People are always asking Princella Smith how old she is. At 24, she's used to being the youngest person in the room, as Chief Advocate for Newt Gingrich's American Solutions project. Youth Radio's Alana Germany tailed Smith for the first unpredictable days of the Republican National Convention. She brings us this glimpse into the convention through the eyes of one of its youngest rising stars.
ALANA Hitting the party scene at the Republican National Convention with Princella Smith is like hanging out with one of the popular girls…
PRINCELLA (on tape)
(party ambi) It’s about 1:00…
ALANA
in the morning, that is—and Princella’s night has just begun.
PRINCELLA (on tape)
We are at the Rock the Vote party in Minneapolis, first night of the convention.
ALANA
Princella broke into national politics in a big way at the last RNC, when she won MTV’s essay contest, Stand Up and Holla.
MTV (on tape)
I’m twenty years old, I’m speaking at the national convention! This is so exciting! ….ladies and gentlemen, Princella D. Smith.
ALANA
Princella’s a rising star in the party. She’s worked for big name right-wingers like Michael Steele, Mike Huckabee, and now Newt Gingrich, and she’s a regular on the cable news shows, like Your World, on Fox News.
Princella’s clearly building her fan base, like this tipsy young gentleman in shiny red mardi-gras beads at the Rock the Vote bash…
GUY (on tape)
Look at this big-timer. Let’s take a picture with me?
PRINCELLA (on tape)
Do you have a camera?
ALANA
This convention is a stage for Princella to show the world, she’s arrived … But Hurricane Gustav came first. And that means the shindigs she’s learned to work so well are being re-framed as charity events for hurricane relief. And Princella’s been bumped from press gigs she’d been planning for weeks …
PRINCELLA (on tape)
Obviously there are bigger things in the world than whether Princella Smith gets on TV or not…
ALANA
But her interview with Essence magazine went on as planned on the convention’s first day. That’s when Princella heard about McCain’s VP candidate, and her teenage daughter’s pregnancy. Princella got the news from Essence reporter, Cynthia Gordy.
PRINCELLA (on tape) Dang is she a teenager, right?
REPORTER: She’s 17, she’s a senior in high school, she’s gonna marry the father, so it’s all good.
ALANA (on tape)
That’s not all good.
Oops, that was me. Maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but then Princella checked me…
PRINCELLA (on tape)
How many families has that happened to? Who’s gonna start trying to pass judgment on television?
ALANA
Princella knows what it’s like to be judged.
11:12--See me, I have all of it, I’m African American, so I can be pinged, as an angry black person, so I can’t show that much emotion. I’m a female, so I can be pinged as too emotional, and I am young, so I could be viewed a immature. And the main thing you have to do is hold your composure.
ALANA
And that’s just what Princella plans to do this week and beyond, to live up to her regal name and status as a leading voice of the Republican party’s next generation.
