I did a TED talk — "Hiding In Plain Sight: My Life As An Undocumented American"

Hi everyone, I did a TED talk last month that just went up on YouTube. I realize you all are familiar with the "undocumented life," but I want to ask you to please share my video on your social media channels.

This is the link: http://bit.ly/TEDxLeezia

The more we share each other's stories, the more we can humanize the issue.

Thank you to everyone who took 10 minutes to watch this video and 30 seconds to share it.

thank you for sharing

wait... how does one live their life forgetting they overstay their visa.. or not knowing they're illegal?

"I wasnt concern what that because I was a kid.. then I got into college... still being a kid... and I didnt know I overstayed my visa.. because I was a kid"

Finished watching after being distracted - good video.

Great vid! Thanks for sharing

Damn, you look more Mexican than I do and I look more Indian than you do. Great video!!! I love the part where you state, "There is no line." Damn...hey, why are you just signing up to DAP?

Good video

Great video. Thanks a lot so sharing such a wonderful video, you know many of us don't have the guts to go out there in front of an audience and be as confident as you where in sharing your personal story.

I wish you the best of luck

She probably remembers entering the country with a visa and her parents probably never told her. I knew I was illegal because I remember crossing a river and bushes at the age of 3; I remember the helicopters shinning their light trying to find us. I was scared to death. It's not difficult to go most of your life without knowing you don't have the proper documentation to be in this country.

I felt her pain though. I've been turned down from many things for being undocumented. I got turned down from a performing arts high school because the scholarships to go there were federally funded. I was accepted, but then they said, "wait wait wait, no papers = no entrance." Now I suck at piano thanks to them.

Damn, I've wanted to come out of the shadows for a long time and do something like a Ted talk or media interviews, but I don't want anyone to know I'm undocumented. That would put my parents at risk at their work, and I would hate to do that to them. Truth be told, I'm also conscious because I'm balding and I'm not the nicest thing to look at. Anyways, much props to those of you that can come out of the shadows.

We have talked about that before - its really hard to NOT be aware you are illegal by the time you can think for yourselves. If she entered college not doing her visa expired, then I don't know what kind of parents she has for not sharing such important information for her. However, I am doing to leave that at this because as I said, we have talked about it in other threads and I still really liked the video.