 and welcome to the National Archives Virtual Pajama Party. We are so glad you were here. It's been very exciting to see your submissions come in, to see all the participants from all the different places. And I hope you've enjoyed the activities we've been doing together and all the history things we've been learning. And of course, Ms. Lori Hernandez's book. So I wanna start off today by letting you know who all we have with us tonight. So we're gonna do a roll call of who we have with us. We have many different states and we even have someone from another country. And I wanna start off with them. And as I read the name, you'll see that name of the place at the top and you'll see the shape of what that, in this case, country of Peru looks like or what our state looks like. So check that out. When I say the name of the place where you are, I want you to type in the chat, the city you're from, right? So I'm gonna say the state. So for example, for me, if I heard Pennsylvania, I would put in the chat, go Philly, because that's where I live. I live in Philadelphia. So you listen for the place where you are, the state that you live in, and then you put your city in the chat. And where do you see how many different places we have? So welcome especially to our family from Peru, which is in South America. Now what I'm gonna do is start from the middle of the alphabet. If you were with us at the October pajama party, you know I started at the end of the alphabet and worked my way back. Because at the people whose names of their own names or states, they're always at the back, right? So in October I started there and we worked our way up. But today I wanna start in the middle because the people in the middle of course are not in the beginning or not at the end. So I wanted to start with them today. So the 13th letter of the alphabet is M. So we're gonna start that way and then we're gonna loop our way around. So are you ready? I'm hoping that the people who live in Maryland have already put their city and a special shout out, okay? So Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, that's a state right next to me, New York and another one. North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania. Woo-hoo, South Carolina, Tennessee. Have you heard your state yet or is yours in the beginning of the alphabet? Utah, Virginia, Washington state. I used to live there too. Washington, D.C. And I know that's not a state but I wanted to put it in the alphabetical list. The District of Columbia, Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida. Oops, I missed one. Good thing I had it in the slide. California, this is Colorado of course, which is maybe the straightest looking state. I was surprised at how many states kind of went up and down or over on but Colorado is a pretty good square. All right, now Florida, there we go. Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, and Louisiana. So I hope you all put yourself in the chat where your city is from and we're gonna take a look at that and see all the different ones. So that's great. Thanks for participating in that with me and I'm so excited to have you all with us. Now I wanted to play a special video for you, a welcome from the deputy archivist of the United States. She made a special video for us tonight and she'll give us her welcome. The National Archives second virtual pajama party. Many of you who are with us tonight are first time National Archives program attendees so I want to extend a special welcome to those families as well as a welcome back to families who participated in our first virtual pajama party last fall. As of March one, we had families from 19 states and from one other country signed up to participate in the program this evening. So far for this program series, we've explored the history of women and girls in sports, women in the Olympics, and gymnastics. We've seen a variety of historical records from the National Archives, including photographs, video clips, a letter, and a patent for a gymnastics related invention from 1873. Along the way, you've participated in a variety of educational activities, like designing a trading card of your favorite woman athlete, creating a poem from the letters of your favorite sport, or imagining you could go back in time and talk with a gymnast from history. We hope you've enjoyed doing these activities as much as we enjoyed making them and we look forward to seeing some of your creativity featured in the program this evening. Tonight, we'll see and hear about an important law from 1972 called the Education Amendments Act, often called Title IX, this act dramatically expanded opportunities for girls to play sports. And we'll get a chance to meet our featured guest, Ms. Lori Hernandez. Ms. Hernandez is a gold medal winning Olympic gymnast dancing with the stars champion and author of the best-selling book, I Got This, to Gold and Beyond. Her book is a fascinating behind-the-scenes look at her long and sometimes twisting path to the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and her experiences afterwards. Many thanks to Ms. Hernandez for joining us tonight and discussing the importance of dreaming big, setting goals, working hard, and believing in yourself. I hope you notice the possibility pages in the back of her book and that you use them now or in the future so that you always remember what is possible for you. One great book or program can lead to others, so I encourage you to keep reading and learning about any of the topics covered in the book and this program. And I invite all of you to continue to participate in our Virtual Pajama Party Program Series or other National Archives Family Programs. Thanks again, and I hope you enjoy your evening. Okay, thanks so much for our Deputy Archivist Deb Wall for taking the time for making that video for us. And I also want to give a big thanks to my team with me tonight. Whether you're in sports or not, you're on teams of some sort, and you know how important it is when a team works together to make something magic happen. So I wanna say thanks to my team. We're in different places of the country bringing you this show tonight. So I wanna say thank you to Kimberly in Kansas City, to Stephanie in Virginia, and in Washington DC to Susan and Jamie. And a special shout out to