“Ready, set, go!”, is something you may have heard often if you know Laila Y. Latta ‘20 here, at Whitney M. Young Magnet High School. This is what she says before she makes a statement just to make sure you are listening. Laila is a 4’11, 16 year old, intelligent, funny, and much more, African American girl that matters. She has taken many leadership and participant roles such as being the captain of the Girls golf team here at Whitney, on the board of African American Culture Club, a member of Natural Hair Club and much more, simply to make sure her voice is heard in some way shape or form. “Laila Latta inspires me to be happy”, “Laila Latta is lively”, “Laila Latta is energetic”, are some of the responses given by Adaeze Asonye ’20, Cameron Jones ‘20, and Daniel Williams ‘20 when asked what they thought of her. If you are looking for her after school, you can find her socializing with her friends or in Ms. Washington’s classroom discussing the many problems of the world. She often is quick to correct someone if they spit some information that’s anywhere away from the truth. However, she is also quick to get riled up over a point or statement she agrees within fullness. In addition to wanting to change the world, she is also an avid artist, with her best friend being Ms. Wax who is an art teacher at Whitney. Her artwork often symbolizes minuscule or lesser known issues and topics of society and does a pretty good job of getting a point across. She has had the honor of working with The Museum of Contemporary Art, located in Downtown Chicago. I can find many reasons as to why she is important in my eyes, but here is what she said when asked why she thought she was important. “I am important to the world because I participate in organizations like youth for black lives and facing history and ourselves that help to fight bigotry, systemic racism, etc. I would also consider myself a good friend.” So, what do you think? Do you want to know her? I sure am glad I already do.