Sasha Knight uses his powers as an activator to raise awareness for the LGBTQ+ community. Let’s learn how we can stand up for and encourage one another to be our true selves.
Sasha Knight uses his powers as an activator to raise awareness for the LGBTQ+ community. Let’s learn how we can stand up for and encourage one another to be our true selves.
Cowboys, the movie starring Sasha as “Joe,” is available wherever you stream movies. You can find out more about Entertainment for Change by visiting www.entertainmentforchange.com and Rainbow Labs at www.rainbowlabs.org!
The Activators
S1 EP04, Sasha Knight and Cowboys (film)
[INTRODUCTION]
Leo: Welcome to The Activators!, A Kids Podcast About Activism. I’m your host, Leo Abelo Perry! I founded a movement called Dance for Justice where I dance to raise awareness for racial justice. “Racial Justice”, to me, means making sure that people, regardless of their skin color, can feel safe no matter where they are, can have the same access to opportunities, and can be loved and valued by their communities and the people in them.
On this podcast, we want to celebrate and amplify kids who are activating social change by doing what they love to spread more love. Social change means providing opportunities for people and community to recognize what’s wrong and do something about it, for the betterment of humanity.
We’ll talk to and learn from other kids who are doing incredible things to make our world a better place. We’ll learn about different issues that need our attention, things like gender equality, environmental justice, and food insecurity. (It’s okay if those are new-to-you ideas. We’re going to learn together!) And we’ll hear advice from kids for kids on how we can make a real difference in our world.
[MEET SASHA KNIGHT)]
Leo: Today’s guest is Sasha Knight, an actor and LGBTQ+ advocate, especially for visibility of LGBTQ+ kids represented in movies. “LGBTQ+” stands for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Plus and is a term people use to identify themselves and their sexuality.
Sasha is a working kid and has even starred in a movie! But what I love is that he is an activator! He’s doing what he loves to help increase visibility around the LGBTQ+ community.
You know what? I think you should meet him! Here’s my interview with Sasha Knight!
[INTERVIEW WITH GUEST]
Leo: Good morning, Sasha. How are you doing?
Sasha: Good. How about you?
Leo: I'm doing great. I'm so excited. Are you excited?
Sasha: I'm so excited to be here.
Leo: Yep. It's going to be amazing. It's going to be okay. So can you introduce everyone, uh, your name and your age, and one of your favorite hobbies.
Leo: Skipping ahead so we can jump right into introductions.
Sasha: Hi, I'm Sasha and I'm 12 years old. And one of my favorite hobbies, um, well, I love baking and I love art, like all kinds of art.
Leo: Like those are some good ones. Yeah.
Sasha: Yeah. I really like baking though. And yeah.
Sasha: I love to make art. Um, I love to rock climb and that's so much fun. Rock climbing. It's so awesome! Um, I also love to act. I also love to listen to music, you know?
Leo: So, at The Activators!, we’re shining a spotlight on kids using what they love to spread more love and activate social change. This is why you’ll always hear me ask guests this next question.
Leo: What are you trying to change the world to make it a better place?
Sasha: I'm trying to change gender equality and really just hope that the world becomes a better place and that it's like, people don't really care about people's identities.
And just like, “I like you. It doesn't matter whatever you are, cause I like you.”
Leo: Kids, do you know what gender is?
We grow up thinking that there are boys and girls in the world, but there are so many more words to describe ourselves.
Gender is just one aspect of who we are, but, and it's used, and it's used to describe it. And it's used to describe how we think of ourselves, not how others think of us. Gender can be fluid.
Gender can be fluid. We can be a man. We can be a woman. Or both. Or nothing at all. Gender can mean what you want it to be. It can be how you express yourself in clothing, hairstyle, name choice. It doesn't matter!
What matters is how you think of your gender.
And now some definitions. Sex is what we're assigned with at birth.
So it's the opposite of gender, as someone decides it for us.
Transgender is when someone's gender or gender identit does not align with the sex someone chose for us at birth.
Non-binary lives the transgender family and refers to someone who does not align with either gender. Identifies with a whole bunch of genders.
But what really matters when it comes to definitions is how you define yourself.
Thank you to our friends at rainbow lab for helping us with these definitions!
Some of these words might be new to you and that's okay. The most important thing is to respect yourself and others and how they identify or express their gender.
Sasha: And gender is technically a social concept that was created in I think it was like the 1800s when brands and clothing stores made pink and blue colors so they could engender stuff so they could make more money. And that's really how gender started.
Leo: So, what Sasha just said a second ago about gender being connected to clothing in the 1800’s? Different cultures have understood genders differently throughout history. But it’s actually true how we understand gender today comes from WAAAY back in the 1800s during a time called the Industrial Revolution.
Instead of families making their own clothes and other things themselves, companies started to use machines and factories to produce all of that. And just like Sasha said, brands wanted to sell more products. So...they decided what were supposed to be jobs and clothes and colors for boys and what was supposed to be for girls.
Sasha: If brands didn't create gender in the 1800s, there would probably like the world would probably be a lot better place. Cause there's so many gender biases.
Leo: I think that's true. Yeah.
Leo: When someone shows a preference for one gender over another, like a movie or a product that advertises it's “just for girls”, that's showing a gender bias or preference.
