- Stories.
- Since the dawn of time,
we've relied on stories to entertain and enlighten.
- Be they tales of adventure, love, loss,
or abject stupidity,
these sagas are passed down through generations...
a grand catalog of our collective experience.
- But what about those epic stories
only shared among a small circle of friends?
How do they achieve the legendary status
they so richly deserve?
- By being told here.
- Welcome to the ultimate chronicle of humanity.
- This is "True Story with Ed & Randall."
[dramatic music]
Good evening and welcome to "True Story,"
the show we agreed to host
knowing nothing about the stories we're about to hear.
- That's right, Ed, we have been hermetically sealed.
These are all true stories from real people across America
that we'll be hearing for the first time.
And you will too.
- We do know one thing though,
and that is the name of the person sitting across from us.
Hello, Yasmin. - Hi, thank you so much.
- We are very excited to hear your story.
Is it a story that is going to scare us?
- You're going to be scared of how cool I am.
- Okay. - Yeah.
- What genre would you call this story?
- I would call this a--a story of personal development.
- So maybe like at a video store,
this would be in the self-help section.
- It's in the self-help section.
Fo' sho'. Inspirational, motivational.
- All right. - Yes.
- I--I need some of that. Let's go, let's get into this.
- So my father's Libyan. He was in the Gaddafi regime.
Yeah, he was a cabinet minister.
But he morally abstained against him
and joined the opposition movement against him,
and sought asylum in Egypt.
He moved to Egypt, he met my mom,
and she was hot, she was super cute.
And they dated for a year till they got married.
And then they had my brother and me.
- What is your life like in Egypt?
Are you in--in an apartment?
- Yes, I live in an apartment. It's--it's a beautiful life.
We have a two-bedroom apartment.
We live in kind of the heart
of a part of Cairo called District 7.
It's not like "The Hunger Games,"
but it sounds like it.
- And at this point in your life,
could you--you're a child.
- I'm a child, yeah. - Could you feel the tension?
- No, there was no tension. I thought I was Egyptian.
- Yeah. - I had no idea I was Libyan.
What happened in 1989 is a pretty seismic event,
the Lockerbie bombings.
So there's actually a book that's written
about the disappearance of certain Libyans
that--from Egypt.
It's that event that actually led to my father saying, "Okay,
my friend got disappeared. We have to leave right now."
- Libyans in Egypt-- - Yes.
- At this time are just disappearing.
- They're disappearing.
- And a friend of your father's disappeared.
- Correct. - Wow.
- So-- - Yes.
- So what was 'right now'?
- Right then and there, my parents told me
we're going on "vacation."
Vacation, here we come.
- First, I'm going to do the Waterslide.
Then I'm going to drink a Shirley Temple.
- My brother, who is like my best friend,
he's, you know, five years older than me,
so, you know, he was--he was nine.
So he kind of knew a little bit more
about what's going on.
- I don't think we're going
to Sandals Jamaican all-inclusive resort after all.
- He was helping-- - Yes.
- With this thought that this is gonna be fun.
This is a vacation. - This'll be fun.
We'll be back. We're not gonna go to school.
'Cause we were both in the same, like, school.
I was in preschool at the time.
And he was--he was like in elementary school.
We--we went to the same school.
- And there was no question
as to why there was just one briefcase?
Why he's probably carrying you, rushing you out the door?
- Literally. Literally.
And we had like two bags, and we left.
- Wow. - But the whole time--
From--from Egypt to the United States...
- Yes.
- You're just like looking out the window of the car,
like what a fun vacation.
- Yes, like we went to Jordan.
We went to Morocco, and he would take us to carnivals.
He would take us to fairs.
We went to Saudi Arabia. We went to the U.K.
We were all trying to seek asylum.
- This is such a heroic parental effort, I mean--
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- For a parent to be that rattled
and trying to keep security and safety for their children.
That's... - Beautiful.
- That's amazing.
- My parents are both like my heroes,
and especially, like, my--my mom, she gave up her family.
She gave up everything.
She gave up the life that she knew
so that she could support my father.
And my father gave up the riches, the wealth,
the security, everything, to do what was right.
And that has been all the difference in my life.
- Describe your dad.
- Loving, warm. Extremely spontaneous.
