Amanda Gorman took to the microphone at Joe Biden’s inauguration with an ease most of us could only dream of. In a yellow Prada coat everyone immediately wanted, the American poet and activist delivered her poem The Hill We Climb with a confidence that managed to outshine even the legends that are Lady Gaga and Jennifer Lopez – who also performed at the ceremony.
How old is Amanda Gorman?
Why are we so in awe of Amanda’s poetry? Because, at 22-years-old, she has the poise and elegance we wish we had at that age. In fact, it seems everyone does as no one can quite get over how young she truly is. While she was reciting her poem, ‘How old is Amanda Gorman?’ and ‘Amanda Gorman age’ quickly began trending on Google.
'Amanda Gorman parents' also trended, which people searching for more information on the young poet. For your information, Amanda was raised by her mother, Joan Wicks, who was a teacher.
Perhaps it’s because she looks a lot younger than her years, but mostly we think the obsession with her age is because people can’t quite fathom how someone so young can not only be so graceful, but achieved so much in such a short time. Having - like the new president himself - overcome a speech impediment as a child, Amanda is the first person to be named National Youth Poet Laureate and the youngest poet to perform at a presidential inauguration. She follows in the footsteps of Maya Angelou and Robert Frost – and her performance today was as powerful as her success.
Because, as her work focuses on oppression, feminism, race and marginalization, her poem today touched on the events at the Capitol last week.
Amanda Gorman's poem:
‘We’ve seen a force that would shatter our nation rather than share it,’ she recited. ‘Would destroy our country if it meant delaying democracy. / And this effort very nearly succeeded. / But while democracy can be periodically delayed, / It can never be permanently defeated,” she has written.’
Everything about her performance was pointed too, even down to her yellow coat. ‘One thing I can say is that I’m pretty sure I’ll be wearing a ring that has a caged bird, to symbolize I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings,’ she told Vogue prior to her performance. ‘I’m also wearing a yellow coat, which is my own nod to Dr. Jill Biden, who was the one who recommended me in the first place, and I’m so honoured by that.
‘She said, “I saw this video of you and you were wearing yellow and I loved it.” I’m glad we can talk about the fashion, because it has so much meaning to me, and it’s my way to lean into the history that came before me and all the people supporting me.’
Oprah even gifted her some jewellery she wore during the performance. And while her style isn’t anywhere near as important as the powerful words that came from her mouth, it’s certainly making waves online.
But it’s her thoughtfulness about the poem she delivered that truly makes her a star. ‘I wasn’t trying to write something in which those events were painted as an irregularity or different from an America that I know,’ she told the Los Angeles Times last week. ‘America is messy. It’s still in its early development of all that we can become. And I have to recognise that in the poem. I can’t ignore that or erase it. And so, I crafted an inaugural poem that recognises these scars and these wounds. Hopefully, it will move us toward healing them.’
Having published her own poetry book in 2015, The One for Whom Food Is Not Enough, and starting a non-profit called One Pen One Page – which runs a youth writing and leadership programme – there’s no doubt we’ll see much more of Gorman in future. In fact, she’s been outspoken about her plans to run for president herself in 2036.
‘This is a long, long, faraway goal, but 2036 I am running for office to be president of the United States,’ she told the New York Times. ‘So you can put that in your iCloud calendar.’
Perhaps, we’ll be writing about her own inauguration one day too.
Finally, what designer did Amanda Gorman wear?
Amanda's sunshine-coloured coat, and satin headband, were both by Prada, a label she has cultivated a relationship with since way back in February 2019 when, still in her junior year at Harvard, but already the Inaugural Youth Poet Laureate of the United States, she sat front row at the AW19 show. The coat’s canary shade was chosen, as we know, because of Dr Jill Biden, while the headband might be a nod to one of her own signature’s: a scarlet beret that frequently features on her social media feed. With a whopping 2.3 million followers on Instagram, expect to see a surge in cherry red headgear soon.
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