Episode 90 – From Foster Care to Flourishing: An Actor, Author, and Advocate with Charell Star

• Charell’s journey through foster care began at a young age.
• She experienced six different homes in six years.
• Reunification with her mother was a challenging process.
• Education provided a grounding force in her life.
• Every child’s experience in foster care is unique.
• Advocacy can stem from personal experiences and feelings.
• Empathy towards families is crucial in foster care.
• Documentaries can raise awareness about foster care issues.
• Charell’s story is part of a larger docu-series on foster care.
• Understanding trauma is essential for supporting youth in care. No youth in foster care deserves to be in foster care.
• Stereotypes about foster youth often stem from misconceptions.
• Support from mentors can significantly impact a youth’s success.
• Charell credits her success to her great grandmother and supportive teachers.
• Writing her memoir was a way to share her story and inspire others.
• Healing from trauma requires community and trust in others.
• CASAs play a crucial role in advocating for foster youth.
• Youth with CASAs are more likely to reunify with families and graduate high school.
• Everyone deserves someone who believes in them.
• Charell’s story illustrates the power of empathy and understanding. 

 

TRANSCRIPT:

Brian (00:00.797)
Hello and welcome to the Foster Friendly Podcast. I’m Brian with my great co-host, I can’t speak co-host, dear editor, please work on that. Hi, let’s start over. I usually don’t have a problem with that. Okay, Brian Edmond, we’re going to start right here. Hello and welcome to the Foster Friendly Podcast. I’m your host Brian with my amazing co-host Courtney and

Courtney Williams (00:08.238)
You

Yeah.

Brian (00:29.405)
Courtney talking about amazing. We’ve got an amazing guest today. Sherelle Starr. nice to meet you. And we’re excited to hear your story. And I’m going to share a little bit about your bio formally, but then I want you to jump in afterwards and share some other things that would be interesting to know about you. Does that sound good?

Courtney Williams (00:36.619)
Yeah.

Charell Star (00:38.338)
Hi guys.

Charell Star (00:58.238)
That sounds amazing. Thank you so much, Brian.

Brian (01:00.891)
All right. Sherelle is a storyteller who loves working across all mediums to reach audiences. She’s a TV host, author, advocate, and board vice president for CASA New York City. She is also a former foster care youth, and she uses her platform to advocate for the needs of foster care youth. She is featured, she’s the featured subject in a foster care film.

that was released in May of 2025. And we’re going to talk more about that. And if anybody is not just listening, but watching us, can see the background of the poster of that movie. So, Sherelle, excited to have you on here. What else should we know about you?

Charell Star (01:50.242)
So say the documentary you’re talking about, the one in 2025, that was actually an HBO documentary. And so that recently came out on HBO. The documentary, the poster is behind me called Feeling Wanted, came out about a decade ago. And that particular documentary is amazing. It tells my story of my time in foster care and how I entered foster care when my great grandmother got sick and sort of like how I sort of survived that journey and going all the way through reunification with my mother.

Brian (02:03.835)
okay.

Charell Star (02:18.434)
And so, you know, it’s an amazing, amazing docu-series. And the one that I was recently in covers some of that too, but that one is more around like adoption and like finding your own families. And so two amazing docu-series that I happen to be in. And I would love for your listeners to check out either one of those to learn more about foster care, not just my journey through it, but just to learn more about the journey of youth who go through foster care and sometimes end up adopted.

Brian (02:19.347)
Mmm.

Brian (02:28.851)
Okay.

Brian (02:44.091)
Yeah, I think we’re going to go dig into both of those a little bit more. so I, you know, confess I went online and just to learn a little bit about you and saw some video clips, you’ve got a great personality. You really shine and kind of look like you have a big fun life. And so I’d be just curious, a little icebreaker. What’s something you’ve done recently that’s just been fun?

Charell Star (03:11.084)
Something recently that I’ve done that has been fun. You know, I started playing cardio tennis. So I’m an advocate tennis player. So nothing to do with foster care, but I’m an avid tennis player. And I have started doing cardio tennis. So that’s like my workout. So if anyone out there who’s ever done tennis, you know how intense it can be. But cardio tennis, you jack that up to the 100th hour because you’re running, you’re like dodging balls, you’re trying to get from one side of the court to the other.

Courtney Williams (03:16.994)
Thank

Brian (03:21.521)
I love it. Yes.

Charell Star (03:39.458)
to keep that heart rate going up. But it’s just so much fun. It’s just such, like I’m so passionate about playing tennis and cardio tennis is so much fun. And like there’s no winners, there’s no tournament, but literally you’re just trying to be active running from one side of the court to the other. So that has been super fun for me.

