The Benefits of Reading | Ella Lee | TEDxYouth@MBJH

reading some people hear this word and think uh boring nope i am not interested some people hear this word and think ah wonderful i'm going to cozy up with a book and read all night some people hear this word and think school and assign reading and summer reading and papers and essays and classes and teachers and but when i hear this word i think of the thing i look forward to the most throughout my entire day i can't tell you the amount of times i've come to school super groggy because i was up way too

late the night before saying just one more chapter and you'll go to bed just one more chapter and you'll go to bed just one more chapter yeah i say that about five times a night but i don't just like reading because of the stories i love reading because of the things it has done for my life in the book to kill a mockingbird atticus finch told scout you never really understand a person until you consider things from his or her point of view and so you climb into their skin and crawl around in it reading

can help you practice this reading has allowed me to consider things from other people's point of view all the time catherine stockett's novel the help is one of the most powerful books i've ever read but there's this gut-wrenching moment in the book that affected me deeply abeleen the black house made to the leifold family is told by her employers that she is not allowed to use the restroom inside the home instead she was forced to use the restroom constructed in the garage for the help hence the title adeline was sad angry disappointed and alone because

i felt so deeply for this character it felt like i just watched one of the most important people in my life being told that she was less than and it broke my heart these stories are so important because it allows us to walk through the character's journey it gives us perspective it helps us learn what happens and about people's emotions and not just facts about their life by reading you develop empathy in a deeper understanding of the world around you my aunt has four children two of white skin and two of brown skin i love

my cousins equally and the color of their skin white or brown has never affected that but by reading the help and learning about abilene's journey it pushed me to think about the challenges that my cousins may face just because of the color of their skin in the book a cuban girl's guide to t and tomorrow i learned so much about cuba's culture and what's funny is it's about a girl who lives in florida with cuban parents who's visiting in london and even as she's walking on the old cobblestone streets in the rain next to big

ben sipping tea i still learned so much about cuba's culture through her memories her likes and her love for cooking traditional cuban food reading can allow you to look at things from other people's point of view and learn about their cultures than say i don't think a web search could do we all want to experience new things right some may do this by reaching out to the people around you joining clubs or doing community service but not only do you get to experience new things but you are almost guaranteed a better educational career by reading

you're guaranteed better classroom grades better vocabulary better and better community skills an article from the elite educational institute states that people who read more are more likely to have are more likely to have better classroom grades and get better sat scores reading opens up more doors for you in the future a quote from albert einstein says that if you want your children to be intelligent read them fairy tales if you want your children to be more intelligent read them fairy tales even one of the smartest minds in the history of our world agrees that not

only is reading fun and enjoyable but it's educational and promotes learning beaches prior is the heroine of the divergent trilogy and pretty early on in the books we realize that she is an introvert but throughout the series she made lifelong friends and learned more about herself than by jumping into a new opportunity and not caring what other what her family or others thought about her as an introvert i was inspired by beatrice's courage and spunk to throw away what was comfortable to her and try something new i thought to myself if a fictional character character

could do this and learn more about herself then why couldn't i do the same i formed new relationships tried new extracurricular activities like speaking in front of a camera i learned more about myself than i ever thought possible i have read something of sixty thousand pages in the span of two years well sixty one thousand one hundred eighty seven if you count two am last night that means a lot of my time is spent in the library the kind ladies who work there are my librarians my daily trip to the library is greeted with a

warm ella we just read a book that you would love by building these relationships with the librarians they introduced me with a girl my age who reads just as much as me and has become a very close friend and we all want new friends right and guess what you don't have to read 61 000 pages to do that though it might help not only do you make more friends but you have fun too you can soar over buildings like agatha from the school of evil or fight for your life in arena with katniss everdeen or

learn who you are like sophrania from the etiquette and espionage series or live against all odds like anastasia from romanov reading can allow you to have so much fun and you can do all these things by just turning the pages of a book reading gets you out of the confines of your life and helps you live no matter what holds you back whether it be fear illness or lack of access reading opens up the world and puts it at your fingertips it's like dreaming but you get to pick the dream even if you're confined to

a wheelchair you can still soar over buildings with harry potter through jk rowling's words or even if you haven't found love you can fall in love through prince maxson and america's singer's story in the selection series or even if you can't be the person you want to be because society deems it so you can be that person by just reading reading has taught me many things about my life and i don't think i'd be the person i am today if i wasn't an avid reader so i encourage you that though you may think reading is

boring give it a try i mean if it helps you at least half as much as it helps me i know you won't regret it my point is though reading may be forced and assigned it can also be fun and enjoyable and i find the only way you can soar over skies fight for your life or learn who you are is by reading thank you