Jaden Jefferson grew up in a household where the news was always on.
As a child as young as five, Jaden dreamed of someday being one of the reporters he saw on TV. When his family got an iPad, the first thing he did was dress up as a newscaster, sit behind a homemade “anchor desk,” and set the device to record. A star was born!
By the time he was 11 Jaden was hitting the streets of his hometown, Toledo, Ohio, to tell the stories that matter to his community. His grandmother is his constant sidekick and driver, escorting him to breaking news sites and acting as a director for his stand-ups.
Jaden’s big break came during the 2020 presidential campaign when candidate Elizabeth Warren came to Toledo. Standing shoulder-to-shoulder with professional reporters, all of whom were more than twice his age, Jaden proved he was already ready for primetime! Warren’s press secretary was so impressed with his tenacity and poise that she invited him to conduct an exclusive interview.
CNN White House correspondent MJ Lee called Jaden “the star of the show” at the Warren press conference. The star continued to rise from there. More exclusive interviews followed, including with candidate Tim Ryan. Jaden’s world opened up even more after appearing on Ellen DeGeneres’s show. Suddenly, the kid reporter was sitting face-to-face with legendary celebrities like Brad Pitt and Oprah Winfrey!
Jaden has since done interviews with MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, NowThis, and Univision, but his main focus remains covering news in his community. He runs a YouTube channel that focuses solely on local issues. He even covers sports, though he admits athletics are not exactly his strong suit.
“I’ve always loved writing and I’ve always loved telling stories, and I’ve always been watching the news, my whole life,” Jaden explained. “It’s just something that I’ve enjoyed doing. As of, about two years ago I started to pursue it and cover different stories in my community.”
“I’ve gotten to cover both President Biden and President Trump,” he continued. “It was a unique experience to be able to be part of the press pool and see how it works regardless of political party. Just being in the presence of the President of the United States, there are no words to describe how happy that made me, and how important it was to me to cover those stories.”
Jaden believes journalists play a crucial role in our society.
“Well, journalists hold the powerful accountable, and that’s a crucial aspect of what journalists do,” he said. “There’s a lot of things that happen on a daily basis that a lot of people would not know about unless there was a journalist to tell the story.”
Keep telling those stories, Jaden! With all of this experience under his belt, we can only imagine the waves he’ll make in media someday.
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