Jenny Zou

Artist, Idea generator, Student

Jenny Zou is a Junior at York House School. She enjoys acrylic, oil, and watercolour painting and suffers from existential crises about her artistic career. Jenny loves art and hopes to use art as an avenue for action. Jenny appreciates greek column orders and can be found cooking up bizarre recipes in her spare time. Jenny also loves cats and hopes to own one after she leaves for college.

Art, art history, inspiring through art.

Like many others, I was many times inspired by the amazing ideas and messages of TED talks. Some made me laugh, some made my eyes red, but most of all, they made me think. From TEDEd videos on cells and chromosomes in my science class, to learning to read body language from Amy Cuddy, TED talks have been the inseparable anchor to my life. Through these inspiring words brave action was inspired and new perspectives to my global horizon were offered. Determined to put my ambition to action, I wanted to inspire. I was fortunate enough to bring my voice to the 2018 TEDxStanleyPark event. In front of an audience of over 2300, I delivered my ideas and advocated for more art education in Vancouver public schools. It was a long and strenuous journey of brainstorming, drafting, rewriting, rehearsing, and practicing, until finally I proudly stood in the dim of the spotlight that day. What made my six months of painstaking work worth it was the impact my words had made. I had never before imagined that my words could make such a difference in my listener’s lives until after my speech, an old gentleman came up to me and told me that he was going to start teaching his granddaughter how to draw. Another man came up to me and told me how he was going to take art lessons and start pursuing his passion again. I was so amazed and overwhelmed by what extraordinary things a TED talk can initiate; this was the moment when I was certain that I wanted to help more people spread their ideas worth sharing.

making apple sauce and singing Taylor Swift bridges