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Markell Washington became a popular TikTok star and rose to fame after joining Tayler Holder’s ‘Triller Compound’ and the reality show ‘House of Creators’. He’s also pretty close with the D’Amelio family, often crediting Marc D’Amelio for being a father figure to him. Thus, it becomes perfect sense for him to be a guest on the D’Amelio podcast. The episode just arrived and in it, Markell Washington reveals the difficult situation of his childhood and he overcame his situation.
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Heidi D’Amelio asked Markell how he remains such a positive attitude in life. To this, he told the podcast hosts about how he had a difficult childhood and how he got out of it:
“I felt like it started with me back in high school. So, what happened was my dad passed away my sophomore year in high school. And then my mom got incarcerated junior year. So, it was actually this program that developed in my school. Because I was actually really good in school. But you know me, I was always trying to be the class clown. Because that was my outlet like when I didn’t know something or when the teacher called me. I was not the best at reading, at all. And when they used to try to popcorn read girl – you know when they called on you – I would read ahead in time to my paragraph and made sure I didn’t mess up any words. But then I wouldn’t know what the rest of the book was about!”
Markell Washington talked about the program in school that helped him: Communities in School.
It was a group of guidance counselors in the community that would come and guide the kids on their life paths. Washington found it hard to speak about his situation at home because he didn’t want anyone to judge his mom for being in jail and getting federally indicted. He didn’t want anyone to pity him and his situation because he didn’t want sympathy:
“When I was going through those situations in school, I would kinda just hold it in and I had to be the back bone for my family. Because My siblings like they literally almost collapsed when my mom got incarcerated because my mom had -we had brought a house – and then my mom got incarcerated. And then we’re like how are we gonna keep the house. And I was always going – I worked 2 jobs at the time. I was working at Cheer Gym and then I had worked at Subway as well. I was like ‘We’re gonna keep it afloat’. And I never let myself cry or get down because I didn’t want my siblings to see me doing it. I don’t know why I put myself as the role as like the leader. Because I had 2 older siblings to me but they were still confused. Like they didn’t where to go or what to do and I don’t know. I just got that motherly instinct or parenting instinct in general to like take control and take initiative. So being that I was doing that, they started inviting me to Communities in School.”
The TikTok star explained how the Communities in School program helped Markell Washington
Washington at first didn’t talk about his situation at the program and only went there for free food, he told Heidi D’Amelio laughingly. But then he saw other people being vocal about their tough situations at home and how they got help. He got inspired to open up and learned that it’s okay to let people in and started sharing his story. And then the program started guiding him and helping him. And Markell Washington told the D’Amelios that his life completely changed as he was doing bad in school. But after joining the program, his grades improved and he became more positive about his approach in life. And they taught that he’s not doing this for his family but for himself.
Markell Washington learned that what matters is to never give up and to keep moving forward. Even if you’re going through a tough phase, you should never stop working hard on yourself. Washington also revealed that even his mom got out of jail and changed her life around. She is now the author of two books and gives motivational speeches to help people. Heidi D’Amelio commented on how his mom must have been inspired by his strength and courage to keep going despite the difficult circumstances he was in.
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