Jamie because she's doing all our tech work tonight. So thank you to my colleagues. I'm always happy to work with you. I wanted to say a special thank you to Cheryl Shade who is Ms. Hernandez's agent and who helped get this program together as well. And of course I'm going to say my thanks to Ms. Hernandez when she gets on screen a little bit later on. And so I wanted to tell you a little bit about what we're gonna do tonight. And I also wanted to tell you just a little bit about the National Archives. Maybe if you saw the slides that we had before the show, you saw that we have more than 40 locations across the country. So there might be a National Archives facility by you. And if so, we hope you come and visit us once we can be out and about again, our facilities will be open. Of course now you can access all our resources online at archives.gov at DocsTeach. Those you saw a lot of the clips that I gave you of our records came from DocsTeach. So that's a great way to connect with us then. We hold the permanently valuable records of the federal government. And we have an amazing array of things that we have. You saw some of them in our activities. So photographs, census records, patents, court records, you name it, we might have it. So when you're looking for things for projects, make sure that you check out what we have. We love to hear from you. All right, so what are we gonna do now for the rest before Ms. Hernandez comes on? We're going to take a look at what our theme is tonight and some of the historical records that we have. And then we're going to take a look at the work that you sent in. And next to meeting our guests, when we do pajama parties, I love seeing everyone's work. And I wish I could see every single person's work on the activities, but we have some that we can share with us. And if you didn't get a chance to send in one this time, we're gonna have another pajama party in the fall. So maybe you could do that then, okay? So our theme for tonight is celebrating achievements and pushing forward. And in her book, Laurie Hernandez talks about the importance of setting goals, working hard towards them and celebrating when you either individually or as a team achieve these goals. Setting goals, working hard and celebrating success is important in all parts of life. Tonight, the historical documents I'm gonna show you reflect those things in a story of fairness for girls in education and sports. And you've noticed that that's something we've been talking about in our activities. But as Laurie Hernandez reminds us in her book, and I'm sure other people have mentioned to you as well, it's important that once you have reached your goal and celebrated, it's time then to set new goals and push forward with them. So that's why our theme tonight is celebrating achievements and pushing forward. And our historical sources tonight show that as well in the story of an important act called Title IX. And my colleague, Victoria Otero, is going to talk about what that is. So we have a video for you. Oh, did I get things mixed up? I bet I did. I am sorry, Jamie. See, that's what happens. Make a mistake, laugh it off. We have to look at the historical records first. So Jamie, could you move the slide to the historical records? Sorry about that. So what we have tonight are two pictures. You can see one is a picture of the poster of a celebration from Title IX, 40 year celebration. We have another picture over on the right there with President Clinton and the act itself. But the first video we're gonna see before we get to see my colleague, Victoria, is one produced in the 1970s about women's lives. And so that will give us a sneak peek into what women's lives were like in the 1970s. Like those in many parts of the world, adjust and revise their lifestyles to keep pace with the impact of the miracles of 20th century scientific and industrial progress. Rapid changes in transportation, communication, urbanization, the electronic media and medicine influence the physical environment of their lives. Increased education broadens their minds and opens them to the desire for and the reality of new opportunities outside the home. With more choice about how to spend their lives comes a conflict of both psychological and emotional decisions. How they can best fill their multiple roles of adult, female, worker, wife, mother and citizen. And citizen. Okay, so I wanted to show you this about the 1970s since that's when the act we're going to talk about takes place. And did you notice any differences in the things you saw in that video on what we have today? Certainly we have better video technology having grown up in the 70s was about your age then. We didn't videotape all things all the time. So this was kind of a special occasion, I'm sure. All right, so now is the time when my colleague, Victoria, will tell you a little bit about Title IX and even read you a part of it. Yeah, I'm an artist at the National Archives where I help collect, organize and provide access to valuable historical information. I work with written records in our textual division. I'm so glad you joined us for our virtual pajama party in which we are learning about the history of women in sports. Today I'm here with you to read two sections of a very important historical document. The document is the Education Amendments Act of 1972 and it included a section called Title IX, prohibition of sex discrimination. Title IX said that there should no longer be discrimination in education programs supported by federal money. In other words, that girls' programs should not be treated unequally or receive less money just because they were girls. And here's what the act said. No person in the United States shall on the basis of sex be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving federal financial assistance. For the purposes of this title, an educational institution means any public or private preschool, elementary or secondary school or any institution of vocational, professional or higher education. So next time you participate as a player or a fan of a girl's sport in school, think of Title IX and give an extra cheer for the women who worked so hard for fairness and to get the act passed. And to get the act passed. All right, thank you to Victoria for making that video for us. And here you