Laila Ali’s big name came at the price of her childhood.
It came at the price of a solid family foundation, at the price of a world-famous father who physically wasn’t home and a mother she said was emotionally distant.
Saturday she spoke about the cost of sharing the last name with her famous boxer father, Muhammad Ali, and how she carved her own path. As a part of the seventh annual Especially Me conference at South High School in Denver, Ali told nearly 500 young African-American women that strength isn’t in a name or fame. It comes from within.
“Everyone’s going to have an opinion,” she told the audience. “If you go around looking for other people’s opinions, you’re going to get confused.”
Ali shared her story of struggle – of feeling lonely as a child, of spending three months in juvenile hall for shoplifting, and of getting back on her feet. By the age of 19, she had graduated from high school, moved out and started her own nail salon.
At 20 she started boxing. At 27 she holds 20 undisputed wins in the boxing ring and three Super Middleweight World Championship belts.
Her message: Mistakes don’t prevent success.
“I’ve done a lot of things that I’m ashamed of, but that’s OK,” she said. “What I’m doing now is what’s important. You have to change yourself in order to change others around you. ”
Kira Becks, a junior at George Washington High School in Denver, said the speech filled her with the motivation she’d lost in the past year.
“Normally I’m OK, but this year I’ve been having a real hard time,” Becks said. “I know that I needed something like this to get that extra motivational push.”
Ali’s testimony, Becks said, addressed issues such as self-confidence and sex realistically, which made it easier for her to connect to the message.
“It wasn’t the typical ‘get on the right track and stay on the right track,”‘ Becks said. “You don’t have to be the straight-A student. You can make mistakes but you can still get back on track.”
Amanda Ababio, a junior at George Washington, said Ali’s story got down to the bare bones of teen struggles.
“It was just real,” Ababio said. “It’s like she’s in your life and helping you get through life in your ways.”
Ali stressed the importance of standing on personal confidence, not on the shoulders of others. But she also has accepted that her last name will forever be a link between her and her father’s boxing legacy.
“I think I’m always going to be in his shadow,” she said in an interview. “We will always be thought of as one. But if I’m going to be in anyone’s shadow, it would be his.”
Staff writer Melissa Cassutt can be reached at 303-820-1475 or mcassutt@denverpost.com.