- Extremely spontaneous. - Sounds like it.
- Okay, so we are moving to--
vacationing in America.
- Major ADHD. [mouths] Like me.
- Yeah. - Loyal.
Loyal, loyal, loyal, loyal to the tee.
- So he's a good guy.
- Super good guy. Moral, adaptable.
You put him in any situation, he'll figure it out.
- We need to find the best place
for an immigrant family to go.
USA, here we come.
- And by this time,
we had been on the move for five years.
Are we there yet?
- Just a couple more hours.
- [sighs] - I hope.
- And the whole time still, what a crazy vacation.
- Yeah, and I'm like, "This is a crazy vacation."
- It will be worth it when we get there.
I've got the perfect spot.
Best place for immigrants in the U.S.
Huntsville, Alabama.
[light music]
- So you make the move.
- So we make to Huntsville, Alabama.
Is it like New York? - Or is it more like Hollywood?
- Yes, like a very New York-ish Hollywood.
- It's a culture shock.
People looked at me like I was an alien.
There was no one that was, like, visibly Muslim.
So I wore a headscarf when I was eight years old
because I felt like it was beautiful.
Like, I felt like it was
the way that I wanted to present myself as a woman.
It was me and then Asmah.
But they called her Asthma in school, yeah.
And then my name is Yasmin.
Yeah, but they call me Yasma. For like a whole year.
- Just because it sounded like asthma?
- Yeah, it was, like, there's Asthma,
and there's her sister Yasma.
We were the only two in middle school
that wore a headscarf, or were Muslim for that matter.
- It clearly felt like you were being bullied.
- And I had, like, literally two other friends
I talked to kind of on regular basis.
- Where's your brother at this point?
- So my brother is just going into high school at this point.
- Okay.
- And he's having kind of a brutal time of it.
His name is Hussein, so he was bullied pretty badly.
"Saddam Hussein" was still like,
you know, a character that people made fun of.
- Yeah.
- So my parents, they would--they made us
watch the USA Network
because they thought it would get us to be American faster.
- Yasmin, Hussein.
Remember, you have to be you,
but you also have to learn to be American.
And what better way than USA?
[dramatic music from TV]
- I don't know if you guys watched it at that time,
but at 7:00 in the morning, every morning,
was WWF wrestling.
announcer: Here comes Hulk Hogan and the Macho Man.
- So those were like my heroes.
You know what I mean, Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage,
"Hitman" Hart, even The Undertaker.
He's a little goth, but you know.
- I mean, this is--
This is a really accurate introduction to America.
For sure, for sure. - Yes, I think so.
Well, I really thought that, like, Americans--
it was, like, perfect. I'll just connect this way.
Like, I'll just hit someone with a two-by-four.
Like this is how friends are made.
- Yeah, are made.
- And then I--I, like, got to school
and I--there was a girl, her name was Theresa.
This really happened. I got on top of the desk.
Friendship!
[distorted slow motion screaming]
'Cause I thought we could be friends,
I body-slammed Theresa to the floor.
- No. - Yes.
- What? - And she was like,
"Why? Why, Yasmin? Why?"
And I was like, "I don't know. I can't hear you.
Oh, yeah!" - "Oh, yeah."
- And I got sent to the principal's office.
- Sure. - Yeah.
- Now, I don't know how they do things over there
where you're from.
But here in Huntsville, Alabama,
when we wish to make friends with someone,
we do so by shaking their hand.
- So we don't wrestle as--
- I'm like, "Is that not how we become friends?"
- We do not wrap our legs around them.
We do not put them in a half nelson.
- But on the USA Network, they--
- I love wrestling as much as the next person.
It is a known fact, I would leave my husband
in an instant for Macho Man Randy Savage.
But I'm worried the other students
are starting to find it a little, um...
horrifying. Okay?
"Is that understood, brother?" Like Macho Man.
- Yes, Mrs. Principal.
There was this one guy at school who was a bully.
His name was Ryan.
One day I find out that he said that I--I was a "rag-head."
He called me a "rag-head." I didn't even know him.
Like, I didn't understand it, but there was these two girls
that were kind of walking towards the lunch room,
and they turned back and they were like,
"Well, it's just like Ryan called you a rag-head.
And like, we agree." I was like,
"Why would Ryan say that?"
