From Child Star to Harvard - Balancing Fame, Education & Self-Care | Yara Shahidi EP 819

0:00Hi, my name is Lewis Howes and welcome to the Daily Motivation Show.

0:10how did you manage the stress and challenges as kind of a rising child star from acting on tv and then going to one of the hardest universities in the world of like the pressure of both like one of those at 18 19 is a lot of pressure yeah but doing harvard and the top tv show and traveling cross-country every week how did you manage your emotions mindset and mood throughout all that honestly yeah and covid and covid hit that was crazy um i think starting a career early the beginning i didn't have to think about it much because i think the way my parents had set it up was like oh this is a hobby this is something that you tap in and out of but you know i was full-time enrolled in school i had so many hobbies outside of acting and you know people would laugh casting directors would laugh because they knew if they wanted me or my brother to audition during the school week.

1:01Like, they'd just kind of have to reconfigure some things. Because if I had a test or my brother had an important basketball game, life came first. But by the time Black-ish came, that was the first time where I really had to re-anchor my life around being on TV in a way that I never had to before. And I think that was the first set of stresses and challenges. It was a great set to be on. But, you know, I'm number five on the call sheet. I'm not working every day. And so the idea that this was the first time I wasn't in school full-time in person. but I'm also not acting as much as I necessarily want to be on set so you're just kind of in a trailer for for hours at a time.

1:35Waiting to do a couple lines a couple scenes here and there. Right and I like love my castmates dearly but having had such a full life beforehand I think that was the first moment where we were like okay we have to do a little reconfiguring and I think that was when mommy and I looked at each other and she was like it's time for you to live your whole life again so what else what else is interesting you I think that's when I became more publicly politically engaged and started doing voting work started you know going to concerts seeing my favorite artists just really pursuing other things so my free time became a little more well-rounded and then by the time Grown-ish hit once again it was kind of a level up in terms of what the commitment was because I had turned the industry term legal 18 over the summer because I'd graduated from high school a year early.

2:25And so I forgot when I was getting my little high school diploma that this meant that I could work endless amount of hours. I may have been like, wait, I forgot to take a class. I still got to be in high school. So by the time Growness started, I went from working 10 hours to 17 hours a day. A day? Yeah. And given. We finessed and fine-tuned that. But also, I mean, I wasn't even in a trailer a lot for season one because my character was in both storylines. Wow. Where typically, you know, you have A storyline, B storyline, and actors kind of trade off between what the storyline is, and so you always have a break.

3:00First season, I was in every scene all the time. 17-hour days? 17-hour days, which I think it is what it is to be, like, a new show. We're on cable. We're just trying to prove ourselves. But I came from Black-ish where we got a juice truck. We have great trailers. We're on broadcast. and so it was funny because we would even sneak over to their craft services because they had it they had it made and we were just kind of like the the little cousin trying to carve its own path but yeah I think that also was another moment where I had to learn how to take care of myself and what that looked like um because it was my first real challenge of being like oh a lot is being expected of me and I think there were a lot of conversations luckily coming from such a a tight-knit family but also coming from the line producer and and kenya and other people coming from blackish and having seen me since i was young they were definitely able to approach it from okay she's a human first and foremost but we had to have those conversations and you know my mother had to have those conversations with a first ad that would be like she doesn't need to eat right now she's good we gotta film this yeah to be like no we gotta see her as a as a human being first and then an actor second.

4:15And so I think adjustments were made along the way to then figure that out and what that rhythm looked like. And I'd go into the writer's room every day. I'm like, please write my cast up. They're brilliant humans.

4:34Thank you so much for listening to today's episode of the daily motivation. And I hope you have an amazing rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure to click the link in the description that will take you to the full episode of our main podcast on the School of Greatness. And if you are loving the daily motivation, please follow us over on Apple Podcasts and Spotify and leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts right now. And if you want more exclusive content and ad-free listening experience, make sure to subscribe to our Greatness Plus channel on Apple Podcast right now. And if you want to get even more inspiration from our world-class guests and learn how to improve your life and take it to the next level, then make sure to sign up for the Greatness newsletter and get it delivered right to your inbox over at greatness.com slash newsletter.

5:24Again, have an amazing day and I'll see you tomorrow with another episode of the Daily Motivation Show.

5:36Thank you.