can see I have part of the Educational Amendment Act of 1972. And Title IX, you can see we have nine written IX because it's in Roman numerals and that's a tradition. Now this is just three of the pages of the act. It's longer, but I wanted to show you the first two pages that we just read a section to you from. And then the last page with all the signatures on it. So next we're gonna take a look at the poster. And I love this poster because clearly someone was very happy. Look at all the balloons and the hats and all that on the cake. The passage of Title IX as we heard Victoria tell us was really important. It gave women and girls more opportunities than they had had before the passage of the act. Within 15 years after Title IX was passed, the number of women playing sports in high school and college had increased by five times. That's how much impact the act had. This poster from June 2012 celebrated the ideas of fairness and equality of Title IX. Now sometimes after a new act like Title IX is passed, it takes time and ongoing effort for the changes to actually happen. That a little catch up process where the law changes but then it takes time for it to actually become enforced and be enacted. And if the changes don't fully happen, the act needs to be added to so we can make sure the changes can be enforced. And that's what's happening in this photo. From 1997, President Bill Clinton signed a memorandum strengthening Title IX enforcement. And you can see there was a whole group of people on hand with him to watch him sign that and to celebrate another chapter in the history of fairness for women in sports and in education. All right. So now with that concept of education and fairness, I want us to talk about fairness. And I know we're all in different places. So here's what we're gonna do. I want you to take a couple of minutes with the people who are watching this with you. And once you have answered these questions or talked about it, put it in the chat. So what I'm asking you to talk about and then put in the chat is, what does the word fair mean to you? And why do you think fairness is important? And I'm gonna give you a couple of minutes to talk with those at home. And then you can start putting your answers in the chat and I'll read some of them out, okay? Okay. So some answers are starting to come in. Great. It means equality, someone says. It means everyone gets the same chances that there is equal opportunity. These are great answers of fairness. What fairness means to you and why do you think fairness is important? Someone else is saying everyone is different but treated equal. That's what fairness means. Oh, there's a good one too. Being thoughtful, sharing, that's great. All of these things are important for things being fair. Any other ideas or things you'd like to say why it's important? So someone just said it is important to be fair because boys and girls should be equal, right? It's important to be fair, that's exactly right. To have the same access to opportunities, right? Everyone should have access to try to be their best and to try to work at whatever they want to. Oh, here's a word equity too. Maybe some of you know that, it looks like because you put it in the chat. Equity is another good word for fairness. Being equitable is another way to say that. Thank you. What else do we have here? That everyone is equal and has the same opportunities, that's equitable because it means that everyone's needs are met. What a great way to put it. Thank you for that. I'll just wait a few more minutes in case some of you haven't typed your answer in yet. So I wanna make sure we get as many voices as possible in the chat, which is an important part of a good discussion and being fair, right? Fairness means to me, giving people a chance to do their best, a great opportunity. That's what somebody else had said before too. Oh, and that's a great one. Somebody just mentioned being kind. That's part of fairness too. To treat people how you wanna be treated, exactly. Sometimes people call that the golden rule, right? Treat other people the way you wanna be treated. All right, well, thank you so much for all of these. You can continue to put your answers in because we'd like to hear, but I do want to be able to move on because you know what we're waiting for are our last two things and the things that we're all excited about. So now is the time to look at your work, some of your work that was sent in. And again, I thank everybody who sent the work in and let me just go through these with you. First, on the left here, we have Rae Linn who's from New Jersey, hi Rae Linn. And you can see she's very much in the spirit of things. She's got her pajamas on. She's got a book by Lori Hernandez, a picture book. She's got this and she has a picture of a gymnast and her name and hearts there. So she put a lot of enthusiasm into that. Thank you so much. And then on the right hand side, we have a great drawing of someone on the balance beam and that was part of drawing a gymnast and that is great as well. I wish I'd be able to do things like that. So thank you very much to Sophie. Let's see who else we have. All right, then we have two of our participants who did the trading card. Remember that was one of the first activity suggestions to make a trading card for your favorite woman athlete. And so on this picture on the left here from E and K in Pennsylvania, E has made a trading card of Simone Biles there and you see the great picture and the facts underneath. So we know who her favorite gymnast is or one of her favorite gymnasts is Simone Biles and I absolutely agree. And then on the right hand picture, we have work from RP in Ohio and this is her trading card for Billie Jean King and you see that she has some facts on here, 39 grand slam titles she said about Billie Jean King and an advocate for girls in sports, yes, absolutely. And we can see that she was born in Long Beach, California in November. So those of you who are from California, you know that Billie Jean King is as well. Thank you both to E and to RP for their great work. Let's see what else we have here. All right, so then we have Morgan from New York who shows a picture of a gymnast doing splits and maybe some of you remember from the last activities we had where there was a picture of President