- Because you have a-- - Nope! Nope. No.
I know what he's saying.
I just don't know why he would say it about me.
I don't even know that dude.
- Beats me, but don't feel so bad.
'Cause guess what. He made fun of Carol too.
[punchy music]
- He made fun of Carol?
So Carol was the only Jewish girl
in our entire middle school,
and she always wore a Star of David
to represent that she was Jewish
and in--in pride of her Jewish heritage.
And he had called her a racial epithet.
And he'd said, "Oh, her stupid Star of David."
It was in that moment that I felt like I actually
could have a voice for myself because I was so incensed
by the fact that he would go after this girl.
- After Carol. - After Carol.
- But he went after you, but your--your--
what really triggered your rage was that he went after this--
- Yes. - This other person.
- Yeah, literally. I was like, "Not Carol!"
Like I got angry. - Nobody messes with Carol.
I was like, she's so freaking nice.
Like, these people won't stop until we stop them.
announcer: Ladies and gentlemen,
that was the last straw.
- Nobody...messes with...Carol!
announcer: In this corner, weighing-in at 93 pounds,
the Dixieland Libyan, it's Yasmin.
Bully Ryan is going down.
[dramatic music]
- And no one's seen this side of you before?
- No one's seen this side of me.
- Have you seen this side of you?
- I haven't even seen this side of me.
- You haven't even seen this side of you!
- It was like, all I could hear was
my father's voice, like,
"Be you. Do what's right.
Be you. Do what's right."
- "Do what's right." Like your dad did.
- Like my dad did. He's always like, "Be you.
"Be unique. Okay, you're different.
"You're unique. Just do it.
Be you." And I'm like...
- So my dad wanted me to really lean into my uniqueness
and to just do what was right, always.
- Which is so hard for a kid.
- Yeah. - Yes.
- Like when you're a kid, uniqueness is like a liability.
- It's a liability. both: You just want to fit in.
- You want to be like everybody else.
- But your dad's message had sunk in--it was in there.
- I didn't even know I had this power inside of me.
- Yeah. - It was like I heard him.
And he was like...
- "You can't spell unique without you.
"You can't spell 'you are different' without you.
"Be unique. Be different.
"Just be.
Just do it. Okay."
Okay, Yasmin, hey.
Psst! Just do it.
- And I'm like, that's kind of a Nike ad, Dad, but okay.
- Yeah. - That's all right, I got it.
- So this Ryan guy. - Yeah.
- Does he look like your-- your classic school bully?
- So he's tall and kind of wiry.
He's imposing, he's mean.
- Uh-huh. - So he kind of towered
over people, but he's not a big guy.
I wouldn't say like, he's like--was so--
- He's not an athlete, but he hung out with the athletes.
- He hung out with the athletes.
He's not really an athlete.
He hung out--he hung out with them.
- Right. - But he was mean.
So I go up there to the lunchroom.
And he's sitting there, and I take my tray, and I go--
And the whole lunchroom goes, "Ooh."
- Ooh.
[food splashes] all: Ooh.
- Oh, yeah, Ryan, brother-- you're not my brother-brother.
Hussein's my brother. But that's besides the point.
My point is I heard that you've been yapping your yapper.
Well, guess what?
I've got one of those too, and what are you going to do
now that the Yas is coming for you?
And his jaw starts kind of coming a little loose.
He's like-- - It's that little jiggle?
- Oh, he's--he's shook. - He started going--like this.
- Yeah, yeah. And I was like, shut up, Ryan!
Keep those lips zipped, brochacho,
and take a good look into these eyes, brother,
because if I ever, and I mean--
all: Ever! Ever!
- Hear you disrespected me, Carol,
or any other rootin'-tootin' gal in this school,
you're going to have to answer to this face.
The face of the Yas coming for your ass!
all: Ooh! - Ooh.
- It's like, "We treat you with respect.
That's exactly what we deserve, and expect in return, got it?"
He starts crying, and everyone goes--
- He starts crying? - And everyone, "Ooh."
And I take a napkin, I throw it in his face
and I was like, "Clean yourself off--you're embarrassing."
- Oh, that's a badass. - Wait, what a tag.
all: [chanting] Yas! Yas! Yas! Yas! Yas! Yas! Yas! Yas! Yas!