Brian (03:48.915)
Yes.

Courtney Williams (03:54.358)
That sounds fun.

Brian (03:54.775)
Actually, I do know about that. Yeah, I have a daughter who was a tennis player and so I’ve seen some of that before and that does keep you going. yeah, I love, yeah, we’re going to talk a little bit too more about one title of your book and that tells a little bit more about your personality and just kind of explains your, you know, like I said, I feel like you just really shine.

Charell Star (03:56.358)
Hehehehehe

Brian (04:21.171)
So we’re looking forward to sharing your personality and your insights with our audience. So let’s start with, well, actually, yeah, let’s start with the personal stuff, your childhood. You were a former foster youth. Give us a little insight and only share what you feel safe to share about your journey in foster care.

Charell Star (04:35.97)
Mm-hmm.

Charell Star (04:48.8)
Yeah, of course I am an open book. So my journey through foster care began when my great grandmother got sick. She’s the earliest memory I have in my head. unfortunately she got sick when I was around maybe three or four years old. And so that’s the first moment I remember of entering foster care. I remember a social worker coming.

Brian (04:57.395)
Hmm.

Charell Star (05:07.266)
with a black trash bag, throwing my things in the trash bag and carrying me out of our home, the apartment we lived in in Harlem, and dropping me off at this stranger’s house somewhere in New York City. And I remember being terrified. I remember being heartbroken. I remember no one telling me what was happening. I know now my great grandmother got sick, but at the time I did not. And so entering foster care was a really hard and scary thing for me, a moment for me in my life. And so I was in foster care.

I spent six different, it was in six different homes in six different years, in six different schools, in six different years. So really just bouncing around in different homes, trying to sort of get my footing and trying to get back to that moment in life where I felt safe. Some of the homes were awful. Some of them were good, but it was a really, really difficult sort of journey for me through the foster care system and in trying to sort of maintain the person that I had been before I entered foster care.

being that sort of bubbly, fun child, it kind of shrank when I entered foster care. And so it was a really, really hard experience. so, you know, anyone who is thinking about fostering, has encountered youth who’ve been within the system, know that they are going through a very, very traumatic experience and they’re having a very, very hard time. And keep that sort of empathy front and center when you interact.

Brian (06:20.029)
Mm-hmm.

Brian (06:26.449)
Hmm

Courtney Williams (06:26.604)
Yeah. So what was after six years, then what?

Charell Star (06:30.242)
So after six years, I ended up getting reunified with my mom. And so my mom did all the things that she was supposed to do. She was, myself and my sister were to go live with her. We were unified with her. And so we moved in with her in a one bedroom apartment in Harlem. And we had to learn to be a family. And so, again, I didn’t live with my mom.

Brian (06:48.529)
Hmm, and you’re about 10 years old at that time, nine or 10?

Charell Star (06:52.49)
I was around 10 or 11 years old. I was around fifth grade when we were unified to like 11, 11-ish around that time. And so we had never been a family before. We had never lived together before. Again, I lived with my great grandmother and then went into care and then got dropped off one day at my mom’s house. And so it was a really hard time for that as well. No one taught us how to be a family. And so we had to learn this sort of together. And so I lived with my mom for a couple of years.

Brian (06:54.547)
10 or 11, okay.

Okay. Yeah.

Brian (07:07.315)
Yeah.

Brian (07:15.603)
Hmm.

Charell Star (07:20.426)
And then, and I say a couple because I ended up getting a scholarship to go to boarding school in Arizona. And so I did my high school career, not in New York City, but in a working cattle ranch in Arizona. It was a school called the Orm School. And so I learned to like horseback ride and like rock climb and like camp in the woods, which I don’t recommend to anyone.

Brian (07:24.499)
Hmm.

Brian (07:45.223)
Ha ha ha!

Charell Star (07:45.346)
But I ended up going to this boarding school for four years and learned to play tennis there, which is where my love for tennis started. And I had a difficult time adjusting there as well. I still hadn’t dealt with the trauma of being foster care. And here I was again, moving again and putting myself in a new situation. And so that was a difficult period for me as well. But I got through and I’m happy I went. And then I went to college. I went to Boston University. And so…

Brian (07:57.491)
Hmm.

Charell Star (08:08.354)
I studied four years in Boston, actually three years technically, because I spent my last semester abroad in London. And I had this really sort of amazing educational experience throughout, even though I was bouncing around from homes, whether that be in foster care, whether it be going to boarding school, I always had a very strong educational foundation. And so that really helped me on my way. And it also was my like linchpin to making me feel grounded.

throughout my entire life. know, going to college, going to boarding school, going to college, you know, just felt right for me to make those choices. But I’m very thankful for those choices. But it was a very, very hard sort of path to sort of end up, you know, being the first person in my family to graduate.