Obama doing his best splits when the 2016 Olympic team including Laurie Hernandez, of course, went to visit him in the White House. So I saw this picture and that kind of reminded me of that. I really liked that picture. So thank you to Morgan for that. And here is Savannah from Maryland who did an acrostic poem. And if you remember an acrostic poem, this one was about sports. So you write your favorite sport or exercise activity down instead of across like letters usually go. And then you think up something for each letter. So you see what her sport is, gymnastics, we can read down for that. And she says, getting to do what I love. You got this, my family cheering me on, never give up, a perfect score, saluting the judges, tumbling across the floor. I love learning new skills, cheering on my teammates and sticking the landing, great job. All right, let's see. I know we have at least one more acrostic poem. Yes, and we have another trading card too. So this one, the trading card, I mean the acrostic on the left is from Owen in Virginia. And you can see that Owen has his letters going down and his favorite sport is squash. Now that's something I've never played. I'd be interested to learn more about that. And the poem says, swish. I go swish when I swing my racket. You see, Owen has great drawings down the right hand side too. Q, quick. I'm quick and keen on the court. U, use. I use underhand and I hit the ball. A, actually, it's actually quite nice. Swoop, I'll swoop down to hit the ball and hit. I hit the ball with grace. Thanks so much for that. And then you can see on the right hand side, Lucy from North Carolina made a trading card for Olga Corbett. And you know, she was in some of the records we looked at earlier, that picture of President Nixon with the Soviet gymnastics team. And so here she has a picture of Olga Corbett and some facts about her that she was born in 1955. Now, this was something I learned that she has a move named after her called the Corbett Flip where you stand on the high bar and then flip and regress the bar. But she mentions in here that that got banned at one point. And I'm gonna have to find out more about that story because I hadn't heard that before. So that's cool. She has four Olympic gold medals and two silver medals. All right, so thank you so much for sending that work in. Like I said, that's always one of my favorite things. And now it's time for our next favorite thing to welcome Ms. Lori Hernandez. I'm going to introduce her first and we're all here because we're fans, right? So sometimes we will say she needs no introduction but it's nice to hear about her accomplishments. And so I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then she will join us on screen and then it's your opportunity. She's gonna do a little reading first from a section in her book and then she'll take questions and comments. So let me tell you a little bit about her. Since bringing home the gold and silver medals at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, Lori has gone on to win the coveted Mirror Ball Trophy on Dancing with the Stars season 23. And of course, her first book that we read called I Got This to Gold and Beyond, chronicling her journey thus far. It was published in 2017 and made the New York Times bestseller list. In 2018, she released the picture book, She's Got This and we saw it. I think that was the one that was in Ray Lynn's photo, right, which was also a New York Times bestseller while serving as a literacy champion to promote readership as a path to leadership. Absolutely. And Mattel even created a Lori Hernandez-Shiro Barbie to honor her. Lori is a second generation American as her grandparents are from Puerto Rico, making her the first US-born Latina to make the US Olympic team since 1984. Lori is currently training to compete for a spot on the Olympic team in Tokyo this summer. And so we're extra glad that she's joining us when not in the gym. Lori enjoys spending time with her family. Acting is one of her biggest passions and she has done cameos, voiceovers and even co-hosted American Ninja Warrior Junior. Maybe some of you have seen her on that. She travels the country speaking to the next generation about following your dreams and embracing who you are. She is also a fierce advocate for the importance of mental health and has partnered with multiple campaigns and initiatives to encourage awareness. So please join me in welcoming Ms. Lori Hernandez with us. Yay. How are you? Good, how are you? I'm doing well, thank you. Good, sure, absolutely. So I know we'll have a lot of things in chat. I'm sure we're gonna get some questions, but could you do the reading for us please, Ms. Hernandez? Yes, of course, page 36, right? Yes. Oh, page, yep, 36 to 38, you got it. Well, peppermint oil and breathing techniques usually help ease my nerves and frustrations. Unfortunately, they don't do anything to help cure the occasional disappointment I feel after a bad week. I have to rely on some of my mother's best advice for that. I remember this one awful competition after I'd moved up to the early level. It was 2012 in St. Louis at the USA Gymnastics National Championships, which we all refer to as the PNG Championships or the PNGs for short. It was only the second big event I participated in in my life and I came in 21st place that day. When the competition was all over, I started to cry. My coach seemed so disappointed in me and of course, I was disappointed in myself. My mother came over and asked me what was wrong. When I told her, she said, do you know how many people in this world would love to be 21st at PNGs? Or how many people will never even get that opportunity to compete? That was so like my mom. She firmly believes in the art of gratitude. Then she said, girl, we're not going to cry. We're gonna celebrate. I couldn't believe it. Celebrate? But she was right. Not many people ever get to where I was. So she wiped away my tears and bought me some ice cream. As we sat on the grass eating, I heard this little girl whisper to her dad, look, there's Lori. When they got closer, the girl asked me for my autograph and we took a picture together. It was adorable to see how happy she was. Whoever those people were, they saw something in me and in that moment, they helped restore some of my confidence. Now, whenever