Whiz kid continues to shine

On February 10, 2010, a headline in The Gleaner blared: Meet a two-year-old reader – Mom home-teaches little Kimeila in Moneague.

The tiny tot, dubbed a whiz kid at the time, was identifying words such as ‘elephant’, ‘rabbit’, ‘mouse’, ‘Santa’, ‘nurse’, ‘medicine’, ‘hospital’, chimpanzee’, ‘gorilla’, ‘duck’, ‘water’, and ‘bed’.

When the two-year-old was given a book to read, she didn’t miss a beat: “Dear Santa, please bring me a puppy for Christmas, a little white puppy, a puppy with a tail ... .”

Her mother, Mesha-Gay Smith, who was 20 years old at the time, said she started teaching her daughter to read with the aid of a DVD, flash cards and books when she was six months’ old.

Fast-forward 10 years, baby Kimeila is now a teenager, having celebrated her 13th birthday on January 23. She is no longer living in Gibraltar, Moneague, St Ann, having migrated to the United States of America when she was six years old.

Kimeila, however, remains super bright – as she is a straight-A student – and continues her mind-boggling exploits, having launched her magazine, You’re Never Too Young (YNTY).

Kimeila, who lives in Jamaica, Queens, also says that although she migrated, she has not lost touch with her Jamaican heritage and hopes to be able to share it with the world.

“In my house, Patois is always spoken and where I live there are a lot of Jamaicans. So I am always exposed to Jamaican culture and I want YNTY to highlight Jamaica not just in America but also worldwide,” said Kimeila.

The young entrepreneur and honour roll student says that the magazine has a special column called ‘Spotlight Kids’ because she wants to feature Jamaican children doing great things.

“Although YNTY magazine is a worldwide magazine, and we want to spotlight kids from all over the world, right now our main focus is making a platform for Jamaican entrepreneurs and public figures. So it’s important to me to spotlight Jamaican kids because it’s where I came from and it’s my culture and heritage,” she said.

The publication will also have a column for parents called ‘Momager 101’ where Kimeila’s mother will be advising parents about helping their children to pursue their dreams.

“For Momager 101, I want to give advice to parents about how to identify their children’s talents and the steps they should take to bring their children’s dream to fruition,” said Smith, who is also an entrepreneur.