Most commonly known from the infamous Rebecca Black’s video for “Friday,” Benni Cinkle was heavily bullied on the internet after she was featured dancing. After her experience, she started a non-profit organization called ThatGirlInPink.org to help other children and teens who have been cyber bullied or suffer from depression, self injury, etc. and helps additionally by giving her “Don’t Just Stand There” presentations at schools across the country. We here at Highlight admire her for her courage and strength. We recently caught up with Benni and she gave us the 411 on what she’s been up to this summer! Read below.
It’s been a long time since I had to write about what I did over summer vacation, but as this was one of my favorite back-to-school assignments when I was younger, I was excited that Highlight Magazine asked me to guest blog on the subject.
No, I didn’t go to camp and weave baskets, run three-legged races, and stay up all night in a spider-infested cabin telling ghost stories (but now that I think about it that would have been pretty cool!)
My summer was part work, part fun, and some “firsts” that I’m really proud of.
Since I had spent the winter and spring recording my second single, “Gotta Get Out” and filming the music video (which was both fun and work — a lot of work), my top priority as soon as that last bell rang at school was to start the fun stuff first so that I could have some much needed down time!
My parents love to travel so there’s never a summer that goes by that we don’t take a trip somewhere together. We have a timeshare in Cabo, so we’ve been there before, but this trip was especially fun because my aunt, uncle and cousins came along as did our family friends and their three daughters. So yeah, there were about 14 of us total.
It was great to hang out on the beach every day, but the best part was that all the girls got to share a suite. It was so fun to be off on our own, staying up late playing games and just talking – and trust me, with five girls there was a lot of talking. lol.
But my summer included a little bit of work too, you see, because I got my first official job this summer. I worked at my mom’s business, where I learned some office skills, like filing, answering phones, using office equipment (my favorite so far is the shredder named “Big Bertha”), and just learning how to be professional.
I’m hoping that by next summer I will have enough office experience to be able to apply for an internship at a law office. My mom runs a really busy staffing agency, so there was never a dull moment while I was there. It was also cool to watch her run a business that she started on our dining room table. I’m learning a lot and it’s pretty interesting to see from up close what makes a company successful.
The only bummer this summer was that I had to do homework. I know, right! It was assigned on the last day of school by my sophomore AP Euro teacher. I guess it wasn’t that bad because there were parts of it that were pretty fun to do and I did learn a lot, but ugh, to assign homework over summer? Who does that? My new AP Euro teacher does, I guess.
And those were the highlights of my summer. How about you? I’d love to hear about your summer — the fun, the work, and the firsts (especially if they involved basket weaving and telling ghost stories!)
Keep up with Benni on her Twitter and Facebook! Feel free to leave comments below.