Yas! Yas! Yas! Yas! Yas! Yas! Yas!
[wrestling bell chimes]
- And then they were like, "Oh, my God,
"have you met this new girl, Yasmin?
There's a new girl, Yasmin." I'm like, it's just--it's me.
I've been here.
- I've been here the entire time.
- Same Yasmin. I've been here the entire time.
Yeah, so I got my respect.
I was like, put some respect on my name!
- Yeah! - It's Yasmin.
- And then from there on, you were--you were Yasmin?
- So I felt strong like in my middle school, after that time.
But then we went to high school, and I kind of--
it felt like going back down to the rung again
because there was over 3,300 students
and I start getting bullied from day one.
- Even the middle schoolers who had...
- Yes.
- You know, learned to respect you
were suddenly turning on you.
- It was like literally starting from ground up.
I was super smart. So I was like, geeky and weird.
- What was your style at this time?
What did--what did you--
- Oh man, I was wearing, like,
jeans and, like, an oversized T-shirt every single day.
I was so focused on getting out of Alabama.
- Like a XXXL T-shirt. - XXXL T-shirt.
But then September 11th happened,
and when September 11th happened, I was 15.
So I was a junior in high school.
And in that moment, I couldn't hide anymore.
- Yeah. - Part of wearing that big
oversized T-shirt and the jeans is to just...
- Hide. - Hide so I could be focused.
But I realized that there was no hiding.
And I had to prove that I was
American, loyal, worthy.
- But you shouldn't have to prove.
- But that's the reality.
I think when you're a minority...
- Of course.
- And you live in a--in a situation
that people that represent you did something terrible
and you now, you have to pay for that.
- Right.
- And when I got home, my parents,
they were feeling intense sadness and guilt.
Hey, Mom. - Hey, there.
[somber music]
- You look intensely sad.
- Well, today's been a very sad day.
- And it must be a very, very hard time for you
and Hussein too.
- I'm fine. - [sighs]
Yasmin, uh...
God is vast. God is merciful, okay?
You know how I always say just do it?
Well, now the "it" is your headscarf...
And the "just do"
is take it off.
I'm sorry.
- And in this moment, I couldn't believe it.
It was weird to see my dad like this.
'Cause my dad was the most like moral, straightforward,
caring, but also spiritually connected person I knew.
Like I remember I would call him sometimes like, "Hey, Dad."
He would just be like, "The cosmos."
And he would hang up the phone in my face would be like--
He was like spiritual.
It'd be like, "Hey, Dad, how's it going?"
He'd be like, "Know your place in the universe."
You know, even when I got a scholarship, I was like,
"Hey, Dad, I got a scholarship, like, to cover my books."
He'd be like, "Oh, you're so great; God is greater."
- That's kind of a mystical move.
- Yes. - Just--it gets you thinking.
- Yes. - You can't even ask questions.
- They're spiritual phone byes is what I call them.
- They're just little pearls of spiritualism dropped in.
- Yes.
- I'd imagine it's tough for the entire family,
tough for everyone, but to be a kid in high school...
- Yeah. - I mean, they were--
they were very aware
that you were definitely gonna have it really bad.
- Yes, I was like, "Dad,
"I don't know--I don't know who's going to speak
for Muslim women if I don't speak for Muslim women."
- Wow. - Like what's on TV?
Blue and black blobs?
Like we have no representation of Muslim women.
Like if I don't speak up, who will?
Who will take my voice? He was like really quick.
He kind like looked off into the distance.
He was like, "Oh, I knew you were my daughter."
[laughter]
And then he was like-- - You will run for president.
- Me? Or Hussein?
- Definitely not Hussein. You.
You, my daughter, will run for president. Ha.
[heroic fanfare]
* *
- I was like, "Dad, I was born in Cairo."
There's a constitution. That's not going to work.
I can't run for president.
[heroic fanfare]
* *
- Then you will run for president
of your class. Yes?
- I couldn't be like, "No, Dad, I'm not doing that."
I was like, "Yeah, Dad. Rise to the occasion.
Here we go. Let's do this."
- So he went from "You don't have to wear..."
- Right. - "Your headscarf."
- Yes. - To--
- To seeing me strong.
