It was only a year ago that “High School Musical” actress Monique Coleman made her United Nations debut. Last August, the actress who played the character Taylor McKessie, was tapped to speak in front of the body as it announced its “International Year of the Youth.”
“At the time that the ‘Year of Youth’ was being launched, I had the incredible opportunity of doing the closing remarks at the U.N. and to be honest, I was dying,” she said Thursday in Washington. “I mean I was sitting in my seat, sweating bullets, thinking, ‘oh my God, Ban Ki-moon, I’m going to say my speech in front of him? That’s so scary.'”
But she did and was hooked, hoping that the opportunity to continue with the U.N. would be made available. “Silently I prayed for a role inside of all of this,” she said. “I just wanted a flag to hold and a pin to wear, that’s really what I thought I could do.”
Instead she was made the U.N.’s first ever Youth Champion, and with that title she took a six month-long trip around the world, traveling to 24 countries in total to see how young people were living. After returning to the states last week, she visited the Dupont Circle headquarters of the United Nations Foundation Thursday and spoke about her voyage and why she did it.
It was because, she said, her dream of movie stardom, had already come true.
“Instead of holding on to ‘High School Musical’ for dear life…I actually let it all go,” she said. “I let go of the idea of success and fame, I let go of my publicist at the time, I stopped walking red carpets, I said, ‘I’m not promoting a movie, I’m promoting myself and that’s a little self-involved,’ and I eventually took the step of dropping all representation and I allowed my spirit to guide me. And to really just be represented by my actions in the world.”
