Elizabeth McLaughlin BZ Button
How I got my nickname "BZ"
When I was born, my brother Nathan had a slight speech impediment and couldn’t say Elizabeth correctly. He was reading the Ramona series at the time, and in the books Ramona has a big sister nick-named Beezus. Nathan adopted that as my nickname. It morphed from Beezus to Beezer, to Beez, then finally BZ. I kept it secret outside my family for as long as I could. But after one friend had came over to my house and heard my family nickname, BZ spread throughout my middle school like fire. It become so bad, in fact, that at assemblies for school awards, when they called me up by my birth name, some of the kids were appalled that my name was Elizabeth, for they thought it was truly BZ!
I’m quite a contradiction: Strange, Original, Passionate, Unstoppable, Confident, Loving, Hard Working, Quirky, Funny, Intelligent, Loud, Classy and a Dreamer. I think when people meet me they see confidence, and my strange little quirks. But I think my confidence and passion for intelligence and learning are my greatest strengths, and I wouldn’t be BZ without my quirks!
I have so many interests – photography, writing, politics, the environment - but acting is the thing I strive the most at, and it’s the thing that brings the most joy in my life. Also, acting has to be the greatest profession in the world. Everyday you get to be a different person and do things you never thought you’d be able to ever do. In what other job can you be an astronaut, spy, best selling novelist, and a hillbilly in the same calendar year?
"I desire to inspire"
I’ve always felt that if you’ve inspired at least one person, you’ve succeeded in life. If I’m blessed enough to change someone’s life, inspire them, or merely give him or her courage to follow their dreams, then I feel like I did everything I was supposed to in life. Therefore, it’s fitting that I ‘Desire to Inspire.”
I do my best to inspire people now, even though I realize that I don’t have the necessary power to inspire people yet, I feel like I can still strive for it now.
I attempt to treat people the right way, and do the right things, so maybe someone will see me, and want to change their life for the better too.
"Keep it hype"
Keep it Hype translates to Stay Balanced. I’m very into Karma, and Ying & Yang, and I like to have things balanced. With every good, there needs to be bad. With every lucky occurrence, there needs to be moments of unluckiness. Keep it Hype translates perfectly into that. In all honesty, the mantra was stolen from a friend of mine. He said it once, and I was hooked. :-)