Brian (08:50.258)
Thank

Courtney Williams (08:51.918)
Now.

Brian (08:53.339)
What an interesting story. just mean, you threw some curve balls in there for me. I was like, wow.

Courtney Williams (08:55.598)
you

Yes, there you go.

Charell Star (08:59.242)
Yes, yes, you asked for the story.

Brian (09:04.934)
Wow.

Courtney Williams (09:06.03)
I do have a controversial question probably to ask you, but I’m just curious because I think, you know, as I’m a foster mom and I think a lot of our listeners are and we need to always be learning and growing. There’s a lot of controversy around, you know, six years being in care for six years and not having parental rights terminated in that length of periods. I’m curious with your experience, what’s kind of your take on that? Do you feel like there’s, you know, here in Colorado, it’s typically a year if they’re young under five and then it’s to be 18 months if they’re over five.

Brian (09:08.147)
Mm-hmm.

Charell Star (09:09.441)
Yes!

Courtney Williams (09:34.904)
That would have changed your directory a lot, but what’s your take on the whole reunification timeline in a sense?

Charell Star (09:40.404)
So my take on that and what I always say is like, every kid is different. Every situation is different. And so yes, in the grand scheme of things, we do not want youth lingering in foster care for year after year with no sort of support or grounding or permanency. So I think that is my take on that. But I also think that every situation is different. And again, my mom was doing things that they asked her to do.

it clearly took her a little bit to like, for it to click and for her to move forward and get through her own pain and her own trauma. But I think it’s very important to remember that sometimes it’s not just the trauma of the youth that we’re trying to solve or trying to help us support and solve and correct. It’s also the trauma of the family members sometimes too. And so being willing to give them some space to deal with their own trauma as well, to figure out how they ended up in the situations they ended up.

Brian (10:25.107)
Mm-hmm.

Charell Star (10:32.966)
you want to be able to give them some grace. So we need to, again, find that balance between making sure that these kids aren’t lingering in this void of the system, as well as ensuring that we’re not breaking up homes that don’t necessarily need to be broken up and that can survive a longer extended period of time. And so I know that’s not the answer maybe all your listeners want to hear, but I do have to say that we’re dealing with humans here, we’re dealing with people here, and every situation is going to be a little bit different.

Brian (10:47.699)
Mm-hmm.

Courtney Williams (10:59.298)
Yeah, yeah. And it’s a hard one for people to grasp and understand. When you enter the role of a foster parent, we tell people all the time, you need to go in with that mindset of understanding your heart might be broken, but that’s not the goal. That’s not the purpose behind this. And that’s not what should be stopping you or hindering you from doing this. It should be what’s best for the child and for the situation as a whole, like you mentioned. So yeah, I appreciate that.

Brian (10:59.407)
Mm-hmm. So.

Charell Star (11:06.732)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Brian (11:23.677)
Mm-hmm.

Charell Star (11:23.71)
Exactly. I agree with that 100%. And I think it’s also remembering that if you love this child, then you love their family regardless of what they’ve gone through. And so again, giving them that grace to either try to figure it out or ensure that the youth is moving in the right direction. You always have to have that grace and empathy there because again, regardless of how the situation ends up for that youth, if they get reunified, if they end up adopted, if they end up with guardianship, I the foster parent.

they’re always gonna love their family. They’re always gonna be tied to their family, their original family, the vital family. And so you have to always remember that you have to keep space in your heart for them as well.

Brian (12:00.627)
Yeah, well, I want to, you know, as I get to see you and some people are just listening, but you know, in your background is this movie poster and yeah, I feel I love that title. And so really curious as to how this all happened, like how did you get to be the feature subject in this documentary? And then what is it about? Just unpack that whole journey.

Charell Star (12:10.304)
Feeling wanted.

Charell Star (12:30.24)
Yeah, so this documentary was directed by Yasmin Menchiri. And so this was about a decade ago. So this is the one I was in about a decade ago. And the journey to this documentary was literally, I was reading the newspaper one day, I think it was the New York Times. And I saw that the funding for a foster care organization was being cut. And it made me cry. And at this point in my life, this again, more than a decade ago,

Brian (12:50.685)
Hmm.

Charell Star (12:53.826)
I had told no one that I had been in foster care. I wasn’t an advocate. I was very, very private. I was very embarrassed and ashamed of my time in foster care because I had an experience early in my professional career where I mentioned I was in foster care and my boss’s attitude changed towards me. Like she did 180. Like she started scrutinizing my expenses more. She started pulling me into her office more. was literally the only thing that changed was I happened to mention that I had been in foster care. And so I had shut down telling anyone about that.

