Outliers Julia Blackwell Analysis

An outlier is one who is outside the normal, and defies the odds. I believe that Julia Blackwell meets the criteria of being successful outlier. In her life so far she has been accepted into private school, found her passion, been chosen to represent the Maine council of Girl Scouts at the national convention, been accepted into Colgate College, and has been chosen to represent Maine at the United States Senate Youth Program. Julia is a senior at North Yarmouth Academy, and she is from Woolwich, a small town in Maine. Being the daughter of a teenage single mother was one of the hurdles that has pushed this young outlier to defy the odds. Since no one becomes successful on their own, I wanted to determine the underlying roots of Julia Blackwell’s success. Julia Blackwell has never ceased to amaze me, I constantly attempt to follow her steps and make an impact as well. In the book Outliers Gladwell tests many theories that explain how people become successful. …show more content…
One of the many reasons people become successful in terms of Outliers, is through hard work. Throughout the interview with Julia, I wanted to determine how much hard work she puts into her success. I asked her what has helped her become successful. She replied along the lines of saying passion and drive are the two things that have helped her become successful. Julia told me setting goals and trying really hard to reach those goals really helped as well, even if the goals are unobtainable. I also asked her if she views herself successful. She replied with “Honestly, I wouldn 't consider myself super successful. Most people could do the things I do if they wanted to. I am just a regular high school student who puts in a lot of hard work to accomplish and reach my goals. Any supposed success I have reached comes from this drive to work hard and reach my goals, so I can use my life to help others.” This proves Gladwell’s theory true. People get so a certain place, then they have to work really hard to become an outlier. After interviewing Julia I have determined this theory this true. I thought there may have been more than hard work driving Julia Blackwell’s success. I asked Julia to describe her hometown and her elementary school. She described her hometown(Woolwich, Maine) as, Woolwich is a small town (as you know), lots of trees, snow, and camo. Since Woolwich is so small we really had a tight nit community at my time at WCS. This allowed me to bloom into the leader that I have become. I asked Julia if she was advanced in elementary school. She replied with, “In terms of my classes I was advanced, none of my classes were challenging me. In addition, I was more mature than my classmates which often created a gap between myself and others. This gap gave me room to continue to grow intellectually and achieve my goals of getting into a private school.” When she said this it really made me wonder if Julia 's birthday had something to do with her success in elementary school like Gladwell’s theory. It turns out it may have something to do with her success and maturity at such a young age, she was born on June 4. This means she was almost the beginning of the year, giving her a maturity advantage over many of the other students. Since she had a gap between her and others, it allowed her to get ahead and she clearly has stayed ahead in terms of academics since she has straight A’s. Just like “The Matthew Effect” Julia had a slight birth month advantage over the other students in her grade. The final thing that remained a mystery to me, was if her family 's support was related to her success. I asked Julia if her family has helped her get to where she is now. She said, “having a supportive family has truly helped me on my path to success. It is only with their support that I have been able to go to a good school, and will continue next year at a school I could only dream of.” They have supported her throughout school and also paid Julia 's