Monicqwa Wright-Smith spent more than 10 years in the classroom watching teen girls search for someone to listen to. When her daughter arrived in 2023, the longtime educator stepped out of teaching to build something she had been planning for a long time. Legacy of Light Mentoring, her Atlanta-based youth program, now fills the gap between school guidance and real-life support for teen girls who need both.
What inspired you to found Legacy of Light Mentoring?
As a former educator of more than 10 years, I always noticed that teen girls needed a safe place to talk, to vent, to air out all the things that teenage girls go through. I would refer them to the guidance counselor, and they would say the guidance counselor is overwhelmed with so many students. It didn’t seem feasible. I had availability after school and on my lunch to just listen to them, to let them talk.
In 2023, when I had my daughter, the lane just opened up. I always wanted to open my own mentoring program. It was always in the back of my mind, but sometimes you feel like maybe this dream is too big or I’m not capable of doing this. When I had my daughter, it was like, okay, I’m going to choose entrepreneurship. It was hard to make that decision because I absolutely love teaching, but I wanted to pour into my daughter, and at the same time, I thought, well, maybe this is the time for me to actually do it. That’s how Legacy of Light Mentoring was born.
What programs does Legacy of Light mentoring offer?
I do group mentoring as well as one on one mentoring, and I have a holistic approach. I design an entire curriculum. I publish a teen mentoring workbook available on Amazon. It’s called The Glow Up Guide: Discovering the Real You. I use that to help my mentees with goal setting strategies, SMART goals, long term goals, and social and emotional development. Sometimes girls don’t know how to choose the right friends. I help them navigate that, learn their personality and the different types of personality, because those things are not talked about in school.
I also go over work and study habits, help them figure out what type of worker they are, and help them balance everything. Some of them have to go to work. They don’t have a choice. And I also do fun things with them. We do yoga, we go out to eat. I do in-person events too. It’s not just online.
Tell us about the Teen Girl Empowerment Brunch.
It happened on Sunday, April 19th. It was amazing. We had over 100 people show up. I had two panels. One was focused on self-care and self-love, more of a health panel. I had doctors, nurses, influencers, and Black USA pageant queens on that panel, and they poured into the girls.
The second panel was all about confidence. I had fashion designers, and one woman who teaches etiquette classes on how to show up as your best self when you walk into the room. The girls loved seeing a room full of women of color, seeing how successful and influential they were, and hearing them share their stories. Sometimes we show up looking so polished, and teen girls think that can never be me. But when they hear those stories, they say, if she could do it, I could do it. We had food, dancing, a DJ. For my first annual Teen Girl Empowerment Brunch, Atlanta showed out.
You have a vision to launch a full youth development center. What would that look like?
I have hopes and dreams of opening a Legacy of Light Dream Center, where girls could come after school and on the weekends. A safe space where they don’t have to worry, to explore all the life skills. I want to have financial literacy classes, things that are not taught in school, a podcasting room, cooking classes, all the things that a girl would walk in and say, can I explore this? Can I explore that?
That’s what I want the Legacy of Light Dream Center to be, a safe space where they can explore for themselves and not have to wait till college. Because sometimes by the time you get to college it’s too late. You’re paying money, paying loans, and you don’t want to get into your third year and realize this major is not for me.
Why not have a space for them now where they can say, I like cooking, I like fashion designing, I like cosmetology, I like learning about medical things, I like science, I like technology, STEM stuff, creating robots, AI. Just having a space for them to explore, where they can feel safe to do that.
How can people support Legacy of Light Mentoring?
Mayor of Atlanta, the governor of Atlanta, reach out to me. You will not find someone who is more passionate about pouring into the youth and seeing them be successful. The City of Atlanta has to get behind this and support me with this dream, because grants, applying for grants, I’ve been doing those things, but it takes a lot of work. You don’t always get them. It’s a hit or miss. City of Atlanta, please help me open the Legacy of Light Dream Center.
Where can people find Legacy of Light Mentoring?
You can find me on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. On TikTok and Instagram, I’m at @coachsmithmentors. On Facebook, it’s Legacy of Light Mentoring. You’ll see the girls and all the things that I’m doing with them. There’s a link where you can support the fundraiser and the GoFundMe for my next event. I plan on doing something for back to school. That’s going to be my next huge event. I fundraise this all on my own. There is no one backing me. I reach out to my community and share my thoughts and ideas, and I’m grateful and thankful that people want to support me.
