This weekend,ย theย 21stย Annual Arthur Ashe Kidsโ Dayย – official kick off to the US Open – tookย place at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadow, Queens. This year the event featured Laura Marano, Zara Larsson, Jordan Fisher, Flo Rida, Ansel Elgort,ย Forever in Your Mind and Troye Sivan.ย Tennis superstars Juan Martin del Potro, Jack Sock, Monica Puig and Venus Williams and others joined in for a day of tennis, music and fun to honor the legacy of legendary pioneer Arthur Ashe.ย Disney Channelโs Joey Bragg co-hosted this yearโs show along with Jordan Fisher and Laura Marano.
We caught up with actressย Fรกtima Ptacek at the event! She is the voice of Dora The Explorer.
Q: So tell me how excited you are to be here at AAKD?
Fatima: It is such an honor. This is actually my second year of being here and I absolutely love it. Itโs so great to see all of these great athletes and performers, actors, people from all different industries coming together to support; and to honor someone whoโs so incredible.
Q: Who were some of the acts you were excited about today?
Fatima: Iโm obsessed with Zara Larsson so I was so happy to see her and her voice is just as perfect as I imagined it would be. I actually really love Venus so it was cool to see her in action even though she came in last place I was kind of disappointed, I was screaming the loudest for her.
Q: So tell me how has your summer been? What have you been up to?
Fatima: My summer has been really crazy. I did a lot of traveling which was good. I did England and I actually visited Oxford University, which is like my dream school. I did France for a bit and really a lot of meetings with people and reading scripts; stuff like that. Also just kind of getting some chill time which was really goodโฆ got to read a lot and spend time with my family at the beach.
Q: Thatโs awesome, and so how did you get your start in acting?
Fatima: I started when I was five and I actually started out in printย work and just in photo-shoots and magazine covers, things like that. Eventually I branched out and realized how much I love being in commercials and then like little guest appearances and TV shows and eventually got more and more and now Iโm here!
Q: And you also do work with the UN?
Fatima: Yes! I work with a campaign called He For She, which is part of UN women; itโs Emma Watsonโs campaign. Iโve been working on their youth segment so I created a curriculum that weโre hopefully going to be ย bringing to different schools to start creating more awareness about gender inequality and make it a gender equal world.
Q: Absolutely, so whatโs coming up in the fall? You have school Iโm presuming and some other projects in the works?
Fatima: Yes, I do have school, which Iโm really nervous about. We have a new schedule so now I start an hour earlier. Iโm a normal teenager in that I really want more sleep. I do have a couple of projects, Iโm going to be filming a movie, and itโs an indie filmโฆ I canโt give too much away obviously. And thatโs going to be in California, which Iโm really excited about. I have a couple of other little things that weโre just waitingย to hear on.