METRO WEEKLY: What were you like growing up?KIERRA JOHNSON: I was painfully shy. I call myself a “recovering introvert” now, although I’m not ashamed to be an introvert.
I’ve been telling my kids, and the 10-year-old in particular, “I was really not cool growing up.” But I was cool-adjacent, my friends were cool.
I don’t know how I made it into that crew, but I’ve always been kind of a funny person. So it helps to have a sense of humor and to be able to make other people laugh.
I think that gets you a long way.It wasn’t until high school that I started coming out of my painfully shy shell. I really credit it to speech and debate.