Mindy Kaling: Celebrities Give Too Much Advice

Mindy Kaling - Make a Difference

Mindy Kaling delivers a speech about her parents immigrating to America for better opportunities and how it's important to have a voice because it will help shape the foundation of the country.

Transcript:

Celebrities give too much advice, and people listen to it too much! In Hollywood, we all think that we are these wise advice givers, and most of us have no education whatsoever! Actresses can become nutritionists, experts in baby care and environmental policy. Actors can become governors, pundits or even high-ranking officials in religions made up a mere 60 years ago.

For two years, I have played an obstetrician and gynecologist on TV, and damned if I don't think I can deliver a baby. Then, I was thinking, "Well then, who should be giving advice?" The answer is people like you. You formed the foundation of our day-to-day lives. It's back-breaking and, often, there's not much glory in it. In that way, a lot of you will become the quiet heroes of our country.

I am an American of Indian origin whose parents were raised in India. My dad is actually here. They met in Africa. Immigrated to America. Now, I am the star and the creator of my own network television program. The continents traveled; the languages mastered; the standardized tests prepared and taken for over and over again; and the cultures navigated are amazing, even to me.

My family's dream about a future, unfettered by limitations and posed by who you know, and dependent only on what you know, was only possible in America. Their romance with this country is more romantic than any romantic comedy that I could ever write. It's all because they believed, and I do, in the concept of inherit fairness that is alive in America. That here, you could aspire and succeed! My parents believed that their children could aspire and succeed to levels that could not have happened anywhere else in the world. That fairness that my family and I have come to take for granted, and all Americans take for granted, is in many ways resting on your shoulders to uphold.

You represent those who will make laws and affect change. That is truly an amazing thing! What you decide to do in the next five to ten years will affect the rights of people in this country in a fundamental way. Understand that one day, you will have the power to make a difference.