Honoring Esther Salas: New Jersey's first Latina U.S. district judge

Woman found dead near Atlantic City park ruled homicide

Caught on camera: Bronx chase ends in arrests of two North Jersey suspects

Final day to register as New Jersey prepares for November vote

Shore towns recover after nor'easter batters New Jersey coast

New study: Rising social media use in children linked to worse brain function

newjersey

News 12 Staff

812spotlightnj9am_2023-08-12-12-03-39

My guest today is Tanya Drayton. She's the author of the book, Unlocking your ecstatic energy. You said you started this at 13. Yes, it took you three years. You finished at 16, which is now. Yes, correct. Were you guided by a higher power? You said you were influenced by Michelle Obama? Yes, that's correct. I would say I was guided with God with every step that I was going through. I definitely kneeled on God in those moments, those hard moments where I felt like um I was struggling a bit and I can't finish a chapter, wasn't feeling that motivation to keep going. I kneeled on God and I prayed and I made sure that I always was in like in communication with God. So that's definitely a higher being that guided me through my whole experience and my whole writing process of my book. And yeah, that's my, that's someone that I've definitely looked to in those hard times. Those struggle times. Do you think you ever had moments of writers block as they call it? Yes, definitely. Um There were times where I didn't know what to put on the page, but it came with experience. So every day I was experiencing new things like growing up 13 to 14 to 15 to 16 years old, I was going through different experiences, different hormonal experiences and really finding myself throughout all of this and my self help. But kind of was like my teenage journey and growing in love with myself and growing to, I guess, cope with my anxiety, learning how to battle my emotions. So, yeah, that's, that's what I can talk on that. Why do you think it's so important to share your personal journey of self discovery and, and emotional well being at your age? Yes, I think it's extremely important to share my own personal journey um towards emotional well being because I need people to know that you can conquer your emotions. You, you can do this too if you're not alone in any of this. So I feel that since we were in isolation, I feel that we didn't know where to go to each other. We didn't know how to kneel on each other. So I feel that it's important for me as a teenager to let others know that are my age. You can do this too. You can have a healthy emotional um I guess balance within yourself. You can be ok with yourself. You can have a high self esteem and you can know that you're that person, you're confident. So I feel that it's important for me to share that. So others know that it's possible seeing me and having someone to reflect on. I think that's important you need to have, I guess that you need to have that influence. And as a teenager, I feel that it would be beneficial for other teens to know that it's possible. Isn't she so mature and just so inspirational? I love her at her age. Tanya will next talk about her pop up events and share a few pictures.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/ea38d504-41d8-45ce-8117-b954b6402383/ea38d504-41d8-45ce-8117-b954b6402383.transcribe

812spotlightnjnoon_2023-08-12-12-19-53

We are talking with Tanya Drayton from London and Union County about her new book, Unlocking your ecstatic energy. You have pictures from a pop up event. That's true. You can tell us about that. Ok, so I was at a women's event pop up shop and I met these three beautiful women and they were instantly, I guess captured that I was a teenager that was writing a self help book or a book in general. And they were ecstatic, I would say to support a young teen, uh support a young melan teen. So these are the pictures and I was very excited there. Honestly, I was very, it was actually my first sales uh in person physical copies. So I was very excited. It was a very joyous day. And yeah, it was, it was great. And then I also went to a Juneteenth event and I met this beautiful family and they purchased my book as well and they just uh again, were overwhelmed with happiness that I was a teen even thinking to write a book alone. So I was very ecstatic as I would say to I guess, share that with them and have them be like my first physical customers supporting my book. You're self published. Tell people about that process. Ok, so being a self published author, it was a lot of, I guess you would say hard times where I was feeling that self doubt that I can't do this or what am I thinking? This is kind of abnormal. Why would I even think to write a book? Why would I even think to self published? Why not get a publisher? But I guess I just always thought to my 13 year old self on why I started the book in the first place. And that's because I wanted to make an impact and I wanted to show others that you can get through your emotional triumphs. So the self publishing process, definitely there were hard times but I was able to get through them with again kneeling on God in those, in those moments of, of doubt and remembering my 13 year old self on why I began my journey and self publishing. If you're thinking about do it, you can do it. So what whoever is listening to this, if you have a book in mind, if you want to write something that you want to get out to the world, go ahead and do it. I think that that's important to, I guess, be able to have that stance to write what you are feeling, write, write out your emotions. That's something that helped me tremendously in coping with my anxiety and as a self published self help book author, I feel extremely, I guess, overwhelmed with happiness that I was able to get this out at my age. At 16 years old. Don't you love what she's accomplished at 16 tomorrow, Tanaya talks about a second book that she's working on.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/97cea73d-75c5-4472-b151-41c39f78d1c1/97cea73d-75c5-4472-b151-41c39f78d1c1.transcribe