Brian (13:00.115)
Hmm.

Brian (13:08.391)
Hmm.

Brian (13:16.787)
Hmm

Charell Star (13:20.426)
So fast forward again to me reading this story in the newspaper about this organization called CASA that I hadn’t heard of previously, was losing their funding in the city because people were just being callous and not caring about the needs of foster youth. And if you don’t know what CASAs are, you can think of them as court appointed special advocates, but you think of them as volunteers, social workers who basically stand in for the rights of the youth. So they ensure that youth’s rights and needs are protected.

and that they get what they need while they’re in care. And they do this all as volunteers. So I’m reading about this in the newspaper and I am crying at my desk because how dare you cut funding to volunteers who are trying to help youth. And so I ended up writing a letter to the editor, to the mayor’s office saying, you know, I’m a foster care youth. really am so upset that you are cutting funding. I really wish you wouldn’t do that. And so that was my first like…

Brian (13:54.877)
Hmm.

Charell Star (14:13.978)
like dilliance into advocacy. And I also wrote a letter to CASA telling them, know, I was hearing about them and I am so happy for the work they do. And, you know, I hope that my letter to the mayor’s office makes a difference. Fast forward a couple months later, they sent me an email that the funding wasn’t getting cut. don’t think just because I wrote a letter, but I think a lot of people also felt passionate about it and sort of, you know, use their voices. And they also passed on my letter to the director of who

Brian (14:31.923)
you

Charell Star (14:42.05)
with direct feeling wanted. And she reached out to me to be a part of her film. And so that was sort of my entryway into meeting Yasmin and agreeing to be in this documentary, but also me speaking out and becoming an advocate and feeling like my voice could make a difference with other youth in care. It really was me sitting in a position in a moment, feeling my feelings and saying, I don’t wanna be afraid to talk about this anymore.

Brian (15:07.635)
Mmm.

Charell Star (15:07.742)
And if I talk about this, maybe I can help other people. And that was the first time I had tried and felt that it made a difference. And when she gave me the opportunity to make this documentary, was like, I want to do more of this.

Courtney Williams (15:20.11)
Thank

Brian (15:20.509)
So if somebody was like, hey, I’m a little bit intrigued, tell us more about the documentary and then how people can find it.

Charell Star (15:27.828)
Yeah, so the documentary, so it’s actually a docu docu series. So my film is one of four films within the foster care film series. And so my story talks about my journey through foster care, which I’ve shared a little bit here for your listeners. But it also talks about my time being reified with my mom and my time going to boarding school and really this desire to feel wanted and feel loved and feel the way I felt.

Brian (15:33.552)
Okay.

Brian (15:51.261)
Mm-hmm.

Charell Star (15:56.064)
when I lived with my great grandmother. My great grandmother, I always say was my home, she was my heart. And like losing that and having that ripped away and being very aware of that feeling when I entered into care. And my entering into care is a little different than a lot of youth. A lot of youth don’t know why they enter into care. A lot of youth do feel, you know, abandoned and alone. And I was being taken from a place where I was fully loved.

Courtney Williams (15:58.029)
Mm-hmm.

Brian (16:00.614)
Hmm.

Charell Star (16:21.282)
in Arranging to Care, I wasn’t being abused. There was nothing wrong outside of my great grandmother got sick. And so I entered into care with a very, very different perspective. And so really talking about that within this docu-series. And so it’s a really great film, I think, for anyone who wants to learn more about what youth experience within care, what it might feel like being reunified.

Courtney Williams (16:21.55)
.

Brian (16:21.585)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Charell Star (16:43.298)
what a journey looks like after care, because I feel like a lot of people sort of close the door and like, the kids are either reunified or they’ve aged out of care, they’ve been adopted. And then what? You’re still dealing with this trauma from this experience that you’ve gone through. And so it’s an amazing, amazing film within this series. And the series also deals with, there’s a film on a youth who is a native, and so she’s indigenous. And so what that looks like going into foster care.

Brian (16:56.477)
Mm-hmm.

Charell Star (17:12.226)
There’s one youth who actually put herself into foster care. She had to call on her and report her family because they were being negligent. And so what these stories look like from different perspectives. think watching the entire series, if you can, they’re very short films. They’re very short docu-series. I think the longest one is maybe 22 minutes. So you can watch it on your commute. You can watch it really quickly. But you can watch these on PBS. So if you have PBS, you can also watch this on, oh my goodness,

Brian (18:08.101)
I’d love to see that, yeah.

