OAKLAND (KCBS RADIO) – Stella Harrison did something on Friday that very few Americans get to do in a single lifetime.
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The Oakland 7-year-old hung out with the Vice President of the United States and fist bumped Oakland's mayor, Libby Schaaf.
Harrison, a student at Melrose Leadership Academy in Oakland, held court at the front of an excited room and introduced Vice President Kamala Harris without breaking a sweat. Harris was making a hometown stop on Friday morning to help launch a new program investing $50 million in the city's disadvantaged children.
It was a moment more than a year in the making.
Stella's journey to that stage started in January 2021, when she went viral as "the young Kamala Harris" in a video posted to social media by the Golden State Warriors following Harris' drawn-out victory with President Joe Biden. She wore the team's jersey and told the camera: "I love that Kamala looks like me and I can do anything." The message resonated with millions.
Alexis Lanaux is Stella's mother.
She said it started when the school district reached out with "an exciting opportunity for Stella."
"Initially we didn't know that Stella was going to be speaking," Lanaux said in a phone interview with KCBS Radio on Friday. "We thought that she was just going to be onstage as a guest." Once the star student went through rehearsal, she was asked to say a few words about Oakland and her admiration for the vice president.
It wasn't until late Thursday that the family was told she would introduce Harris. "I was really excited for her and this opportunity," Lanaux said.
Only one of Stella's parents was able to attend – not because of schedules, but because of seating allotment. By chance, Lanaux RSVP'd before her husband. "With Kamala in office, Stella as a young brown girl feels like she can also accomplish anything," she added.
Stella – who Lanaux said "loves seeing women in power and that's very special to her" – met the vice president beforehand, talked with Harris for a few minutes, snapped a picture and got "a big hug." The picture, taken by a White House photographer, hasn't made its way to the family just yet.
"It was exciting" a bashful Stella told KCBS Radio by phone on Friday. "She was a little different (in person than in pictures)." The second grader added that she'd like to be like Harris one day "because she is really cool."
Will she brag about it to her friends? "No."
Not a bad day for a second grader.
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