Penn - You got this!: unleash your awesomeness, find your path, and change your world

Dedicated to my grandmother Marguerite Flanders

I was standing in the dark, waiting in the wings of the auditorium, and I could barely hear the boom of the speakers over the thump thump thump of my heart in my chest. A few chuckles rang out from the audiencebeing projected onto a massive screen at the center of the stage was a digital animation short I had worked on for months. (It had taken days to get the characters mouths to move in time to the voice-over on the audio track, weeks to get the story, the dialogue, and the graphics just right.) I took a few short, shallow breaths. I tried to steady my nerves. I resisted the urge to crush the plastic water bottle I had been turning over and over in my hands. And just when I thought I might vibrate right out of my socks, I heard my mothers voice ringing in my ears. Maya, she had said calmly, when I admitted to her just how nervous I really was, do it afraid .

When the projection ended and the house lights went up, I took a few wobbly (albeit determined) steps forward. I was only vaguely aware of the applause, the friendly whoops and cheers from the crowd. I found my way to my markthat iconic circle of red carpet, right in the center of the stageand looked out into a sea of faces. Hundreds and hundreds of faces. All of them waiting to hear what I had to say.

I felt my stomach flip-flop and my heart flutter.

I was thirteen years old. Id flown 2,500 miles from my hometown of Atlanta, Georgia, to San Francisco to do this. I had been practicing my speech for longer than I cared to admit. But there was only one thought echoing in my head:

I cant believe Im actually here.

Just five years earlier, Id been a quirky, awkward eight-year-old kid. (Im not eight anymore, obviously, but the quirky, awkward part hasnt changed much.) I was a decent tennis player and a pretty good pianist. I loved drawing and doodling and watching cartoons. In fact, I was almost always doing something creative. That creative drive soon led me to try my hand at clothing design: I began making headbands from scraps of discarded fabric I found around the house. When I started wearing those headbands out in publicand getting lots of compliments on my designsit occurred to me that I might be able to sell those creations. With no business plan and no experience running, well, anything , I became a professional fashion designerand Mayas Ideas, my eco-friendly clothing company, was born. Fast-forward a few months, and Forbes magazine came calling (they wanted to run a feature on the pint-sized CEO and kid entrepreneur), which started a snowball of sorts: I was profiled in a bunch of other magazines, and even made television appearances (the Steve Harvey show and The View , to name just a few). My company exploded. Before long, Id earned enough to begin donating between 10 and 20 percent of my profits to charities and environmental organizations, as well as to fund my future college education. I launched my second venture, Mayas Ideas 4 The Planet, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. I met some amazing and world-renowned people, received a slew of honors and awards, and became a national spokesperson and a brand ambassador. I was even invited to sit on a grant-making advisory board. Still, nothing could have prepared me for the annual TEDWomen event, where I was supposed to give a speech to an audience of, potentially, millions.

After all, I was (and still am) just a kid!

So there I was, standing on the red circle of carpet in the center of the TEDWomen stage, quaking and shaking in my Toms shoes. If youre not familiar, TED events (short for technology, entertainment, and design) are global conferences; the whole point is for a bunch of people to come together to, in the words of the conference organizers, share ideas and spark conversation. My role, specifically as one of eight speakers appearing on the first day of the three-day event, was to tell my story in the hope of inspiring other women and girls to be creators and change makers. I had hoped that, while giving my talk, Id come off cool as a cucumber. Internally, however, I felt a huge lack of coolness. (Potatoes, maybe. Or some other vegetable far less cool and... cucumbery.) I wanted to be present and focused, but standing up there was a bit like having an out-of-body experience. My lips were moving, but I had no idea what I was actually saying. (I mean, I did , but I also didnt. Its pretty tough to explain.)

Ryan Lash / TED

At the halfway point of my speech, though, something interesting happened. I had stopped to show the audience another one of my animations, and for the first time all afternoon, I was kind of able to catch my breath. I realized that the stage, which I had thought would be colossal , that Id feel as tiny as a grain of sand on a beach, was actually not all that big. It was relatively snug, in fact. Almost comfortable. (Actually, dont tell the TED staff, but I had an urge to just lie down and curl up on that bright red circle of carpet, I was suddenly enjoying myself so much.) I think Id always known, despite my nerves, that if I just gave it my best shot, this whole speaking-to-an-audience-of-strangers thing would turn out okay. I was pleased that I was starting to get the hang of it. But then, as I was concluding my speech and delivering my last lineabout the importance of understanding the challenges facing our world not with your head , but with your heartI saw that the crowd wasnt just clapping and cheering...

I was getting a standing ovation!

You know how sometimes it takes a while for things to sink in? Something truly wonderful might happen to you, but youre so shocked and stunned that you cant appreciate it right away? Let me tell you, this was nothing like that. The rush of pride I felt was immediate. All Id wanted was to get through my speech without falling right off the stage or flubbing my lines, and what I got was so much better than that. I practically floated down to my seat in the audience and sat there with a big silly grin on my face.

That TEDWomen talkthe one Id almost been too nervous to givehas since gone viral, racking up more than 1.2 million views. If you can believe it (and most of the time, I cant), its actually ranked among the most-viewed TEDWomen talks of all time. Since stepping off the stage, Ive turned into something of a role model. Im fifteen now as I write this, but Im often asked to give advice, even to folks who are much, much older than me. And while some of those people are genuinely interested in my storythey want to know how an eight-year-old managed to launch her own businessmost of the people I hear from are far more curious about how they might go about pulling off something unexpected, or bold, or inspiring, too:

How can I turn my dreams into an actual, practical reality?

How can I get paid to do what I love?

How can I get people to listen to me? To respect me? To support my ideas?

How can I possibly make a difference, especially if Im still just a kid?