I'm fangirling around people I admire, I think about that moment. You never know how much your appreciation can lift up someone else's spirits. Later that afternoon, my mom and I talked some more and she reminded me that a lot of times disappointment is what helps you grow. It presents an opportunity to improve. She told me that if I've done the best that I could in the moment under those particular circumstances, then I was only responsible for my own reaction because that's the only thing I was really in control of. I cannot be responsible for the reactions of my fans, teammates, judges, coaches, or anyone else, which is an important lesson all athletes need to learn at some point. You can tell that my mom is a wise and spiritual woman. There is a lot of prayer and faith happening in my family. More than anything, even more than peppermint oil, that's what keeps me calm and centered. I find it makes it much easier to deal with the kinds of mental and physical stresses I can face. I have to admit that as rough as those first competitions were, they ended up being pretty positive experiences. Now I recover from disappointments more quickly and was more optimism. And when I find I'm nervous, I tell myself not to worry because I'm right where I'm supposed to be. There was no reason to be anxious. All I have to do is just chill and go with it. Yay, thank you so much. I really loved that section. It says so many different important lessons in it and I love how your mom's in it too. And that's something I did really enjoy in the book, learning about your family members and how you really took strength from that. So thank you for reading that. And our questions are starting to come in, but I just wanted to ask first off, how things are going for you now? You know, we know up through the book and we know you're in training. How are things going? Well, I think things are going pretty well. I saw it in the last year with the pandemic and everything that's been happening. It has been a bit of a juggle. There's been a lot of great moments that we've needed to adapt to, but just like anybody else, it's accepting all the things that we can't control, all the things that we can kind of go full force with it. And a lot of the things that I can control nowadays is practice and sometimes it is what I can do with my body and that's something that I find a lot of confidence in. So I'd say lately it's been going pretty well. Oh, good, good. We're all glad to hear that. Okay, so somebody has a question that says, what level were you when you realized you really love gymnastics? Ooh, I'd say the levels changed. So level seven is now level six. So technically I would say level six was the moment that I realized I really loved it. And that was level seven for me. I remember that was the first level that we got to have our own floor music and all the dance was individual to each athlete. You didn't hear the same music for every single kid, every routine. Everybody's routine was different and it was tailored to them and it made me feel like I got to be my own person and be original. And that brought a lot of joy for me to be able to compete and say like, hi, this is me, this is my music. So definitely level six, seven. Okay, all right, great, thanks. And then kind of a similar question, how did you know you wanted to be an Olympic gymnast? Ooh, I mean, I had watched a lot of Olympians growing up and I remember kind of pointing to the screen and telling my mom that I wanted to be just like those girls. And so I'd say that was very telling, but at the same time growing up and kind of advancing so quickly in gymnastics, I was able to see the girls around me also advancing and wanting to go to the Olympics. And I think that was my moment of like, okay, I think I could keep up with that. I could try to do that. And it was all in good fun, it was all exciting. Oh yeah, sounds away. All right, somebody wants to know what is your favorite move? Do you have a favorite? Yeah, that's always hard to think of one. Maybe you could do your top couple. Okay, yeah, I'll do top three. I think my first one would have to be what's called a double Arabian on floor. So you start off this flip going backwards and you do a half turn and then you do two front flips. So I, you know, when I'm tumbling, I prefer to go forwards. I find it very comfortable and it feels like home and for a lot of girls, that's definitely not the case. So that's a really exciting skill for me. Another one also on floor, it's called the double layout. So it's just a double back flip, but your body is in a straight body position. And when it's done the right way, it feels like you're flying. It's really cool. And the last one would have to be just a front aerial on beam, no handed front walkover. That one I've done since I was a little kid and I have a lot of confidence in it. Yeah, yeah, and I would think especially something you'd been working on, you know, that you remember doing when you were at those, you know, earlier levels, it also has kind of a fun connection to you that way too, you know. Yeah, it's very helpful, especially at competitions when I'm really nervous. I know those skills that I did when I was a little kid. Those are the ones that I can rely on to, I can almost let my brain relax while I'm competing because I'm like, okay, I've done this go for so long. My body knows what it's doing. I can take a second to myself while this happens. Yeah, yeah, oh great. All right, so a little bit change of pace before we get back into some questions about different routines and things like that. Do you have any advice for athletes who get mental blocks? I know you talked a little bit about this in your book, but I'm sure our listeners, viewers, would appreciate a little bit more about that. Yeah, mental blocks can be really tough, especially when you don't really understand what's happening when they happen. They can be very intimidating. There's a really strong feeling that is carried when they happen. And if nobody breaks that down for you, then it becomes this daunting thing that every time you feel the emotion that's linked to a mental block, your whole body wants to shut down. So the way that someone once explained it to me was when your body is panicking because it's nervous and because it cares about you and your brain is kind of doing the same thing. It's understanding that your brain is kind of pulling some of the oxygen levels and it's signaling to your body that something's a little off and that's why your hands get sweaty. That's why sometimes your tummy might hurt when things get just really nerve-wracking. And by taking really slow, deep breaths, you're taking the oxygen from outside and bringing it back in. And you're telling your brain everything is okay. We don't have to worry. So when you get those strong feelings, just remind yourself to take slow, deep breaths. Let yourself know that you're safe and it's okay to try. And the biggest one is that it's okay to fall. You're probably not gonna make the first one and that's okay. You have to fall a thousand times before you learn how to do it. So I get those mental blocks can be really scary. