- 3 hours ago
Ciara and Russell Wilson discuss their debut children's book, "Why Not You?" and how growing up in households that instilled that mindset in them led them to be successful partners, parents, and public figures.
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00:00i mean it's how i got sierra i asked myself that question i said how
00:03why you know what why not me you know what i mean like this is how i got you know this is how i got
00:10here hello it's so good to see you both i'm brandy victorian with essence magazine
00:16um i have my book here and i was reading it this morning
00:20yes hey i would love to start um with the acknowledgments in the beginning and also
00:28the authors know you know where you both thank your parents um and say they were the ones who
00:33instilled this attitude you know and you what did that look like for both of you growing up you know
00:38to say what i yeah no i mean i think for me it was it was all it was in the words that my parents
00:46speak life into me and you know i grew up i didn't have a lot right but i had a why not you attitude
00:51and i think also by seeing my parents you know make it happen with you know the little that we had
00:57also inspired me and you know for me that was my way in my version of my why not you attitude they
01:04supported me in my dreams right when i said i wanted to become a singer and become an entertainer
01:08there wasn't you know my mom naturally is a mom you know that mother's instinct you're like okay
01:14is my baby gonna get into the right industry is this the right thing you know at the same time
01:18she supported me in my dream she didn't say you shouldn't do that or you can't do that my dad
01:24said you can like he drove me to the studio like he slept on studio sofas until i finished my late
01:29sessions like but because of that you know that really encouraged my why not you attitude it really
01:36inspired that and i really was fearless because of that and i believe because of it and that why not
01:41you attitude is why we sit here today yeah i think that for me growing up my dad my mom he's always
01:48asked me something why not you why not you why not you be this why don't you why don't you graduate
01:51early why don't you play pro football pro baseball why not you and that was a subconscious conscious
01:55question i think that we all have to ask ourselves in life you know and you know we get to go to
02:01seattle children's hospital and those kids ask themselves why not you every day why not me every
02:05day you know it's it's been an amazing journey you know for us at growing up you know sierra growing
02:11up in decatur georgia we grew up rich in virginia i haven't watched everybody saying you can't do this
02:15you can't do that and i think to be where we are today and to do life together you know sports sports and
02:20music are the two most entertaining things in the world and we get to wake up every day and get to
02:23do it together and it's just an amazing journey and to be able to raise three beautiful children
02:27together too is a blessing and so we want to build and instill that why not you attitude in our
02:32children and and uh and also and all these kids that are going to read this book all over the world
02:36and so it's uh such a gift um you know for us and i know i'm grateful for my parents and i'm grateful
02:43for these parents to raise her the way she did it that they did and so that was a key part to it all
02:48and and just for us to be able to do life together is such a blessing um and i'm excited about that
02:52and thinking about that you know that shared experience when did you look at each other and
02:56think like oh this could be a book like we could make a children's book about this well when we first
03:01met um we talked about you know i like to ask a lot of questions
03:04yeah so we we uh we um and the first day we talked we talked about things that we wanted to do
03:15and um and one of the things you know is is you know we talked about opening up a school one day
03:20that was one of our big dreams you know we both say open up school another thing we talked about is
03:24is uh you know is to obviously be able to write a book and to be able to do a children's book
03:28um it's such a gift because we have our kids that and sierra's like the queen queen reader over here
03:34okay then when mama comes gets to read every all the kids oh my god mommy you know so every night
03:40you know they get to listen to mama read but for me um it's cool to know that you know like i said
03:45earlier to know that our kids you know future he's an amazing reader he loves school sienna she loves
03:51getting uh reading too as well and being read to yeah and then when you know he's he's over there
03:56laying on brother lena he loves his book so for us to be able to bring this home to not too long ago
04:02to show them you know the depiction of obviously mom and dad up here in the front when we were kids
04:06but also to see themselves um on the front too is such a cool story and and then obviously as you
04:12have the chance to be able to get your eyes on the on the words it's all about inspiration it's all
04:18about confidence to succeed and and that's what we want to be able to instill those kids you know
04:22and our kids but also other kids around the world so i i think that's that's um that's been a lot of
04:28fun for us and uh you know it was when we got to do it it was like we felt like it was perfect timing