- To seeing you and all your power,
and then suddenly being like,
"Oh, yes, you will be president."
- Yes. Of your class.
- But at this time when you don't have the votes.
- No, I don't have the votes, Randall.
I'm the only Muslim. I'm the only Muslim.
I'm the only one who wears a headscarf
in a sea of over 3,300 students.
It was like, it's time to-- it's time to stand
on your own two feet, Yasmin.
It's like it's time to put all of that
into practice, into action.
- Which is--which is a huge risk at this time.
- Huge risk. - Yeah.
- And so I, like, go over to this other room.
My brother's just like looking at me in the other room,
Hussein, And he's like--
- Dad told me you promised to run for class president?
I know you're smart and all, but that's pretty stupid.
- I know, I know.
Okay, I don't know what I'm going to do.
I need you to help me.
- This seems like a Yasmin problem.
- Please. Please, just come on.
- It's going to be ugly.
- I'm like, "Come on, man. I need your help."
He's like, "Okay, well, who--who's your opponent?
Do you know anyone who's running?"
I'm like, "Yeah, there's one guy
"who's announced, since August, that he was going to be
"the senior class president,
and his name was Mike Green."
So Mike Green was a triple threat.
He played football, basketball.
He ran track.
He was 6'2". He had aced the ACTs.
He already got early decision into Duke,
to be like a scholar-athlete, pre-med.
- Outta my way, wimps.
Whoever makes eye contact gets punched.
- He was mean. People were scared of him.
Every girl wanted to date him. Every guy wanted to be him.
That was Mike Green. And he was like,
"I'm going to be student class president, guys.
"I just want you guys to know
I'm going to throw the best prom."
He was like making all these, like, promises to people.
He is the quintessential American hero from high school.
- He sounds like--like high school royalty.
- Yes, he was diabolical.
He just announced that he's going to be president
before anyone even voted.
- Sounds like a good ol' boy. He's everything you're not.
- Yeah. Yeah, thank you.
- Listen, you've got to do the thing
no one else in school can do, something that sets you apart.
- Right, okay. Like, wear a headscarf.
Yes. Check.
- No, you're gonna rap your election speech.
- You're going to rap your election speech?
- What?
- That's what you're going to do.
- What? - We do it all the time.
- Yeah, no. We do it in private
where we make up these silly little raps for each other.
I can't rap battle Mike Green in front of the entire school.
- Who said anything about battle?
He's not gonna know that you're doing this.
You're just going to be dissing him one way.
You'll be the only one waging war.
- And I'm like, I don't think we should be
talking about waging war right now, Hussein, but okay.
I employed the help of a young man named Mark,
who I was tutoring, who was best friends with Mike.
both: Oh! - To cut the music, to do this.
He mixed the music.
He was like a Napster guy. So he was like--
- I got you, girl. I hook my tutors up.
We'll mix this up in a jiffy. Watch this.
- How quick is a jiffy? [dial-up tone whirring]
- Uh, we may have to leave it on overnight.
And if Mike Green asks, I was never here, girl.
- Where's your head at?
Are you feeling really--is this something that takes a lot of,
like, a lot of courage to muster up,
or are you just kinda like, yeah, I'm doing this?
- No, no, no, no, no. I am sweating out of my mind.
- Yeah.
- All I'm doing is thinking about messing up on stage
in front of thousands of kids.
All I can think about
is ruining any semblance of respect I had.
I thought about also like--I'm kind of
like "representing" something bigger than me,
so I really gotta get this right.
- So, where are you in the process now?
You--you're working on the speech.
Is there campaigning happening? - Yes, there is.
So I really try to lean in to me being different.
So I start putting up slogans, like, you know,
like "Rising Muslim Star," like very clear.
Like I am a rising Muslim star.
- Right.
- You know, vote for me. My name was El Hottie.
Yasmin Elhady is my name.
So they call me El Hottie.
Like H-O-T-T-I-E. - Yeah.
- Yeah, so I made like, "Vote for El Hottie," you know.
And then I'd have like flames and stuff.
Like she's lit. She's on fire.
I also really thought very carefully about the slogans
because I wanted to approach the single-most powerful
voting bloc at our school-- the cheerleaders.
- A lot of influence there too. - Yeah.
- Hugely influential.
