As Told To Candice Frederick

Janiah Hinds wants to be a Black history professor. Seeing how Black history is not taught in schools has encouraged her to teach others. Ultimately, if the high school senior can leave her mark on the world in some small way, she’ll be happy with her contributions to the future.

I think my vision for myself and my career has been a journey since I was in middle school. I wanted to be a civil rights attorney at first, and I still had that vision when I started my business at 15. During that time I wanted to be in politics and everything.

I just lost a little bit of interest, but I also have a lot of anxiety around those kinds of roles where I have to represent people. There are not a lot of Black female attorneys, so I would have to represent a demographic and I think that’s a lot of pressure and responsibility. I really just felt that I was more passionate about history. Then I was able to figure out what I want to do with my life — become a Black history professor.

But when the pandemic happened, my mental health was in a bad place. I went through counseling, and I think that was really helpful. I was able to share things. One of my issues was linked to an experience I had when I was in middle school. I didn’t even realize just how much some people’s words can mean things to me or how they can affect me down the line.

I worry about what the future holds and what I’m going to do in the future and how what I’m doing now will affect my future. Counseling taught me to think more in the present, because without the present we can’t get to the future. Just know that not every moment you have to be doing something.

But I think about when I was younger and how it was easier for me to associate with my Black identity because I lived in Kansas City and Tennessee and was in Black private schools. I was surrounded by so many people who looked like me. Now, in high school in Florida, I’ve had to do more digging because that’s not the major group around me anymore. I go to a majority-white public school. It was a culture shock in some ways. I definitely learned more about myself here.

I see how Black history is not taught and some people don’t understand what is right and wrong. My environment now is not terrible, but I want to make sure that I educate others even of different races, not just Black people.

I’m also in a program now where I’m dual enrolled in high school and college. So, I really have to be on top of my work and make sure that I’m doing what I’m supposed to do. I want to go to an HBCU in Huntsville, Alabama, called Oakwood University.

Some politicians are trying to make sure that Black history doesn’t get into schools because they don’t want white guilt or white children to think it’s their fault. It’s not their fault because they weren’t there when it happened, but it’s still important to learn about those things.

One thing that made me want to start my business were the deaths of people like Trayvon Martin and Eric Garner. That’s why I wanted to make my first shirt “Black Does Not Mean…” Because stereotypes have a really big impact on the way we treat each other.

But I feel there is hope because there has been progression through our society. People weren’t as open to talk about their sexuality during my parents’ generation because they were afraid of what may happen to them or how they would be viewed. Our generation is more accepting. A little bit after I was born, gay marriage was signed into law. So, I think when you’re already born into it, you’re more likely to be accepting.

I think in the future I want to be a person who’s remembered as a history maker or a person who did something good, even if it’s for a small number of people. It doesn’t have to be Martin Luther King-level, just a person who had a mission and wanted to do something good in society.