Meet Starr Andrews - The Viral Figure Skating Sensation Bringing Culture Into The Ice Sport
An American figure skating star was born on June 23rd, 2001, and her name is Starr Andrews. The phenom fell in love with the ice and beauty of figure skating when she was three, “I used to watch my mom skate and I knew that I wanted to try,” but she had to eagerly wait for her time to shine, "I wanted to get on the ice really, really bad but I was too small, so I had to wait." In 2005, when she was finally big enough to learn, Starr laced up her figure skating skates for the first time.
At the age of 5 Starr participated in her first competition and at the age of 9 she became a viral YouTube sensation for her skating routine to ‘Whip My Hair’ by Willow Smith. The video has been watched 57m+ times! Starr has always been aware of the lack of color within the figure skating world telling us, “I am so blessed to be where I am right now in the competitive world of skating. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that the color of my skin is the only big difference. Of course, at times I’ve felt lonely, but I use the color of my skin as encouragement to empower myself to be the best I can be. My advice to younger people who want to skate is do what you love and be yourself. Don’t be afraid to be different.” Her moving performance to ‘Black Like Me’ can be seen below.
With her passion for figure skating and her competition schedule, Starr was homeschooled to maximize training opportunities but that never made her feel like she didn’t have a ‘childhood’, like other elite athletes and performers who are young, they just experienced a different type of childhood. “For me, getting up every day at 6-7am and going to the rink was such a normal thing for me I never really thought of what it would be like to go to regular school. I have two sisters and a brother, and my sisters would sometimes tell me things about regular school and of course at times I was curious but most of the time I wasn’t. For me skating was such a normal thing for me. I had friends and we would hang out doing things outside of the rink like any other kid would do, the only difference was that we would spend our time at the rink instead of in a classroom.”
Training and competitions remain top of mind for Starr as the 20-year-old looks ahead. With a love hate relationship with the US National Championships she says it remains the “competition that will always stick with me. I have both good and not so good memories with this competition and each time I do it I come out a stronger athlete.” As any one can imagine, competition days are riddled with anticipation, but Starr takes it one competition and one day at a time but when it comes to pre-performance anxiety, it is nothing a little tv can’t fix to keep her mind occupied. Her support system and fans also offer her incredible inspiration. “I would like to say that I have a good relationship with my fans! They are super encouraging and have helped me so much throughout my career.”
Rapid Fire Questions with Starr Andrews:
What is a typical day for you?
“A typical day for me is 3 hours of skating, 1 hour of off the ice training, stretching for 10-15 minutes after, and then the rest of the day I rest.”
What are your figure skating necessities, i.e. What is in your bag?
“My skating necessities are a big tissue box, a bottle of water and chapstick”
If you could tell your 10-year-old self-one thing, what would it be?
“I would tell myself to be myself and not try to hide my personality. I would also tell myself that it’s ok to make mistakes and that those mistakes make you stronger.”
Who is the figure skater that you look up to?
“Adam Rippon!”
How do you want to use your platform?
“I want to use my platform to share the love I have for skating. I also want to use my platform to spread awareness of the lack of color in this sport. I think skating is such a bright light in my life and has taught me so many lessons that I can use outside of the rink.”
Where do you see yourself in 5 years?
“In five years I can see myself in college. I'm not quite sure if I’ll still be competing but I hope that I will still be in the rink.”