Courtney Williams (18:08.398)
Awesome. Yeah, me too. Yeah, so I love how you shared about your boss. I think it was the boss or coworker that treated you differently. Boss. I’ve also read that you have said that when you tell people that you’re a former foster youth, they look at you now and they’re like, I would have never guessed that about you. What do you think people mean when they say that? And is there any truth behind that, like the statistics that could have been you?

Charell Star (18:11.127)
Yeah.

Charell Star (18:16.118)
He was my boss, yes.

Charell Star (18:26.039)
Yes.

Charell Star (18:32.36)
Yeah, so I think what people mean by that when they say, I would have never guessed that by you is, know, there’s what’s what’s coming to the surface is like their own stereotypes of what they assume foster youth look like sound like, and the reasons that you end up in care. Most people have this misconception that foster youth end up in care because they’re juvenile delinquents, they’ve done something wrong. And at in the worst sort of thinking through this, that they deserve to be in foster care. And the thing I try to correct and really push

is that no youth in foster care deserves to be in foster care. No youth in foster care has done anything to deserve to be in foster care, has done anything to warrant being in foster care. Youth end up in foster care if there’s something bad has happened to them or around them. End of story. That is how you end up in foster care. And it really, it’s the luck of the draw.

Brian (19:08.199)
Mm-hmm.

Brian (19:13.565)
Mm-hmm.

Charell Star (19:17.506)
and in a lot of these situations. And so this idea that people would not have guessed that about me is because I come across as polished. I’ve gone through elementary and middle school and high school and boarding school and college, and I have a very successful professional career. And so I don’t give off this stereotypical vision of what they think a foster youth would look like, would sound like, would act like.

They don’t expect them to be in the same sort of social circles as them. And so I sort of take this as a opportunity to educate people on, you know, the difference between, you know, me and any other youth is just a little bit of luck and a little bit of opportunity. Every youth who enters into care has the, who has the potential, excuse me, the potential.

to have an amazing, successful life if they have the correct backing behind them to help them sort of through this terrible journey that they’re entering. And so really my focus is to help people understand that it’s all about being empathetic. It’s all about making sure that we don’t put these extra additional baggage, these additional like stereotypes on youth who’ve been in care because they’re already struggling with so much.

Brian (20:10.621)
Mm-hmm.

Charell Star (20:28.45)
trying to survive so much, don’t need those stereotypes as well. And that you have to correct your assumptions. You never should assume things about people you’ve never met before. And I like being the one to be able to correct what their assumptions are because they take that into the rest of the world with them. And now I’m helping them build a little bit of empathy and sort of widen their perspective of what a foster youth is like and also what the experience is like being in care.

Courtney Williams (20:54.222)
Wonderful. And it’s amazing and fun to be able to hear stories like yours, to see the success stories, but also to hear like, what do you credit with that success? And seeing, you know, this feeling wanted, docu-series and being an author, being on TV, all the things that you get to do, you are successful, as you mentioned. So despite your background, what do you say you credit to your success?

Charell Star (21:20.31)
You know, I credit to my success my great grandmother. I think being loved, even if it was a for a short time, a few years. I mean, I didn’t know she loved me her whole life, but I’m just saying for my memory, being loved, I think having people who didn’t let me slip through the cracks as well. you know, when I would move schools, when I was in foster care, you know, I had teachers who would move me to the gifted program and not tell the principal that they’ve moved me to the gifted program. When I was in junior high school, middle school,

Brian (21:24.339)
Mm-hmm.

Charell Star (21:49.826)
The first week of class, this group teachers rounded me and nine other students up and put us on an entirely separate track for educational two years at middle school. And in that track, I took Kaplan programs, I took science courses at Columbia University, I took specialized math programs. Literally these teachers made up this program, just made this program up and put us on it because we had some academic acumen and helped us get into specialized colleges. That’s how I tested into

A Better Chance is another program for high school students. It’s also how I got my scholarship to go to boarding school because I was in this specialized program and I had these really strong math and science grades and was performing really, really well. And it really is these sort of like angels who’ve always looked out for me and helped me make a way. And so I’m very, very appreciative. I tell everyone, every youth has a potential, but sometimes we get a little luck.

along the way and it can make all the difference when people are looking out for us, when we have people pushing us in the right direction. And so the more that we can do for youth, the better and helping them be successful.

Brian (22:56.829)
Yeah, I think I, at least what I got out of that, when I’m observing is you’re, I’ll just say it, probably smarter than the average kid person. But, and you could say, well, that’s the reason you’re successful. But what I’m really hearing is, like, no, you had people who believed in you and who.

Charell Star (23:08.13)
you

Charell Star (23:19.318)
I had exactly, Yeah.

Brian (23:22.097)
Yeah, and everybody needs that.

