Emerald-Angel Young: 'I'm like 10 going on 25'

Emerald Angel Young, 10, on the red carpet

To talk to Emerald-Angel Young, the young starlet who plays Jamie Foxx's daughter in "Law Abiding Citizen," it's easy to forget you're talking to a 10 year old.  In an interview with Examiner, Emerald opened up about her career aspirations, her relationship with her mom, her role model, and how she maintains honor-roll status while shooting movies.

Emerald-Angel was born on March 8, 1999. Pretty much as soon as the native New Yorker could talk she told her mom she had big plans for herself. "I was at Starbucks and talking to my mom. I was two. I always wanted to be a doctor on tv."  Just eight years later, the only child of a single mother, Emerald is starring in her first major Hollywood production.

But it didn't come without hard work and sacrifices. Emerald's mom, who is also her manager, gave up her career to focus on her daughter's. A talented young actress, singer and dancer, Emerald won the 2007 National American Miss Pageant. Her raw talent and natural beauty (she's Black, Indian, Chinese and Portuguese) have taken her from the pageant stage to the small stage and now the big screen.

Emerald landed her first TV gig in the Build-A-Bear Workshop commercials. She's made repeat guest appearances on Life on Mars and landed the lead role of Puck in the 2008 off-Broadway play A Midsummer Night's Dream. Now she's taking on her biggest role yet as Denise Rice in Law Abiding Citizen where she stars with Jamie Foxx and Regina Hall. She'll also appear alongside Jessica Alba in An Invisible Sign of My Own which is expected in theaters in 2010. While she's worked with some pretty heavy Hollywood hitters, like a typical tween, Emerald says her Hollywood role model and who she'd most like to work with is Miley Cyrus. Emerald is holding out hope, saying the two share an agent and they met once or twice!

Even with her busy schedule, Emerald continues to volunteer at local nursing homes and excels in school. "I have a 92 average and I'm on honor roll." Emerald went on to tell me balancing her life as a young celebrity and just being an ordinary kid come easy to her. "It's not hard. It's what I want to do. When I'm sick my mom says we don't have to go. I say, 'We're going, this is what I want to do.'" 

While this 10 year old clearly knows what she wants (she admits "I'm like 10 going on 25") she also has a great deal of respect and love for her mom, Jennifer. "She gave up her job for me, she just got a new job and I was booked for the Build-a-Bear commercial. They asked her 'Do you want your career, or do you want your daughter's?'" The decision isn't something Emerald takes for granted. As a singer and songwriter with 12 songs under her fashionable rhinestone belt, the youngster wrote a special one for her mom. "I wrote a song for my mom for Mother's Day, she cried."

So what's next for Emerald-Angel Young the singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and beauty queen? "I'm reaching for the stars." If she continues on the path she's on, it could be a Hollywood star on the walk of fame.

Read more about Emerald's experience on the set of Law Abiding Citizen.

More Celebrity Kids' Profiles in the "Spotlight On..." Series 

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