
Clinton praised the Harvard graduate on Twitter following her historic performance. “Wasn’t @TheAmandaGorman’s poem just stunning?” She’s promised to run for president in 2036 and I for one can’t wait,” she wrote.
Additional reporting by Ny Magee
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