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, thank you. Let's see, what are your best tips for competing? Ooh, best tips for competing? I do feel like if you can make getting ready for the competition, like when you're doing your hair or if you like to put on makeup, which is something that I definitely like to do and I was like 15 and 16 years old, making that a really fun experience. And if you can do it with friends, to do it with friends is wonderful because all the pre-meet playlists that I've made and then competed afterwards, years down the road, I hear those songs and I'm like, hey, you know, I remember when I was at the Olympics, this was the song that we got ready to and it has a beautiful moment tied to it. So not only does it make it less stressful, but you get wonderful memories down the road too. Great, great. Oh, someone wants to know if you've ever taken a huge fall off the beam and what did you do to get back up and keep going? Yes, I have taken many falls on beam. It's a really tricky event and it takes a lot of time to master. I've fallen more times than I can count on all four events, but definitely on beam, it's kind of the easiest one to, you know, have some slips on. And a lot of them have happened during competitions and those are those moments where kind of like in the book, you have to look and say, okay, it happened. We get to try this again another time. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Just like, I don't know if you were listening before but I made that mistake in how we were gonna do the show and you just gotta say that's what happens. Mistakes happen. You just keep it moving. Yeah, yeah. You just keep it moving. Okay, let's see. What is the hardest skill you are working on and this is a two-part question because maybe this is what this person is working on. Do you have any tips on a front hand spring on vault? Ooh, okay. So the hardest skill that I'm working on right now would probably have to be it's what's known as a release move on bars. So I'm letting go of the equipment and doing a flip and then I'm catching it again. And a lot of times those can get very tricky when they're new because especially when they're new, you don't exactly know what's happening when you're in the air and it just takes a thousand tries to figure out, okay, so when I'm backwards, this is where my body is. This is what my legs have to do so that way I can like flip myself over. And there's a new release that I'm working with on bars that it's gonna take a second, but that's okay. For front hand springs on ball, I think the biggest thing is staying really tight in your shoulders, which not a lot. I mean, hopefully a lot of people talk about, but staying tight in your shoulders when you go to hit the table, already be ready before you even get there and it'll give you a really nice block. All right, so something's wondering, what was the hardest, did everybody ask you, what was the hardest skill you have ever competed in? Ooh, hardest skill that I've ever competed. I don't know, I like to think that all my skills are kind of hard, but anything to do with uneven bars, the uneven bars is kind of one of my most difficult ones. Ever since I was a little kid, anything on there has just taken a very long time to learn. So I'd say just bars in general. Right, okay, okay, yeah, that's fair. That's kind of picking your hardest is kind of like picking your best or something. It's hard to kind of choose from all that's going on, especially when you're always training. Okay, here's a different kind of question. When did you feel like you really accomplished your dreams? Ooh, that's a really good one. I think a very cheesy, but unfortunately correct answer would be when we were able to get Team Gold at the Olympics. We were standing in the hallway, the competition was over, all the countries were done competing, and we're standing there and they're getting ready to march us out. And we kind of walked out single file, first, second, and third, all standing next to each other. And I heard kind of our country's theme playing and then they raised the flag and we were all just standing there and the crowd was quiet. And it was this surreal moment. You can't really recreate it even if you tried. And I remember taking this in and being like, oh, okay, so this is it. So I did it. This is what it feels like. That was definitely that moment for me. Yeah, okay, great, thank you. So this is a little bit of a connected question. What athlete did you look to for inspiration when you were growing up? You know, I watched a lot of gymnasts. I remember watching kind of, last year, the Ninshaun Johnson, when I was around five years old, that was around 2005, they were doing, I think it was the elite nationals and it was televised. And those were the ones that I was able to watch. But I remember growing up and watching, you know, Ali Reisman just do crazy, crazy floor routine. And I watched in awe because I was 12 years old when she went to the Olympics. So having that kind of flipped around and then being able to be on an Olympic team with her was wonderful. But now I get to call her a friend. So I say Ali. That's amazing. So somebody has a question about some of the other things you're doing. So somebody wants to know, how does it feel like being a judge in Ninja Warrior, Junior? Ooh, being a judge in Ninja Warrior is really scary because I'm so used to doing all the flips. And then somebody