By Zack Peterson
Victoria Leggett and her mother, Karla Leggett, first heard of the Power of 9 campaign while watching Access Hollywood one afternoon back in April.
And within an afternoon, together they created a video that would make Victoria stand out amongst the thousands of other videos sent in to the www.gotmilk.com website.
“The Power of 9 campaign is nine regular teenage girls whose videos were selected. We promote milk and healthy lifestyles to other teenage girls and explain how it’s really important when it comes to keeping us fit,” Victoria said.
Initially, the Power of 9 campaign was jump-started by singer/dancer/actress Julianne Hough, who was picked as the “Got Milk?” celebrity moustache winner this spring.
“It was her idea to start this campaign,” Victoria said.
Applicants who were interested in participating in the campaign first had to submit a video that highlighted their interests, personalities and life stories and how milk had a significant role in helping achieve their success.
Then, Hough picked 27 semifinalists and, finally, it was up to America to go online and vote for the top nine.
“We found out she was one of the nine on Good Friday,” Karla said.
In the large pool of videos, Victoria believes hers stood out due to the fact that she discussed her hearing disability.
“She was born with it, but it was at 18 months that I first noticed she had it,” Karla said.
From there, Victoria was diagnosed with a 25 percent hearing loss and put into speech therapy so that she could learn to speak and carry out conversation despite her disability.
As an incoming freshman at Steinbrenner High, Victoria doesn’t think her disability will affect her in a negative way since she’s learned to combat its effects.
Therefore, for her video, she “mostly wanted to inspire other girls and teenagers.”
“It doesn’t matter if you have a disability; you can still do anything,” she said. “I wanted to base my video on that.”
The video features Victoria dancing, an activity she has enjoyed since she was 2.
Once selected, Victoria was flown to New York City in May with eight other contestants for a 12-hour photo shoot. She was informed that all the winners would be featured on blogs and on the Seventeen magazine website — plus ads in a variety of other publications (including the back page of this week’s Lutz News).
“It’s a great honor to be a part of this,” Victoria said. “After the Power of 9 I’ve grown more confident. And this is only my first step. I know I can achieve what I want to do.”
Learn more about the campaign at www.facebook.com/bodybymilk
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