04:33to be able to to write this and you know having three kids and all that and now did the kids give
04:38any feedback as you were working on it like yeah no you know actually we kind of held we kind of kept
04:43it a little tight for them in the process right and so it was kind of a big reveal for them once we had
04:49the book physically in our hands and um you know it was like a sweet surprise they saw this book and
04:54they were so excited and so excited to read it and it was just so cute it was a really touching
05:01moment because again that why not you attitude is like hey this is real like we had a vision from when
05:07we were young just like them and we were very fortunate enough to make for those dreams to happen
05:12and to become true and to now be able to take a book that we actually like created and like this is
05:18from mom and dad and to share that with them and for them to be proud just as proud as we are
05:24um it's that's really special you know it motivates you and i want to talk about you know illustrations
05:29you said you know this is you too when you were younger um you know we know how much just
05:33representation and seeing you know someone who looks like you is can you talk about working with
05:38um jessica gibson on the illustration yeah so jessica gibson and also i want to give love to
05:43jenay wood brown who also we helped us with writing um the book as well we collaborated with her
05:49um and jessica gibson she had great vision like we literally didn't have to send many notes
05:54um in our passes you know she literally understood the vision of what we wanted to do from the start
05:59and as we would send our passes over and you know she was sent back it literally was a matter of like
06:05one speak here or just make the puffs a little bigger you know like make sure we make the skirt
06:09like this like there were those little details like that or like russ would be like make sure
06:13the afro is like you know it's like make sure the curls are like right you know so there were
06:17those little details that we would do and literally she was able to make it paint the picture so
06:23beautifully and exactly how we envisioned it and the great thing about this book as you talk about is
06:27yes for kids like our kids to see representation of themselves but then also in the book everyone will
06:33see representation of themselves right you know i mean and that was really important to us because we
06:38want for every child to feel included we want for every child if like they're thought of we want for
06:43every child to feel inspired the same way that we did and to know that why not you attitude is real
06:48like why not you right and if you see yourself if you see representation of yourself i think it speaks
06:53you a little deeper you know than just like a picture of one vision of one person or type of person
06:58right so um it was just amazing working with janae and working with jessica um to bring our vision to
07:05life yeah i remember seeing there was like a boy in a wheelchair and i was like that's so important
07:09you know and i often you know seeing that absolutely that's what i love that you call
07:15that out because that's that's very that was an important detail for us that things like that in
07:19the book um and also i have to say even at my big age i was like you know i needed this reminder
07:24listen honestly as blessed and as you know fortunate as we are and and have been and you
07:34know we know we don't take it for granted like god has blessed us tremendously and even now when we want
07:40to embark on new things and new adventures and to level up more and to you know reach higher heights
07:46we have to remind ourselves of the why not you attitude right like i even thought just now my mind
07:52about how you know we have to get it we have to know if it's probably doc if it's where the facts
07:57are correct but being you know one of the first minority owners of a soccer team right thinking
08:03about things like that and you know how no dream is really too big right or being able to create this
08:09book or us having our fashion house the house of lrnc and you know being able to do that together and
08:15you know just things we've been able to do together and to have the opportunity to be a part of
08:21is huge like it really is a why not you attitude that's got us there right we didn't walk into a
08:26room being limited in our thoughts we walked to that room like fear like with fear like fearlessness
08:32like you know we walked to that room with confidence like we walked to that room with faith and belief
08:36and that why not you spirit is why we were able to go in and make things happen so i think about those
08:41things especially talking to you right now and also knowing how important essence is as far as the
08:46community of us right it's like don't put limitations on you like the color of your skin
08:51doesn't determine doesn't limit you from how far you're going in life where you come from in life
08:55doesn't determine how far you're going like i didn't have much growing up he didn't have much
08:59growing up i was a military baby but you know despite our circumstances like i say the military
09:05baby part because that allowed us to allow me to travel the world but i lived in the trailer home at
09:09one point in time like it wasn't always fancy i thought the trailer home was the coolest thing
09:13we were state we were stationed as a family and i was happy i had love that's all i needed