asking me questions. So having to watch these kids, I just wanted them to do so well. And I was pulling for every single one of them. I didn't want them to fall, but it was also really interesting to hear what they were thinking about. Cause I know what I'm thinking about when I'm upside down. But I am very curious to know like, hey, when you're running through that field, what does that feel like for you? So it was really sweet. And I even, I got to make some friends out there too. That's great. Oh, somebody has a question here. And this is going to be one of those things. I'm sure you're going to say yes on. So maybe you could give an example. Somebody wants to know, did you get scared along the way? Yeah. Yes. I absolutely did get scared along the way. There's a lot of different moments. You know, I, even in 2016 at around, it was in March, I had quit gymnastics for about two days cause I was so scared and so stressed out about the Olympics. It was a lot of pressure on, you know, a little 15 year old me trying to keep up with some of the best athletes around the world. I couldn't really wrap my head around how I was supposed to do that. And I, it turns out I just needed a little break. Two days is enough to be like, okay, I'm ready to come back. But that decision to stop for a second was done out of fear cause I was so scared of, you know, not being good enough. But, you know, of course there's people on the way, like my family and my friends saying, it's okay to take the dive. And if it doesn't work, it doesn't work, but you tried. So just hang in there. And I think that was probably the best advice I got was when things get really scary and they get hard, it's okay to take a break, but you don't have to stop. You can keep pushing. It's okay to keep pushing. Yeah, I think being able to hit that pause button every now and again, you know, really does help and kind of can get you in a frame, you know, reset in a frame of mind. So that's good. And we're all glad that you got through it well and came back strong. So, okay, let's see some of the other questions here. Oh, this is a question. Any tips for pointing your toes? Ooh, oh, so, it's an interesting one. When I was a little kid, I used to, anytime I would sit down and my feet could touch the floor because I'm really short, so that doesn't happen too often. When I can sit down and my feet are touching the floor, especially when I was a little kid, I would sit with my toes curled underneath me and it would stretch kind of the front of my ankle and the front of my foot and now it's a habit. I don't even think about it and sometimes I'll be sitting and my friends are like, what are your feet doing? What is that? Why is that happening? And I'm like, oh, it's just a habit. Like I don't know, but I noticed just kind of sitting there and naturally stretching throughout the day, it definitely increases that flexibility and it allows your foot to bend a little more. So just stretch it as much as possible. Don't overdo it though, because you don't want to hurt yourself. Yeah, okay, good tips. All right, somebody's wondering, do you get nauseous when flipping and what does it feel like upside down with your eyes open? Ooh, that's actually a really good question I feel. I think I've gotten that one before. Love new questions. Okay, so I have gotten nauseous flipping before, but it was only, that really only happens if I don't warm up properly. If I don't, you know, it's like kind of like being at a standstill and then going and doing a double back flip without any prior movement. That was the only time that happened. I learned my lesson. We don't really do that anymore. I don't recommend it. And then with flipping with your eyes open, a lot of the gym clinics that I do, especially on balance beam, I'll be like, okay, where are you looking when you're upside down? And the girls will go, well, I don't look at all. I actually close my eyes because I'm scared. And I'm like, no, you can't do that. You have to keep your eyes open, especially on beams. So keeping your eyes open, you don't really see anything, but you're looking for where you wanna land. So I think your brain is more in tune with what your body is doing rather than like, what am I looking at right now? You just know what you're looking for. Oh, interesting. Okay, great. Thank you. Someone's wondering, what do you do to relax when you're not training? If you remember those times? Yeah, when I'm not training, I mean, I kind of feel like, I used to joke with Ali and call her grandma because she would nap a lot. And now I nap a lot after practice or before practice. And so the tables have turned. But aside from napping, I'd say either cooking, listening to music, writing, journaling, reading, all of those things are really nice outlets after practice. And especially when there's, if it's a really hard workout day and I'm using my brain a lot to make sure that I'm staying safe because I'm doing all those hard tricks, then listening to music or sometimes watching some of my favorite shows over again that I've seen already, it can be really comforting. Yeah, okay, great. Let's see. Let me look at some of the other questions here. What keeps you going? Ooh, what keeps me going? Honestly, I think it's just my support system. That is, that's everything to me. Without a good support system, I don't know what road I would have taken. I'm sure it would have been fine, but it would have been very interesting and not this one. So my support system, my family and my friends, like it's just without them, things are really, really difficult. And it's hard to do things alone and it's nice to know that you don't have to. So I definitely say, you know, my squad, my inner circle. And at the same time, wanting to just accomplish hard things and make them feel easy. There's something really satisfying about doing something really difficult and being able to just kind of do it. And then those are things that people look and say, I don't know how you do it. And sometimes I'm like, yeah, I don't know either. But that's where the joy is. It's like, I'm not exactly sure how I got here, but I did and that's fun for me. Yeah, okay, great. Thank you. Oh, someone has a question. What do you eat before practice and a competition? Ooh, a lot of times they're kind of the same thing. But