813spotlightnj_2023-08-13-09-10-02

Today, we are talking with Tanya Drayton, the author of her book, Unlocking Your ecstatic Energy. Now, that's just one book she's working on. You're also working on a second one. That's correct. So I am currently working on a poetry book and it's called The Ambitious Mind. And I basically want to, I guess, branch into talking more about my story and how I guess I have a, I have a very ambitious mind. I really want to accomplish a lot of goals. So I want to kind of dig deep into like what goes through my mind, what goes through that running mind of wanting to accomplish so many things. And yeah, that's really, that's really what my next endeavor is going to be is gonna be a poetry book. So yeah, you can check it out as you would check out Unlock your energy on Amazon when it comes out. Are you like Maya Angelou, the late lovely author that she was, I say poetry OMG. I love Maya Angelo. Um Why The Cage Birds? See, I, her letters to a daughter, I love Maya Angelo as a poet and she's definitely an inspiration. A mo a role model for me, for sure. So that's too Maya Angelou Michelle Obama. Any other influences? Oh Isa Ray Marce Martin. The list goes on, I love my black female creators. They're amazing. So I have so many more role models and I, that I look up to. It's, it's a lot you've seen all that Marce Martin has done at her age and how? Exactly. Yeah. Yes. She's a big inspiration for me, for sure. What advice would you like to offer to other young people? Ok. Some advice that I would give to other young people out there is to go after your dreams and don't let fear hold you back. Anxiety for me was something that I'm still dealing with and I'm not gonna say struggle with because I am using my tools that I'm providing in self help book. All I would love to say is don't let fear hold you back. If you have a goal in mind, go for it, achieve it and be proud of it. That's what I have to say to young people out there. You can do this, just believe in yourself, take yourself seriously and others will do the same. What would you say is the best advice your mother has given you which you want want to impart with others. Yes, I definitely say the best advice my mother has given me is feel what you need to feel, but never stay there. Oh Feel what you need to feel but never stay there. I like that. Now, what about your brother is my brother. He always worth of wisdom too. Yes, definitely. He always claims he's my older brother, my big older brother when he's the little one. But he always make sure to tell me to, don't care what others think, don't care what others think. That's something that he always make sure to tell me to, to just represent myself and be yourself. But in his words, he's like, don't care what others think, Tanya don't care. So I definitely, yes, of course, definitely. I definitely appreciate him. He's 11 years old and he's very, he's very accomplished himself. He loves basketball, soccer. He's, he's amazing really. And coming up at nine, Tanya talks more about the benefit of family support in her journey as a new author.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/4a682309-b3cb-4ecf-ba5b-16a87261f815/4a682309-b3cb-4ecf-ba5b-16a87261f815.transcribe

