Kirstyn Lyles was reading a book while at daycare after school, just as she always did. While reading, the 8-year-old came across many illustrations of art styles that she really liked. “Wow, this is so cool! I really wish I could tell stories like this,” she thought to herself. The over-exaggerated images were exactly what she imagined she would put into the story if she were the one writing it. Lyles realized she could do that someday, imagining herself drawing the lines and coloring. The 17-year-old now is working toward that childhood dream.
Lyles’ early days were spent in Byram, Miss. After attending two different elementary schools, she found it difficult to make friends, but reading was one of her safe spaces. Her love for books made her want to start putting her own experiences onto paper. Fredrick Lyles, her father, was also an artist, and he would show her drawings that he had done in his spare time when he was younger.
“Hey, Dad, do you have any drawing or cartoon books I can read?” she asked her father one summer afternoon. From that point on, Lyles referenced the illustrations from these books when completing her own drawings, and she loved it.
As she made her way into middle school at Reimagine Prep in South Jackson, Lyles still found herself lonely. It was even harder to make friends at a charter school. “People didn’t really like me,” she says. Her classmates around her could get along with each other just fine. But when it came to Lyles, they just didn’t seem to click with her.
But after Lyles started attending Terry High School, she had one of the best experiences of her life. She no longer had to wear a uniform and felt free; she could express herself and have more creative freedom. Growing up, she didn’t fit in with others, but now, Lyles is around people she can relate to and get along with. Theatre, Beta Club, National Honor Society, and the anime and tech clubs all took her in, and she has found a place to be herself. Even though she has found friends, social interaction is still not her strong suit, but she is working on it.
Even when Lyles started a new job in the fast-food industry, she found it hard to connect with her co-workers. “I didn’t want to sit at a desk all day,” Lyles says, but that first job would cause her not to want to work in fast food ever again.
Lyles came into the restaurant on the day she was told to start work, but the manager didn’t even know that sheLyles had been hired. Lyles found this work environment to be very unprofessional. Every day brought fresh inconveniences: her fingerprint didn’t work, she wasn’t properly trained. Sometimes she had to stay late, and sometimes she would be the only one there—and she still wasn’t even in the restaurant’s system.
In summer 2024, Lyles is working with the Mississippi Free Press’ Youth Media Project, which helps her build toward the career path that she actually envisions for herself. At YMP, she is becoming more confident in her writing skills, and she expands on how she feels about political, social and economic topics by joining solutions circles with her peers. She also finds this workplace to be an inviting environment where she can get along with her peers well.
Lyles is still improving herself. Becoming more comfortable with herself and with her peers is her goal as she works toward her aspiration of becoming a freelance graphic designer.
