Exclusive: Jordin Sparks Talks Charity With Look To The Stars
Wholesome, talented and sincere are the three words that come to mind when speaking of the Grammy-nominated 2007 “American Idol” winner, Jordin Sparks.
Sparks is currently on her first headlining tour through mid-July in support of her second album, “Battlefield,” before heading to Broadway to star in “In The Heights.” Yet despite her busy schedule, Sparks relentlessly uses her name for good.
While maintaining a strong connection with her fan base, she’s using social media networks such as Twitter to inspire fan involvement with a number of causes including Alex’s Lemonade Stand Foundation for Childhood Cancer, the X The TXT campaign and the Sparks Charities Foundation. And if you listen carefully, you’ll hear Jordins heartbeat pulsating within an entire generation of fans out there making changes within their own communities.
It’s hard to image that – at only 20-years old – a mega-star her age is more interested in Tweeting about causes rather than the color of her shoes, which makes her not only relevant, but important. And this is just one reason why Look to the Stars was pleased to speak with this inspirational icon.
Jordin Sparks is just so… Good.
Hi Jordin. Well balanced 20-year old celebrities, interested in giving back, are a rarity. You are passionately involved with a number of causes. How is it that you’ve remained untainted by fame and can best be described as, well, Good?
Oh thank you. I love being able to do something and give back and use my name for something bigger than myself, essentially for the greater good. I hope that doesn’t sound too cheesy! I actually take things day by day and give a lot of credit to my mom, my dad, my family and the people that I surround myself with. My family is so amazing, but when they’re back home in Arizona I definitely have to give credit to my fans and the people I’m touring with – they are really good people who will tell me if I’ve done something stupid or if it’s a bad idea, it’s really cool to be around people who are so good.
You are also very active in your support of Allstate’s X the Text campaign. Tell us about it.
Allstate and I teamed up last year to show everyone – including my mom’s generation – that it’s very dangerous to text and drive. There are hands-free driving laws and I just don’t understand why more states haven’t passed this law. I was actually just in North Carolina, and they passed the law which made me very happy… I’ve been really fortunate to have Allstate on tour with me. We have a booth at my shows where my fans, friends and their parents can take the pledge to ‘X The Text’. It’s really great to see everyone at the end of my concert raise their hands when I asked if they took the pledge. And if you can’t make it to a concert, you can take the pledge at Facebook PLEGDE page.
As we know, the media places celebrities under a microscope, so it was impressive to see you take note of such a small detail as a pair of earrings, the Wonder Hoops by Lexi Lu, which, by just wearing them, created a ‘charity’ buzz for the company.
Lexi Lu has been so amazing and I just love being able to work with her. She makes all these different types of earrings and some of them go towards different charities or different campaigns. For example, the previous year on the show, she had sent Katharine McFee a pair of earrings she had made for a charity Katharine was involved with. Then she sent me a pair of earring while I was on American Idol, and this past year Lexi came to one of my events and made necklaces for our charity as well. I love being able to meet people and say ‘hey, let’s see if we can team up and do something together’, and it’s been really nice to help be an inspiration and be able to help.