- So did you have any ins with the cheerleaders before
or were they just-- - Funny, you should ask.
So one of the cheerleader's boyfriends in middle school
decided to pinch my butt in class,
and I slapped him super hard.
And he couldn't believe that I did that.
And I was like, "Don't you ever touch a woman like that.
And I'm sure your girlfriend wouldn't like that very much."
- Just so happened, she was a cheerleader.
So she had always remembered that I stood up for women.
- Yeah! - And that I stood up for her.
So she had remembered that. Okay.
So I went to the cheerleaders where they practiced.
Hey guys, you know me, I'm running for class president.
- Oh, yeah, we heard. Good luck.
It's going to be, like, really hard to win against Mike Green.
- "We all have crushes on Mike."
- Literally, they were like, "We all kind of want
to date him because, you know, he's cute or whatever."
Okay, listen, let's talk.
Mike Green's going to be busy with sports, track,
probably dating you guys.
I will be your friend.
I will be here to listen to you,
woman to woman. Isn't that better?
- Women supporting women?
Oh, I am here for this. What can we do?
- How about this?
What if you guys tried being me for a day?
They were like, "Oh, like real smart and weird.
Like a weirdo?"
- You mean like a Freaky Friday situation? Sure.
- Yeah. No.
I was thinking more so wouldn't it be cool
if you guys wore a headscarf to school like me?
They were like, "Huh. Look like you?
"Like all like wrapped up like in a bow,
like a little present?"
Like, yeah. Like a little present.
Wouldn't that be--wouldn't that be weird,
but also really cool and different?
- Can we wear, like, colorful ones?
- Yeah, any color you want.
- What about purple? - Oh, 100%.
That is so your color. - Okay, we're in.
Back to practice, ladies.
- You're a genius. - Thank you, thank you so much.
- This is a genius move. - Thank you, thank you.
So I put slogans on the back of the headscarves.
It's like, "Can't scarf this."
"Scarf it down." "Scarf girl to the rescue."
"It's getting hot in here, so put on a scarf."
You know what I mean?
[upbeat music]
* *
So this was a really important campaign move on my part.
- How is Mike Green campaigning at this point?
- He had like posters up.
It was like "Mike Green for president.
"I'll--I'll serve you.
Mike Green for president. You know me."
- "Mike Green for president, idiots."
- Yeah, "Mike Green for president, duh."
- Yeah. - Yeah, yeah.
[laughter]
- What happens when you and Mike, like,
pass each other in the hall?
- What's the vibe? - It's a little tense.
It's a little tense.
- You're going down.
[spaghetti Western music]
- I will bury you.
* *
No one on the teams would even talk to me.
Like, no jocks.
Like, nobody on any of the athletic teams would even,
like, make eye contact with me.
- So all of the tension from the 9/11 aftermath--
- Yeah.
- How is that feeling at this time?
- There was a couple students who did tear down my posters,
especially the ones about like "Rising Muslim Star."
- Yeah.
- And I had a conversation with them.
And I just said, "Look, like,
"you can disagree with me all you want,
but you--you can't tear down my posters."
- Yeah. - Yeah.
- He's like, "Well, I just think like,
"why are you like being all Muslim about it?
Like don't you know what just happened?"
I'm like, "What just happened has nothing to do with me.
"It just doesn't.
"And me being Muslim is my identity,
"and I'm proud of my identity,
and it defines the good stuff about me."
- You were dealing with it. - I was dealing with it.
- Face-to-face. both: Head on.
- Head on. Yeah.
So I've been-- I had been practicing,
so I felt really confident.
- Today's the day? - Today is the day.
- Kick Mike Green's ass. Ha!
- So you give your speeches on the day of the election.
- We give our speeches on the day of the election,
and we find out the results the next day.
- Right, so this-- this speech is crucial.
- Speech is really crucial. It's a Tuesday.
But Monday is the day that all the cheerleaders
came in--in the headscarves. - Yes. Yes. Yeah.
- Wow. - I'm stunting.
Feeling myself a little bit. You know what I'm saying?
- Yeah, yeah, your polling numbers are rising.
- I feel like it was-- I was like,
"Now this is a political maneuvering."
But I also knew that I had to get through the speech.
- This is what it all comes down to.
- I got two minutes. It's Tuesday.