813spotlightnjagainm_2023-08-13-11-16-22

A 16 year old author from London Union County wants to help teens who are struggling with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. Tanya Drayton's new book is called Unlocking Your ecstatic Energy. She says family support helped her get through tough times. Your mom, your lovely mom and your brother are here in studio. That's great. They must have given you a lot of support. This whole thing of writing your book. Definitely, my family has been my number one supporters, especially my mom, especially since being me, being a self help book author, everything that she's instilled in me and poured into me as a mother. She has been able to give me the tools and how I can go about and publishing my self help book. She's helped me in those times where I was feeling doubt. That's another person I was looking towards other than the higher being of God himself. So I definitely appreciate my mom and her presence. My younger brother, I would love to be a role model for him and to tell him that he can do this as a young black boy that you are. It's possible to get to these heights. It's possible to accomplish new things that we weren't maybe set out to do, but it's possible. So I'm extremely happy that they are here with me in the studio today and I wanna give a shout out to all of my family. Thank you so much for believing in me and I, I wouldn't be there without them with any of them. So I'm so happy for my family being here with me and I'm so happy for all my family at home.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/0eba2b98-ffa6-4fd8-8882-4d2948fd58c2/0eba2b98-ffa6-4fd8-8882-4d2948fd58c2.transcribe

813spotlightnjsecondnew_2023-08-13-12-47-17

A 16 year old author from Lindon Union County wants to help teens who are struggling with anxiety, depression and other mental health issues. Drayton's new book is called Unlocking Your ecstatic Energy. She says family support helped her get through tough times. Your mom, your lovely mom and your brother are here in studio. That's great. They must have given you a lot of support. This whole thing of writing your book. Definitely, my family has been my number one supporters, especially my mom, especially since being me, being a self help book author, everything that she's instilled in me and poured into me as a mother. She has been able to give me the tools and how I can go about and publishing my self help book. She's helped me in those times where I was feeling doubt. That's another person I was looking towards other than the higher being of God himself. So I definitely appreciate my mom and her presence, my younger brother, I would love to be a role model for him and to tell him that he can do this as a young black boy that you are. It's possible to get to these heights. It's possible to accomplish new things that we weren't maybe set out to do, but it's possible. So I'm extremely happy that they are here with me in the studio today and I wanna give a shout out to all of my family. Thank you so much for believing in me and I, I wouldn't be there without them with any of them. So I'm so happy for my family being here with me and I'm so happy for all my family at home. You can see all of Tanya Drayton's segments on news 12 dot com and my Facebook page.

https://vod.prod.alticeustech.com/transcode/d8fcd0e5-7286-414b-850d-32872196311c/d8fcd0e5-7286-414b-850d-32872196311c.transcribe

The 16-year-old writer spoke to News 12 about the inspiration behind the project and the next book she is working on.

Spotlight New Jersey: 16-year-old author Taniyah Drayton shares inspiration behind new book

The 16-year-old writer spoke to News 12 about the inspiration behind the project and the next book she is working on.

More Stories

Honoring Esther Salas: New Jersey's first Latina U.S. district judge

Woman found dead near Atlantic City park ruled homicide

Caught on camera: Bronx chase ends in arrests of two North Jersey suspects

Final day to register as New Jersey prepares for November vote

Shore towns recover after nor'easter batters New Jersey coast

New study: Rising social media use in children linked to worse brain function

Honoring Esther Salas: New Jersey's first Latina U.S. district judge

Woman found dead near Atlantic City park ruled homicide

Caught on camera: Bronx chase ends in arrests of two North Jersey suspects

Final day to register as New Jersey prepares for November vote

Shore towns recover after nor'easter batters New Jersey coast

New study: Rising social media use in children linked to worse brain function

More from News 12

Spotlight New Jersey: Achilles New Jersey

Spotlight New Jersey: Mouths Matter

Spotlight New Jersey: Raritan High School drama club performs in Scotland

Spotlight New Jersey: Community Access Unlimited

Spotlight New Jersey: Wear To Go

Spotlight New Jersey: St. Benedict’s Preparatory School in Newark

Privacy Policy

Terms of Service

Ad Choices

Privacy Manager