Time Magazine selects New Orleans teen for “Girls of the Year” list

NEW ORLEANS (WGNO) — A big kudos goes out to a New Orleans teen who was selected by Time Magazine for their “Girls of the Year” list.

Naomi DeBerry’s advocacy for organ donation helped her make the inaugural issue of Time’s “Girls of the Year.”

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Lego teamed up with Time Magazine to select 10 girls from around the world for their list.

Only one girl from the United States was selected and it is 13-year-old Naomi DeBerry from New Orleans.

“No one expected it and no one saw it coming, and it was completely out of the blue,” DeBerry said.

She’s being recognized by Time Magazine for her advocacy work for organ transplant donation.

She decided to write a children’s book, “My Daddy Needs a Gift,” based on her experiences.

“My Daddy Needs a Gift is about me and my younger self, my perspective of how my dad was going through the kidney transplant process,” DeBerry said.

Her dad, Jarvis DeBerry eventually got a kidney donation from his cousin, and the operation was a success at Ochsner.

“When we went to the hospital they gave me a coloring book, and I wanted to find out more of what was happening and a coloring book just didn’t explain that for me,” she said.

She said that through her book she hopes that others will have a better understanding of the kidney transplant process and have a resource.

“It is all about how you can really change someone’s life by basically re-gifting the gift of life,” she said.

“One of my first motivations was trying to shield her from all of this, so to see her respond by giving her story, her perspective, this is her being her most natural compassionate self,” Jarvis DeBerry, Naomi’s father said.

Naomi spent her summer vacation in Africa where she gave out her books in various villages, and she even led a second line parade in Ghana.

In the future she hopes to become a transplant surgeon.

Jasmine T. Mills illustrated, “My Daddy Needs a Gift.” DeBerry said that Mills herself had a family member who received an organ transplant as well.

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