Charell Star (23:24.616)
Everyone deserves that. Everyone deserves like, yes, I’ve always loved school. You would always catch me with a book, know, my nose in a book. Books were where I felt safe. School is where I felt safe. But it was people pushing me and again, making this way for me and believing in me that made the difference. I would have never heard about this boarding school if my teachers hadn’t told me, if they hadn’t paid the application fee for me to apply. I didn’t have money to do that. know, getting into college, my advisor in college, my advisor for high school,

Brian (23:27.091)
Yeah.

Brian (23:36.499)
Mm-hmm.

Brian (23:43.634)
Right.

Charell Star (23:53.388)
paid my application fee for college because I couldn’t afford it. Literally people just making a way and believing in me and saying that, you know, we believe you can go further. Everyone deserves that. Everyone. Every year.

Brian (24:04.627)
Yeah. Well, you might, maybe you’ve talked about this a little bit, but I, this is where I love to camp out. You wrote a memoir. I love memoirs. And so, and I love this title of yours, Trash Bag Tales and Other Stories from an Accidentally Happy Life. And so, what a great title. Okay. So it just came out in 2025, right? All right. Okay.

Courtney Williams (24:14.947)
Yeah.

Courtney Williams (24:25.998)
you

Charell Star (24:30.902)
Yes, yes, yes.

Brian (24:33.747)
I want to hear all about this. How did you decide, I’m going to write my story and tell a little bit about your story and then let people know where they can get it?

Charell Star (24:47.692)
Sure. Well, here’s the book. know this is just audio, but here’s my pretty book cover, Trust My Tale. And this book, it was a long time coming for me to put my story, my journey on paper and share it with the world. And the reason why I really wanted to, I was speaking one day, this was years ago, and I was speaking to these youth. And one youth in particular asked me if I had a book and I could tell.

Brian (24:52.688)
Yeah. Yep.

Charell Star (25:13.826)
There was so much more she wanted to know, so many more questions that she wanted to ask. And when you speak publicly, you’re there for what, 45 minutes, maybe an hour. I gave her my email, but I knew there was more and I wish I could leave her with something more complete than just my talk that I shared. And so I set out to write a book and took me about five years to write my book. But literally it takes you through not only my journey through foster care and reunification with my mom.

but it also takes you through my early working day, my high school days and my early working days in marketing, in media, and really what it looks like to heal from trauma. And so I try to tell everyone, know, this book is about deciding the life that you want and deciding to go after it, deciding that you’re not gonna let your baggage hold you back.

And really going after a life you truly, truly deserve. And that’s whether you’ve been in foster care, that’s whether you’ve been in just had your own traumatic experience in life and are tired of carrying that baggage around. And so that is really what this book is about. It’s about this journey from healing from trauma and deciding to do the things that you know you want to do, the things you’ve always wanted to do, the things you deserve to do and become the person you want to be. And so that’s really what the book is about.

And your listeners can get the book on Amazon, of course, or any local bookstore as well.

Courtney Williams (26:31.726)
Hmm.

Brian (26:32.061)
So I’m curious, you call it an accidentally happy life, but you seem like a very intentional, purposeful person who was chasing after joy. unpack that a little bit more.

Courtney Williams (26:38.806)
Yeah.

Charell Star (26:39.938)
You

Charell Star (26:46.886)
Yeah, so I am a very positive individual and it’s taken me a long time, I think, to be that person. Again, the person I’ve always wanted to be and the person I’ve been on this road to becoming. But I think the why the word accidental in my story is because, again, it wasn’t 100 % on me. Like my story turned out well, but it wasn’t only because of the things I did. It was because of people pushing me, people believing in me, people taking a chance and these accidental moments that people were willing to like,

Brian (27:07.635)
Hmm.

Charell Star (27:16.502)
go to bat for me. And so I never want to tell the world that you can do this all alone. I never want to tell a youth that you can’t do this, you know, you can’t do this without other people because you need to trust other people. And that’s a big chapter in my book about learning to trust others, even when you’ve been hurt, about taking, you know, the opportunity to open your heart and know.

that there are good people out there and people willing to help you and you have to seek them out and being willing to accept that help. And so just making sure that that comes across to like, can’t do this alone. We can’t heal alone.

Courtney Williams (27:53.71)
Yeah.

Brian (27:55.348)
What a great message. And what you’re asking people who’ve been wounded to do, that’s not easy to open up your heart again. Yeah.

Charell Star (28:01.824)
It’s not easy. It’s terrifying. It’s absolutely terrifying. But you weren’t hurt alone. You can’t heal alone.

