Emerson Tenney

Career

From a young age, Emerson began volunteering and working to help others; at 10 years old, she traveled to Nairobi, Kenya, to bring over $25,000 of funds and supplies to those orphans afflicted with AIDS. When Emerson was a sophomore in high school, she continued giving back to others when she traveled to Argentina along with the acclaimed war photographer, Sebastian Rich. In Argentina, Emerson interviewed teenagers from different socioeconomic backgrounds to use for an ongoing project, named The Catalyst, which finds hopeful outlooks on positive change from teens around the world.

The following year, in November 2014, Emerson modeled for Claire’s international campaign, which helped benefit, “I am that Girl.” Emerson helped create a bracelet that was sold at Claire’s that also helped to benefit this campaign to raise the self-esteem of girls’ world-wide.

In May 2014, Emerson started a charitable website, www.Reachandsafe.com with the mission of helping certain causes because “everyone deserves the right to reach for their dream with the safety of knowing someone has their back.” A month later, in June 2014, Emerson raised $10,000 for the Fulfillment Fund by blogging about a cross-country road trip/college tour on her ReachandSafe website.

In September 2014, she continued helping others by volunteering at Children’s Hospital Los Angeles as part of its Third Thursday program. In January 2015, Emerson launched a new project on ReachandSafe called “Interviews with Artists.” This project raised the $50,000 that was necessary to open the playrooms at the Children’s Hospital Los Angeles for every day of an entire year.

Recently, Emerson was featured in Ventura Blvd magazine in its April 2015 article as one of “The Valley’s Top Ten Teens to Watch.”

Currently, Emerson is in the process of developing a documentary (with the help of the United Nations) with the purpose of empowering teens around the world to be the catalysts for positive change in their communities.

Personal life

When Emerson is not busy helping others and inspiring teens around the world, she enjoys passing her free time learning about writing, for which she also has a passion (she went to Lewis and Clark College in Portland to take writing workshops and also took writing workshops at Kenyon College). She wants to pursue an education in creative writing, poetry, and storytelling at a university and wants to continue raising awareness and funds for those in need.