Photo: Karamo brown
Looking to turn your passion into a career? Linktree’s new $250,000 grant program competition,the Passion Fund— with judge Karamo — can help.
Together with his fellow judges, Li Jin, Grace Beverley, Linktree CEO Alex Zaccaria and Square CMO Lauren Weinberg, theQueer Eyestar will be giving away a quarter million dollars to anyone passionate enough about their chosen life path, and that really means anyone.
“This is for everyone — this is for activists, this is for entrepreneurs,” Karamo, 40, tells PEOPLE. “This is for that mom who is in the middle of Oklahoma right now who has a dream that she just wants to get started, or the young trans man that’s just getting out of college and is like, ‘Hey, I want the opportunity to go after my passion.'”
With individual prizes ranging from $1,000 to $20,000,applicants are invitedto share their creativity, adaptability and personality for a chance at the life-changing career opportunity — even those who may not believe in themselves fully just yet.
“The thing is that when it comes to self-esteem, people forget that we have to practice our self-esteem,” Karamo says. “Self-esteem is not something that is magically going to come to us and one day we’re just going to wake up and believe that we deserve the world and that we deserve everything that we know in our hearts we should be getting: the love, the compassion, the opportunities. You have to practice on yourself.”
So what would theReal Worldalum have done if he had something like the Passion Fund tostimulate his successbefore his foray into television?
“I would have put it towards my education, I would have put it towards supplies, because there was so much content,” says Karamo. “I was recording myself and I needed a new camera. I needed a light set. I would have put it all back in, which is what these individuals who we’re going to donate this money to are going to be hopefully doing.”
Potential applicants should take Karamo’s advice, since it’s no secret his hard work paid off. He’s currentlyabout halfway done with productionofQueer Eye’s sixth season in Texas, which was temporarily postponed due to COVID-19 protocols.
“The heroes this year, I’ve got to be real with you — I think they’re some of the best work we’ve ever done because of the political climate, because of where we are with the pandemic,” he teases. “We are really going deep and we’re not shying away from conversations about the things that have been happening in the world while also still having fun.”
And these days, Karamo is choosing to practice self-love afterending his engagementto Ian Jordan last year.
Luckily, for anyone interested in changing their life for the better, Karamo and thePassion Fundcan be of service.
“I feel people’s energy and heart. It’s obvious onQueer Eye, I’m able to connect with people pretty quickly and I read body language,” Karamo says. “It’s very important for me to see that this is a passion for you, just to see how you’re moving, to see how you’re talking about it. To make sure it’s genuine, because I want to make sure the right people are getting this money.”
source: people.com