Brian (28:11.435)
There you go. There’s the quote that we need to throw up somewhere. Yeah, put that on your social media.

Courtney Williams (28:12.524)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Charell Star (28:16.672)
you

Courtney Williams (28:19.694)
Who would you say is your primary audience, your primary audience you wrote to?

Charell Star (28:26.028)
So I definitely wrote the book for, again, youth in care, youth who recently aged out of care, maybe have been adopted, but you are no longer within the system. And then again, those who have had their own traumatic experiences. There’s just so many similarities for people who have just gone through hurtful moments in their lives where they’ve been hurt, where they’re trying to heal from them and they just can’t figure out how. And so I think sometimes looking at someone else’s story and how they took the first steps can help you be brave enough to take the first steps as well.

Courtney Williams (28:58.552)
So let’s go back to Casas just a little bit, because you now have this role. What’s your official title? Vice.

Charell Star (29:00.918)
Yes. Yes. So I am vice president of the CASA board in New York City.

Courtney Williams (29:08.078)
All right. And CASAs again are often, a simple way I describe it is they’re mentors, mentors to kids and youth and have a big voice in supporting them and giving the kids voice when they often don’t get that voice. And you’ve talked a lot about people supporting. How can CASAs make that difference in a foster youth’s life? Like what do you see if you have a story to share, something about a CASA and how impactful they can be?

Charell Star (29:31.458)
You know, I mean how impactful they can be they can make a youth who’ve never heard of them cry When she reads about them in a newspaper, that’s how impactful they can be simply Believing and knowing that there are people out there who would volunteer their time to help youth and care for no other reason than they want to help I have seen CASA especially CASA’s in New York City do such amazing amazing things for youth and care In New York City youth who get CASA’s and only around 10 % of youth in New York City are able to have a CASA

Mainly because you know, we need to raise extra money. So if you guys are able to donate please do But only 10 % of youth in New York City have a casa but those 2 % of you who have a casa are reunified with their parents faster. They are I adopted faster. They spend less time and care

Brian (30:11.975)
Hmm.

Charell Star (30:14.882)
than youth who don’t have a CASA. They are more likely to graduate from high school than youth without a CASA. All the success metrics, these youth do better because they have a CASA, because they have someone looking out for them, being that voice, ensuring they’re not slipping through the cracks. And so, you know, I can think of thousands of stories, but that, you know, I have seen CASAs do while I’ve been on the board, CASA NYC. But what I will say is that youth who have CASAs do better.

And so the more youth that we can ensure have a cassock and ensure have that mentor, that advocate, that caring adult looking out for them, the better.

Courtney Williams (30:50.68)
What’s the typical commitment of a CASA?

Charell Star (30:52.758)
So typical commitment is two years. So because we want to make sure again that you can be consistent and spend time with that you because you will be assigned a youth within care. And so it’s two years, but there’s a 30 hours of training that the cost is due beforehand before they’re matched with the youth. And then the minimum requirement is two years.

most of the causes in New York City spend longer than that, obviously, with their youth, ensuring that they not only are either reunified or get adopted or are able to age out of care and get permanency on their own, but they also spend a lot of time just keeping up with their youth after they’ve been in foster care, after they’ve aged out of the system, after they’ve been reunified. They say that consistent adult in their life. And so it’s just been such a very positive experience for a lot of the youth that have been able to experience it.

And I didn’t have a CASA when I was in care, but I know for a fact that if I had been, my story would have been a lot different. I probably would have been in care a lot less. There may have been someone looking out for my mom as well and asking her what she needed to get on the path quicker than she did. And so, you know, that’s what CASAs do. And so, you know, again, I think every youth who has the luck to be able to have a CASA, you know, I am so thankful for it and I wish more youth could have them.

Brian (32:06.035)
So I know you’re focused in on New York City. Do you happen to know, just nationwide, are are CASAs, is that opportunity available everywhere? Okay.

Charell Star (32:17.762)
Yes, yes, there’s around, I believe, 400 plus CASA chapters across the nation. So it’s a national organization. There’s a chapter in just about every major city in the U.S., 400 chapters. And so you can sign up for, to become a CASA in your local area for your local chapter. The commitment, like I said, is two years. But what I love about the fact that, know, this is CASA is a national organization, but each chapter is local and they really…

hone in on the unique needs of the youth within that area. So for New York City, CASAs provide things like subway passes or Metro cards for people to take trains to parental visits or make sure youth are getting to school. You that’ll look a little different than maybe Texas where people drive. And so they’re providing, you know, gas or giving rides or things like that. So they’re very like localized and providing what youth and family needs to ensure that the youth spend less time and care that the youth are being taken care of, that they’re not falling through the cracks.