I got two minutes in front of thousands of kids.
I can't mess this up.
- Are you as nervous as I am right now?
- Oh, my God. Well, let me tell you.
I wore like a shirt dress
because I wanted to look like a mogul, you know?
But I had sweated straight through it.
[intense music]
* *
- You're just dripping-- just drenched.
- Yeah, and Mike Green looks at me.
And he's like, "Good luck." - Describe the assembly.
- It's a big auditorium.
And we have a stage, a wooden stage.
And the auditorium sat probably...
I want to say like a thousand--
- Packed. - Packed.
- Does anyone know what you're going to do?
- No one has any idea what I'm going to do except for Mark.
I'm wearing a white headscarf.
I also was wearing a little ski cap.
And on the ski cap was a little piece of paper
that I had to safety pin. It said, MC Yasmin.
And then I had made a tinfoil chain
with like music notes on it and was like,
"Yo, yo, yo. Yasmin." - Okay.
So people know something's up. - Something's up.
- Who's at the podium at this point?
Is it the--the principal?
- Principal's at the podium introducing us,
and I'm about to walk up.
[indistinct chatter from students]
- All right, Tigers.
This is the moment we have all been waiting for.
Now, you know that saying, "It's not, if you win or lose,
it's how you play the game."
Well, that is completely not true.
Winning is everything. Remember that.
If you fail in high school,
it will haunt you the rest of your life.
Trust me, I lost my bid for high school president,
and it--it ruined me.
Ah, but enough about my problems.
We have here our candidates.
And let's meet the first one.
Bless her heart, she's going to lose.
But let's give her a big hand, shall we?
Yas-meen. [scattered applause]
- I kind of go up there with a swagger,
and people are like... [gasps]
Or they're already kind of laughing.
- Which is what you want.
- And so I put the boom box at the edge of the stage,
and I hit play.
[hip-hop music]
* Yasmin, Yasmin, baby *
* *
* Yasmin, Yasmin, baby, non-stop *
* I infiltrate while I listen *
* School's coming back with an important election *
* School, it's teaching me right *
* Ask me any questions, I won't bite *
* White is the color of my scarf *
* Green is the color when you barf *
crowd: Oh!
- Nice. - Yes.
- Yes! - And "green is the color
when you barf." - Barf.
Barf, vomit!
You are vomit. You are vomit, man.
- And what's the look on his face?
Yeah. - [laughing]
No one has ever called him vomit before.
- No one has ever called him out, period.
And the crowd st--well, they went wild.
They were like, "Oh, damn!"
crowd: Oh!
[music continues]
- * Welcome to high school where the students say *
* We go out to the flagpole if we want to pray *
* Wanna skip, take a pic because the gods are roamin' *
* And the gates be closed after 8:00 in the morning *
[cheering and applause]
* I've got to win *
* So you better get this voting started *
* Get this voting started on a Tuesday *
* If it was the principal, you'd be here all day *
* He talks way too long on the intercom *
* Every word he says just comes out all wrong *
crowd: Oh!
- You dissed the principal? - I dissed the principal.
- Whoa! - He deserves to be dissed.
- And then people started getting--
the cheerleaders were like, "Oh, my God!"
- Wow.
- And the place erupts.
[triumphant music]
* *
- Whoo!
So then Mike Green goes up there to do his speech.
And he was like crying.
He was crying. - He was crying?
Of course he was. - No way.
- He was crying.
- [sighs]
[feedback screeches]
- He's like, "I'm Mike Green. And, uh, you know.
"I don't know why you really should vote for me.
I'm going to vote for her too."
[all gasping]
- What! - Yes!
- He endorsed you? - Yes!
Yes! - Wow.
- How the mighty have fallen.
- Oh, my God. - Yes.
- Amazing.
[triumphant music]
* *
[scattered applause]
- So I get home, and I had the boom box.
Right as I enter my home,
the boom box actually falls and breaks.
- This seems like an omen.
- So you're saying it went badly?
- No. No, no, it went really well.
I think I--I think I did really well.
- So you're saying you won? - No.
No, I'm saying it wasn't a disaster.
I don't know yet.
- When will you know? When will you know?
- Tomorrow. I'll know tomorrow!
He was like, "Okay. All right.
"All right, it's fine.
