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  • 22 hours ago
When director Kimberly Townes began directing episode three of our ESSENCE Black Girl Magic docuseries on Qaisera Alexis, she had no idea of the profound effect that the 17-year-old autistic junior Olympian would have on her life. It was only a matte
Transcript
00:00My name is Kimberly Towns and I'm originally from Charles City, Virginia. When I choose a subject
00:11to film or a story to film, I'm looking for a challenge. I want something that takes me out
00:17of my comfort zone. I want something that's going to make me have to study and research
00:23and engross myself in another world and learn. It's a chance to live vicariously
00:29and so I'm hoping that I find and choose stories that allow me to do that.
00:35Kycera inspires me to live passionately. She is a huge reminder to me of what being a young
00:46girl full of dreams was like. She reminds me of innocence and it was a chance to go back
00:56and embrace that. When she was at the age of two, she stopped speaking and she was diagnosed
01:04with autism and so to watch her go from someone who didn't speak to someone who sings opera
01:11and as a synchronized swimmer, I think it's pretty amazing and to just watch her just
01:16want to live life so fully I think is beautiful and it just reminds me. Every time I see her
01:23I say no excuses. When I first met Kycera, I was surprised at just how sweet and funny she
01:30was. She was really a lot of fun and as I started hanging out with the family and I became sort
01:38of the family chauffeur at some point and and I remember one day after Girl Scouts just hanging
01:44out with her in the car eating Girl Scout cookies and just giggling about college and boys and life
01:52and freedom and it was just a refreshing time and I think I was surprised that the project would take
02:00a journey like that.
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