Leo: So what are you combining to do what you love and spread more love?
Sasha: Well, what I'm combining to do what I love and spread more love is, um, probably acting and just playing characters that cause all the characters I play on voiceover on camera, all that kind of stuff is just out-of-the-box either, like not normal, breaking gender barriers, breaking another barrier.
So I really am combining what I love, which is acting. Um, to hopefully break barriers in the entertainment business.
So in the movie that I played, that I started with Steve Zahn and Jillian Bell, the main character that I played was trans and it's like a father-son story.
I feel like it's breaking barriers in the entertainment business with that representation.
It's called Cowboys.
Leo: We're going to take a quick break. And when we come back, Sasha shares about coming out as trans and making space in the world for everyone to be themselves. Okay. Right. Okay.
[BREAK]
Leo: Welcome back to The Activators! And my conversation with actor Sasha Knight. He’s 12 years old, he’s an activist, and he’s changing the world. That’s pretty awesome!
Sasha: Um, yeah, so I started when I was well after I did well At the beginning I did the movie, I wasn't out yet as trans, but then I came out like, like right after I did it.
I filmed it when I was 10, so I booked it when I was 10.
And then I came out when I was like 10 and a half. So it was like right after. And, um, basically though after that, and sort of Coronavirus happened, um, shortly after that. Um, and I came out and then Entertainment for Change reached out to me. And I really, really, for a long time after I came out, I wanted to do, I wanted to use, um, my lived experience to help all experiences, whether it's trans, like, you know, and then have helped the other people basically and tell them to tell their stories.
Leo: For some of you listening, Sasha might be the first transgender person you’ve met before. Or, at least, the first person who has introduced themselves to you as trans. So here’s how Sasha explains what it means to be trans.
Sasha: So being trans is basically like all, like the hands down definition is being assigned one gender at birth and then transitioning to the other, like I was assigned female and then I transitioned to male.
I wasn't out as trans, so everybody was calling me a girl when inside I was a boy and then I just was like, “No guys, I'm a boy.”
And then they're like, “Oh, okay.” But enough. Not for everybody. It's not everybody's. Oh, okay. But even if somebody, someone said it, doesn't say, “oh, okay.” And it says “that's not okay.” It is okay. And just be yourself because it doesn't matter what anybody else thinks. Even like, yeah.
Leo: I have a question. How do you use your platform to raise awareness?
Sasha: Um, how are we using the platform to raise awareness? Um, I feel like I just, I don't know. Um, I think I use my platform to ways to raise awareness by.
Well, first of all, I'm saying what I believe in, and also in Entertainment for Change and playing parts that I think are meaningful and all that.
Leo: What do you picture the world as in the future?
Sasha: I hope that in the future, the world—it's just that people are explaining their feelings and what they love and they're using what they love for change. And more people actually do stuff instead of just saying, “That's so cool. I want to do that.” They said, “That's so cool. I'm gonna do that.”
Leo: So, what advice do you have for kids that you think in the future can actually make like a difference in the world to change the world, to fix a cause that's not really good in the world.
Sasha: Um, I think that people should just go for it, like, like what I said just a second ago, that it's not that you want to do it. It's that you're going to do it. Cause if you want to do it, then you should, and you can, you can do it. You can do anything. If you want to do it, if you really, really do. And this is something that needs to happen, people do need to change the world. So go do it.
Leo: Yeah. Really good advice. Thank you. So now one more question. Okay. So if you could pick. Any cause that really means a lot to you that you would use to raise a lot of awareness and a bunch of stuff for that. Cause what cause would it be?
Sasha: Um, uh, quality, um, gender equality, just equality. I think that everybody should be equal. It doesn't matter.
I don't think people that don't know you should be able to say. Had to have biases on your life. I just, I it's it's just not right. And I just feel like if you have something to say about being about like people being mistreated, say it, because I feel like all those people that like get pushed farther down, their stories never get told.
So I feel like, like all the people that are, that have biases against them should their stories should be told. And people should just equality, like it should equality shouldn't even be a question. It should be the answer.
Leo: That's that's exactly right. So I think so every kid who's listening to this podcast right now, I have a question for you now, get up, do your superhero pose and let's give Sasha a big Activators cheer on three. one, two, three, activators. All right thank you so much, Sasha.
Sasha: Thank you so much for having me. It's been so awesome. Thank you. Bye.
[CONCLUSION]
Leo: It was so great to chat with Sasha. I learned so much from him.
Here are some things I learned and lessons we can take with us as we make the world a better place.
[CLOSING]
Leo: Thank you to Sasha Knight for joining us today. Cowboys, the movie starring Sasha as “Joe,” is available wherever you stream movies. You can find out more about Entertainment for Change by visiting www.entertainmentforchange.com and Rainbow Labs at www.rainbowlabs.org!
The Activators! is written by me, Leo Perry (and a little help from my mom). Our show is edited and produced by Matthew Winner with help from Chad Michael Snavely and the team at Sound On Studios. Our executive producer is Jelani Memory. And this show was brought to you by A Kids Podcast About.
You can write to us at listen@akidspodcastabout.com. And check out other podcasts made for kids just like you by visiting akidsbookabout.com.
See you again next week for another episode of The Activators!