"I'm excited. You're good.
Doesn't matter if you win or lose."
- It doesn't matter, but I'm kind of, uh, invested.
- Hey, whatever happens, I'm proud of you,
and you owe me a new boom box.
- My eyes were like, wide open
when the alarm goes off at like 6:30.
I get myself ready to go to school.
I go to school, and I'm in homeroom,
the principal on the--on the intercom, he's like--
"Good morning, Tigers.
"We got some new presidents and vice presidents,
"and secretaries. And what else?
"Wait, and treasurers, apparently.
I've got a note here."
- "I had some scrambled eggs for breakfast.
"Now, my wife makes them a little runny for my taste.
But I ate them anyway, and then I drove to school."
Get to the point! - Exactly!
I'm at like the edge of my chair.
He just was like--
"And here we go.
"Your next year's class president...
is Miss Yasmin Elhady."
all: Yay!
[cheers and applause]
- The homeroom erupts.
Erupting! Everyone stands up.
They all clap. They were like, "You deserve it.
You deserve it. You're amazing."
I was like, "Oh, my God. Thank you guys so much."
- Wow.
- All of senior year, me and Mike Green have lockers
on top of each other. - Yeah.
- Top locker, bottom locker for all senior year.
- Yeah. - He was 6'2".
Guess who had the top locker?
- Can I just get some-- - No.
- So you get home that night.
- So I get home, and my dad is like, "Okay, what do we got?
What do we got? What do we got?"
- It was a landslide victory. I won!
- That's my girl! I knew you were my daughter.
Yay!
- But second of all, he was like,
"You, my beautiful daughter,
are worth a thousand sons."
- Ohh... - He gave me a big hug.
- I love that. - And he made it worth it.
That's the best part. I mean, I'm proud.
And, um,
and he was, um...
he still is, like, the most major figure in my life.
- Yeah.
- And I know I would've never done it without him.
- How did that win set up your life?
- So I feel like that win
really made me believe in human beings,
in collective humanity.
It made me believe in myself,
that I think that if I could strategize,
if I could problem-solve, I'd be just fine.
- Yeah. - So I feel like that set me up
for making sure that I could put out my wings, jump.
And if I fly, great. And if I fall on my face,
I'll get back up and it'll be just fine.
I ended up going off to Cairo, going back to where I was born,
and going to the American embassy in Cairo
to do a graduate fellowship in Arabic.
And it just taught me a lot about like,
oh, like there's no difference between my story
or this person's story.
Like, it just so happens that I was born into a family
that came to the United States and had this life,
but I could've just as easily been a poor child
in the street begging. - Yeah.
- And it really inspired me to want to go to law school
and, like, fight for people's rights.
I was shaky on my own,
but if I was fighting for someone else, I felt strong.
I felt that we could stand together.
- Wow. - So that made me feel like
I needed to be a part of,
you know, a legal education
that could help empower people, protect people.
I work in public service,
and a big part of me running for that first election
was me being part of the-- the governing structure.
- Amazing.
- That's the story, guys. - I am blown away.
- You are an incredible person. - Thank you.
- Thank you for taking us on this
incredible journey with you. - Yeah.
- * Are you gonna make it happen today? *
* Or will you just settle for another delay? *
* Come on, you gotta make it happen now *
* Said, are you gonna wait and sit on your hands? *
* Or will you go and start making out *
* A list of demands? 'Cause you can make it happen *
- * Yasmin, Yasmin, baby *
- * Start attacking, don't lose out on the action *
* Hey! Seek the path *
* Reach and grab all the right things that you need to have *
* Don't wait in good faith *
- * School's coming back with a brand new election *
* This school got ahold of me tight *
* Ask me any questions, I won't bite *
- * Now is the time, lay it all on the line *
* When you break through the wall in your mind *
* Whatever's occurred, that's the past *
* Don't lose the courage when I have to ask *
* Are you gonna make it happen today?
- * White is the color on my scarf *
* Green is a color when you barf *
- * Light fuse, ignite and move, why refuse? *
* 'Cause if you really believe you want it to be *
* More than a dream, you got to turn it into reality *
* So you gotta make it happen now *
* Come on, gotta make it happen now *
* Come on, you gotta make it happen now *
* Whoo! *