In a clip from the upcoming Our America: Fifty50, host Sofia Carson surprises a high school golfer (also named Sophia!) to discuss the challenges she experienced that led to her love of the sport.
What’s Happening:
- Host of the upcoming Our America: Fifty50, Actress and Hollywood Records Artist Sofia Carson surprises a Los Angeles High School Golfer also named Sophia, who experienced numerous challenges until she began playing golf in a special clip from the upcoming special above.
- Now a junior in high school, she credits golf with eliminating social pressures and helping build her character and mental health. Sophia is determined to introduce the game to other girls in her community and hopes to use golf to change lives and break gender stereotypes.
- ABC Owned Television Stations presents Our America: Fifty50, hosted by Hollywood Records artist and actress Sofia Carson, beginning the weekend of June 17th across its 24/7 streaming channels and linear newscasts as part of The Walt Disney Company’s monumental Fifty/50 initiative led by ESPN.
- The initiative commemorates the 50th anniversary of the passing of Title IX, the federal civil rights law prohibiting sex-based discrimination in any educational institution that receives federal funding and gives women the equal opportunity to play.
- With over a billion streams to date, Sofia Carson has carved out her own distinct path in music, film, television and philanthropy. A devoted philanthropist, she is a U.S. Ambassador for UNICEF, the first global ambassador of the Latin GRAMMY Cultural Foundation, a member of the first-ever Ambassadors Council for The Music Forward Foundation and an honorary board member of We Do it Together, a non profit production company dedicated to the empowerment of women.
- Our America: Fifty50 features a collection of stories produced by the station group’s Race and Culture Content team. The documentary profiles young women and girls associated with the Women Sports Foundation, espnW’s Sports 4 Life Program, and other organizations working to level the playing field for girls and women through athletics and activism.
- The 60-minute documentary will air across ABC Owned Television Stations’ linear broadcasts, 24/7 streaming channels, connected TV apps, Localish Network on Hulu and ESPN+ platforms. Race and Culture Executive Producers Nzinga Blake and Porsha Grant led the project.
- Our America: Fifty50 allows viewers to meet the girls alongside host Sofia Carson:
- Allisa is from New York and is a current Play Rugby USA athlete working hard to grow the sport and league within her community and expose more girls to the opportunity to play the game.
- Sophia grew up in Southeast Los Angeles and experienced numerous challenges until she began playing golf at age 6. Now a junior in high school, she credits golf with eliminating social pressures and helping build her character and mental health. Sophia is determined to introduce the game to other girls in her community and hopes to use golf to change lives and break gender stereotypes.
- Melissa is a youth boxer from Chicago who has set her sights on boxing professionally. Chicago Youth Boxing is her refuge and was founded in 2006 to save young people from gang violence and drug activity. As she prepares for her first match, she is hoping to inspire other young girls to box.
- Kareyna is a Black and Muslim Snider Hockey player in Philadelphia. She started playing ice hockey when she was 9 years old; and now, at age 18, she is the captain of the most competitive girls hockey team in the region.
- Ainsley is a Special Olympics Texas (SOTX) athlete who is a “Global Messenger.” She competes in bocce, volleyball, basketball and tennis, and is a two-time Special Olympics gold medalist. She credits playing sports through SOTX at her school with changing her life and not being judged for her disability.
- Mirian is a soccer player who hopes to inspire young girls in San Francisco to learn lifelong skills that helped build her as a leader and athlete.
- Veatriz is a 17-year-old deaf wrestler with incredible athletic abilities that earned her the title of Female of the Year at North Carolina School for the Deaf in Morganton, the first school that has had a wrestling program since the 1980s. She is one of two female students on the team.
- Samirah, Aliya and Grace are volleyball-playing cousins from The Tule River Tribe reservation in the Central Valley/Fresno region. They experienced a lack of access to sports and resources, but their story of love for the sport, strong family ties and their lives on and off the reservation will inspire other girls on the reservation.
- The documentary is executive produced by Nzinga Blake and Porsha Grant, who were pleased to secure Carson as the host of the special.
What They’re Saying:
- Sofia Carson: "Fifty50 to me means justice. To be fair and to be just means to not judge based on gender, ethnicity or identity but judged based on who we are as human beings."
Watch Sofia Carson host Our America: Fifty50:
- ABC7/KGO-TV San Francisco, Saturday, June 18
- 9:30 p.m. PDT
- ABC7/WABC-TV New York, Sunday, June 19
- 4:00 p.m. EDT
- ABC7/WLS-TV Chicago, Sunday, June 19
- 3:00 p.m. CDT
- 6ABC/WPVI-TV Philadelphia, Sunday, June 19
- 4:00 p.m. EDT
- ABC11/WTVD-TV Raleigh Durham, Sunday, June 19
- 4:00 p.m. EDT
- ABC13/KTRK-TV Houston, Sunday, June 19
- 4:00 p.m. CDT
- ABC30/KFSN-TV Fresno, Thursday, June 23
- 10:00 p.m. PDT
- ABC7/KABC-TV Los Angeles, Thursday, June 23
- 10:00 p.m. PDT.
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