Hillary Clinton interviews with 11-year-old literary activist Marley Dias

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Marley Dias, the 11-year-old who created #1000BlackGirlBooks, recently interviewed Hillary Clinton because, as she explained, “people don’t really talk a lot about what she did when she was a kid like me.”

The resulting interview allowed the Democratic nominee for the presidency to open up about her own middle school insecurities as well as to share her favorite #BlackGirlBook, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.

Marley Dias, 11, launches ‘black girl’ magazine with Elle

In speaking about her own insecurities growing up, Clinton shared this story:

Oh, Marley, I have a terrible story to tell you. It was my first week of high school, and I was excited and nervous. At that time, I wore my hair in a ponytail or held back with a headband. When I saw the older girls with their hair in little bobs, I thought that looked so much more grown-up, so I begged my mother to take me to a real beauty parlor to get my hair cut. Our neighbor recommended a man who had a small shop behind a grocery store, and he got distracted talking to my mother and hacked off a huge chunk of my hair! I was mortified. So I tried to fix it by wearing a fake ponytail to school. And then a friend of mine accidentally pulled it off in front of everyone. Which of course was a nightmare. At the time, I felt like it might have been the worst moment of my life.

She also gave her 11-year-old self some advice:

I would say that when you have a big dream or you’re trying to solve a big problem, there will always be people who tell you that you can’t. Here’s my advice: don’t listen. Keep striving for your goals, and remember that it’s good to be ambitious. There’s nothing wrong with knowing what you want and going after it.

And Marley, what you’ve accomplished already is proof of that.

Marley wrote about the interview afterwards, saying that it was a real honor to get to see the side of the presidential nominee that speaks to 11-year-old girls everywhere: “I think it’s very obvious that Hillary Clinton can be deep and funny at the same time. Sometimes, we expect a woman like her to be really serious always, but I want people to understand that she can talk about deep issues and chocolate, and that’s okay. She’s a real person — just like I am, just like my mom is, just like you are. She’s not just a presidential nominee. She’s a friend. She’s human!”