So, but know that there is a CASA in your local area. Please look up information for them. If you can’t volunteer, you don’t have two years to commit. A lot of CASAs need volunteers for small things like helping out events, checking people in. So please reach out and see if maybe they need some help. And of course, CASAs across the nation could use donations to ensure that the volunteers, that they’re able to train them properly, that they’re able to provide the things that the youth need. So if you can do a donation as well to CASA, please do that.

Brian (33:39.931)
And so like if people are interested in me, they’re next up searching and they type in Casa, they’re going to say it’s Spanish for house. And they’re like, I don’t think that’s the right website.

Charell Star (33:47.714)
You can go to casa.org. If you want to check out the New York City Casa, casanyc.org, you can check out us and then you can get connected to the other Casas as well. But yes, it is also Spanish for house, which is a lovely play on words as well.

Courtney Williams (33:48.021)
Thank

Brian (33:56.274)
Okay.

Brian (34:09.307)
Yeah, these kids need a home and a family and yeah, somebody to help.

Courtney Williams (34:09.326)
Yeah.

Brian (34:15.837)
So, Sherelle, our audience loves hearing from former youth, people who have had this lived experience. I mean, it has a true, I mean, not just authenticity, just it has a weightiness to it. And so we ask all, nearly all our interview, the view ease this question, and I’m really interested in hearing what your answer is to this.

How would you finish this sentence? What kids in foster care really need is…

Charell Star (34:53.546)
What kids in foster care really need is a chance to be successful. And what that means to me specifically is people who are looking out for them, not letting them fall through the cracks, people who are looking out for their families. Again, you can’t separate the youth from their family. And I know that’s exactly what happens in foster care, but you can’t separate that emotional connection. And so ensuring that you’re looking out for their families in the best way that you can is going to…

Brian (35:04.146)
Mm-hmm.

Charell Star (35:19.606)
do worlds of good to ensure that this youth is able to move forward in the best way possible. And so again, ensuring that they have what they need to be successful in life is really what they need.

Courtney Williams (35:33.339)
That’s beautiful. I think the whole theme of this podcast episode is finding support, right? And being that support. we talk all the time. mean, our goal is to recruit more foster families, right? Good foster families and give them information like this that just helps them do their job well. But it’s also for other people. There are many things, being a CASA, being a support, supporting those foster homes, being a good teacher.

Charell Star (35:39.735)
Mm-hmm.

Brian (35:39.88)
Yeah.

Charell Star (35:44.098)
Mm-hmm. Yep.

Courtney Williams (35:56.435)
all these different people that play an important role in these kids’ lives to really help them see and feel their potential. So feel like you did a great job today of just explaining that for multiple different facets of your life and different people in your life as well.

Charell Star (36:09.484)
Well, thank you. And I wouldn’t want to double click on what you said about, you’re looking for good foster parents and for those who can’t be a foster parent right now, like you said, there’s other ways to help. But also helping that family be a good foster family, be good foster parents, providing support for them to make sure that the youth that they take care of have the additional resources and support and people surrounding them having that community, having that village. So even if you can’t be a foster parent or provide a foster home, you can help people who do.

Brian (36:39.283)
Well, want to just call out, like, I think you are a great advocate and that I am so glad that you had the courage to step out of that fear and shame of being a former foster youth and saying, here’s my story, because I think it busts a lot of prejudices people have.

Thank you for having that courage to share your story and be such a great and positive ambassador.

Charell Star (37:17.583)
thank you.

Courtney Williams (37:19.374)
your brain joy for sure.

Brian (37:21.607)
So let’s, I wanna make sure again, people can find your book on Amazon. Yeah.

Charell Star (37:25.952)
Yes, so Trash Bag Tales and other stories from an Accidentally Happy Life by Sherelle Starr. So you can find it on Amazon and again at your local bookstore too. So if you don’t want to shop on Amazon for any reason, go to your bookstore, local bookstore and ask them to order the book for you.

Brian (37:35.539)
Okay.

Brian (37:40.627)
Great, and I’m just curious, is there an audio version?

Charell Star (37:44.822)
There is not an audio version yet. That’s actually something I’m going to work on in 2026.

Brian (37:47.717)
OK, there you go. guess that gave you a resolution in case you didn’t have one. Well, Sherelle, thank you so much for sharing your time, your story with us. And again, I’m so grateful. CASA is lucky to have you.

Courtney Williams (37:49.211)
Hi.

Courtney Williams (38:02.702)
There.

Charell Star (38:03.123)
thank you guys for having me on. I really appreciate this.

Brian (38:05.972)
All right, God bless.

Courtney Williams (38:06.06)
Yeah, have a great day.