“My grandparents had their fight. My parents had theirs. This one is mine. People bled for this right. I’m not going to waste it,” said the 18-year-old
Yolanda Renee King has earned her first “I voted” sticker!
The only grandchild of Martin Luther King Jr., who turned 18 in May, revealed on Instagram on Tuesday, Nov. 3, that she cast her first ballot ever during the November midterm elections.
In a joint post with When We All Vote, a non-profit seeking to increase voter participation in elections, she shared a snap of herself sporting an “I voted” sticker after heading to the polls. Additional photos showed her walking to and from the polling place with her parents and holding out the sticker proudly.
“My grandparents had their fight. My parents had theirs. This one is mine. People bled for this right. I’m not going to waste it,” Yolanda said in the post’s caption.
When We All Vote noted that Yolanda was “drawing on” her grandparents’ legacy while “forging her own path.” She also shared her own message to other first-time voters across the country, saying, “Empowered is an understatement. The baton is in our hands. Polls are still open, so go use it.”
“This is for my grandparents. Thanks mom and dad for leading me!” Yolanda wrote in another post.
The teen described casting her first ballot as “so rewarding” and a “full circle moment” in an interview with Essence GU, which she shared on her Instagram Stories.
“I think the fact that I actually made the contribution and it was like, it was like personal,” she explained. “Because before then I would have to encourage those around me to vote. My vote was represented through my parents, through friends, through family.”
“And now, it’s like I can actually go and I can speak for myself,” she continued. “Which as somebody who — I really like the hands-on process of a lot of things — that was something that was really special for me.”
In a separate interview with CNN, Yolanda shared that her parents, Martin Luther King III and Arndrea Waters King, instilled in her the importance of participating in elections from a young age.
“They would take me to the polls, and so I [would]… see that growing up,” she said. “And then I remember feeling really sad because I realized, ‘Oh, I can’t participate in the voting,’ and so then that would make me really sad, and they’d always give me the ‘I just voted’ sticker. So I’d go around parading around and pretending like I just voted.”
Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
She was also asked during her interview with Essence GU about how she sees her grandfather’s vision connecting to her experience as a first-time voter.
“Unfortunately, the reality is he would be disappointed in, I think, the world that I and my generation have inherited, but I think also he would be very proud to see that we have a youth that is very, very vocal.”
“I feel like we are a force not to be reckoned with,” she added.