Taylor Richardson is reaching for the stars
At only 17 years old, Taylor Richardson has already impacted the local community, the country, the world. She aspires to someday impact space.
Taylor is determined to visit Mars. “A little Black girl walking around in an astronaut’s suit saying she wants to go to Mars was a very lofty dream. But she is doing the work to try to ensure that,” said her mother, Latonja Richardson.
Taylor’s service and advocacy work began when she was 9 years old when she built a Mars colony, a project that earned her a stay at Alabama’s Space Camp where she was the only Black girl of 500 attending. There, she was given the nickname Astronaut StarBright.
“Most people know her for her philanthropy skills. In the last three years, Taylor has raised almost $250,000 for girls’ empowerment and STEM resources for girls, particularly girls of color, not just nationally, but internationally as well,” said Latonja.
“Through my work, the legacy I want to leave behind is to bring a sisterhood of warriors with me all the way to the stars by disrupting the status quo where Black girls like me have equal representation at the table,” Taylor said. And her intention is not only to benefit Black girls, but all girls.
Taylor launched The Black Friend Challenge, hoping to distribute 100 copies of the book The Black Friend by Frederick Joseph as a way to prompt dialogue to combat racism. So far, she’s raised over $22,000, and all 21 Jacksonville public libraries now have the book available, as do over 30 states and 40 US Embassies.
In June 2019, Taylor was the first Black girl and the youngest ever to receive an “Aspiring EVE” award by The Florida Times-Union. Though she is still too young to vote, in summer 2019, Taylor helped 150 Jacksonville youth register to vote. She has been interviewed on national news shows along with celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Mae Jemison, the first African American woman to travel through space.
Taylor has spoken at conferences around the world to push #RepresentationMatters. She has graced the covers of two scholastic science magazines. She was voted 2017 Girl of the Year for Women in Aviation, being the first African American girl to do so. She is featured in two documentary films that are doing well in festivals across the country. She has her own Wikipedia page, and a list of other accomplishments too lengthy to print.
As a young child, Taylor was bullied due to the color of her skin and to her diagnosis of ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). She changed the acronym to Abundantly Different Happily Divine, trademarked that name, and now sells ADHD apparel. The proceeds she donates to a local ADHD foundation and to space initiatives.
Taylor has proven that labels of any sort need not hold anyone back from following their dreams and achieving their goals. “What I’m most proud about with Taylor is not her successes but how she has handled her failures, how she has handled being bullied,” said Latonja.
Despite her early setbacks, Taylor is currently a junior at The Bolles School, maintaining a 3.8 GPA while attending virtual classes. Her next step is college; she wants to be a physician, a scientist, and an astronaut. Then, it’s to Mars.
“Kids are not ‘the future;’ we are here now. We are not going to change the world ‘someday;’ we are already doing it,” Taylor said.
(No Ratings Yet)
Loading... 