09:18but ultimately we had a why not you attitude right and so i think that's just so important
09:23we think it's important to like continue to inspire every kid everywhere like where you come from in
09:29life doesn't determine how far you'll go and if you have that why not you attitude anything is
09:33possible was there ever a time you know both of you were in a situation and thought like i can't do
09:39this and then you like heard your parents in your head like why not you like in that moment
09:43yeah i would say for me well let me say this i've always every dream that i've like gone after
09:50i'm a i'm a pretty big dreamer so i've kind of thought like you know i can make it happen like
09:55kind of for the most part but sometimes you're getting into the process there's doubt that does
10:01creep around like that is real right like you may second guess yourself sometimes in the process like
10:07that is human instinct i don't care who you are i don't care how confident you are
10:11sometimes you kind of like you can like feel a little bit like not centered and fully sure of
10:16your thoughts and you know there is that reminder it's like if i've been able to do this before
10:21in a different way i can do it again and so you go back and you reach back into that mentality
10:27and then you ultimately persevere and you make it happen and so that why not you attitude is
10:31embedded like it's it's it's a standard like it's a part of the foundation of who we are i mean
10:36that's how i got sierra i asked myself that question i said how why you know what why not me
10:42you know what i mean like this is how i got you this is how i got here sorry this question right
10:48here i asked myself why not why not you russ shoot why not you shoot everybody talking about the
10:54prayer i asked myself why not you so you know and then so that was that was how we got here so
11:01listen i'm grateful you know i'm grateful every day
11:06related to that you know everyone does they want to know your prayer they want to be you they want
11:15your union you know what does that feel like for you it feels overwhelming to me i would think but like
11:21you know to know that you are this standard and people look to you you know so much how does that
11:26feel you know honestly it's really sweet you know um we're human just like everybody else
11:32you know so i do think that's important you know just keep that perspective but it's a blessing i think
11:38it just speaks to the power of love just to be honest you know like love is real we always say love
11:42is you know for lita my fashion brand lita by cr say love is the answer but we also say love is the
11:48way you know and so it's a blessing that god brought us together um and you know and and you
11:54know god always has amazing plans and this is that this definitely was an amazing plan of his and we
11:59know it's but you know rooted in him which is important but it's a blessing you know i i think
12:05it's really sweet and really inspiring to see how people show us love and then you also get to like
12:10see the cool conversations i think of relationships and like you know even like for the single people too
12:17like we love just communicating with our friends like we're like we're all about that love um so
12:23we love those conversations and we love the not so pretty parts of it too right we both had our
12:29incredible journeys in our lives and so we're just grateful for how god has blessed us with each other
12:34yeah i think it's fun too i mean we have a we have a blast and we you know like i said we get to raise
12:38three beautiful children together we get to do we do life together every day we get to wait i get to
12:43wake up next to see you know vice versa it's that we get to pray together we get to we get to do
12:47business together i mean we're kicking butt in that space and so that's been fun um you know she's my
12:53number one fan anybody who says you're my number one fan i don't know cc i i know but you know so
13:00it's cool to know that and vice versa i'm a number one fan too i love that too and it's like six years
13:05in right marriage almost six this is like okay so six years in marriage so this is this will be
13:11their sixth year coming up it's crazy and seven years of being together yeah which is awesome yeah
13:16it's crazy how funny how time flies when you have absolutely well last question now that you have
13:23your first children's book out the way are you looking forward to writing more or yes absolutely this
13:28is i would say this is definitely the beginning for us you know this was this is a matter of time to be
13:34able to create this book as an extension of our philosophy on why not you and for him why not
13:38you foundation and then also now being that we have our charter school our why not you charter school
13:44like this is the beginning i think of hopefully many more installments of this kind and you know
13:49and the kids space and beyond yeah i'd say in the kids space and beyond right i think even like you
13:54said in the beginning us adults have to remind ourselves right so we we think there's so much
13:59opportunity to keep this um beautiful mission and message going and um this is exciting to start
14:06off this way it's so cool it's like the dream i love it congratulations and thank you both so much
14:15for your time thank you brandy thank you so much so sweet so good speaking with you
14:19you
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