before practice, I definitely want to make sure that I'm having enough carbs and protein, which there's a lot of mixed reviews on that. Some people will say like, don't have carbs. That's not like, you don't want to do that. Oh no, no, you definitely want carbs. You're burning so much, whether it's gymnastics or any sport, you have to have carbs. It gives you such good energy. So carbs, proteins, making sure that I'm getting my veggies in even though I don't really like them. All of that is very important. But before competition, I'd say oatmeal, peanut butter and bananas as like its own meal. That's my go-to. Oh, that sounds good. I love oatmeal with apples too. I don't know if you've ever done that, but I do like that. Oatmeal with apples and cinnamon or oatmeal with banana and peanut butter, that's like, that's what it's gonna go for. There's such a comfort food too. So I'm glad to hear that they are good food for you too before you're competing. And so following up on that, someone wondered if you do try to eat healthy. Now we just heard you say that, sometimes you don't like veggies, but it sounds like you do try to eat healthy. Yeah, I definitely do try to eat healthy. I think eating clean is really important just because I'm not so much as doing it because I'm like, I have to eat clean. I have to be fit. It's okay. Well, I'm doing a lot of crazy things with my body and if I wanna do even more crazy things, I have to feel my body properly. It's like giving good gas to a car. So I like to think of it in that way, but at the same time, if I wanna have a cookie, then no, have a cookie. There's no problem with that. Okay, okay, good. All right, so someone wondered if you still put positive post-its around your house. Is that still a habit you do? It is a habit I do. I don't know if you can see, but right on my door, there's a blue post-it. It is getting over there. There's some post-its on the refrigerator. I'm not quite sure how much you can see, but there are post-its that are still lying around my house and I find a lot of joy in them. I think they're really sweet, especially sometimes I'll put them in places that I've forgotten. I put them in, like I've stuck one in my freezer once and I forgot it there. And I was like, what is that? And then I was like, oh, I did that. So, yeah. Do you do that for other people too? Do you leave notes for them or they leave notes for you? That's always fun. I do, yeah, I usually do. I'll try to stick little encouraging notes wherever I can to whoever I can. Yeah, and I'm sure they appreciate it because sometimes you never know what people are going through at that moment and they find your note and it's just a little picker-upper. Even if they weren't feeling sad, but it's nice to see that, that somebody cares enough about them to leave them a little note. So that's great. Yeah, I can definitely thank my mom for that one. So I think she kick-started that when I was little. She'd leave little notes in my lunchbox during practice because I was homeschooled. So everything was during gymnastics and then school at practice and lunch at practice and having a little note randomly from my mom always made my day. And even living in New Jersey and moving to California, she would come to visit and I remember coming home from practice once and she had gone to the airport. And all my cabinets, every single door was filled wall to wall with pink sticky notes of just encouraging messages from my mom and her just telling her how much she loves me. So I definitely am a post-it note little bean. That is so awesome. What a great story. All right, so we're getting close to time here, but this kind of fits in with it. So let's ask this last question and then I'll ask you if you have anything you haven't been asked that you'd like to add, okay? So you were just talking about your mom and sometimes moms can be best friends but they're wondering who is your best friend that supports you the most and how did they do so? Oh, I have so many that I can just pick one. I'll start off with my siblings just because I am the youngest of three. And even though I definitely would say that I'm spoiled they are so sweet and so supportive. And I hope they can feel my love and support just like they do for me because again, they're my built-in best friends. I get to have them forever and I don't take that for granted. And then I have my friends Charlotte, Danny and those are people that are out in California and after practice, if I ever need friends to spend time with because it's been a long day there's no judgment with them. They don't really see me as Lori the gymnast. They just see me as Lori. And that's really important after a long day. I would think so and especially as you get more and more known it's nice to have a group of people it's just you. It's not you, the gymnast or dancer or actress or whatever it's just you. So I think that would be nice. So is there anything that you haven't been asked that you'd like to tell to our participants? And I don't mean to put you on the spot. So the answer is thanks for joining us or no or whatever is fine. I know sometimes that you have things to share. People have things to share and they don't always get asked. So I just thought I'd check with you. That's very sweet. I don't know if I have anything but just to everybody watching and listening thank you so much for tuning in and I'm sending lots of love. I know this last year has been absolutely bonkers. So just hang in there and be nice to yourself and be nice to your friends. Oh, fantastic. So I would like to thank you so much for joining us tonight. We were so excited when you said you'd be able to do that and it has been great talking with you and I know you're at the end of a long day. So especially thank you for that. And I'd like to thank our families for participating tonight, for asking all the great questions. I did wanna let our families know that we did record tonight's session. So if you have some friends who had other plans couldn't make it, we will be posting that on the National Archives website, the ARPAJAMA Party page. So you can send friends there if they wanna see it too. So with that, I'd like to thank my team here again. I'd like to thank Ms. Lori Hernandez and thank you so much everybody and have a good night. Bye-bye.