Brianna had spent a lot of time thinking about how people discovered their talent. Now that she had become aware of multiple talents, she became interested in the process for how people transitioned from one talent to another. She had begun to find that the second talent was an exercise in finding a calling that fulfilled a purpose that wasn’t present in their first talent. This was the case of her favorite actress, Audrey Hepburn.
Audrey Hepburn grew up under Nazi occupation and was grateful for the international aid that kept her family alive. She began to realize her second talent when she narrated two radio programs for UNICEF which retold the stories of children in war times. She was appointed a Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF.
Her first assignment as ambassador was to visit an orphanage in Ethiopia which held 500 children dying of starvation. Food was being delivered to Ethiopia, but couldn’t be delivered due to civil wars. Her efforts brought world attention to the needs of the children.
Then she went to Turkey where she helped organize an immunization campaign. It took just 10 days to immunize the entire country. Then she went to South and Central America to help bring safe water to places of poverty. Further efforts took her to Sudan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and Somalia.
An enduring image of Audrey Hepburn from those days was hugging a small child who was covered by flies and was obviously dying of starvation. To many, Audrey Hepburn is best known as a movie star and fashion maven, but for her humanitarian work she was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Audrey Hepburn made the transition from acting on film to acting for the greater good.
Was Hepburn’s humanitarian talent shaped from her early experiences as a child? Probably, she thought. But Brianna also sensed that achievement at the highest level of one’s talent could be a motivator for a giving back talent. What made Audrey Hepburn different from the others who had reached the highest level was that she focused on the active use of her talent rather than simply a passive approach of financial support.
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“For beautiful eyes, look for the good in others; for beautiful lips, speak only words of kindness; and for poise, walk with the knowledge you are never alone.”
– Audrey Hepburn