A 12-year-old poet laureate embraces a new role -- book author

His moving message during New York Gov. Kathy Hochul's inauguration gained him national attention at just 9 years old.

Three years later, the poet laureate is continuing to impress with a new accomplishment.

In the game of life right now, Kayden Hern is scoring big, especially with kids his age.

"They give me high fives and sometimes say I'm cool," Hern said.

The 12-year-old signs and reads copies of his first book, "Who Am I?" at events all across the Tri-State area.

The soon-to-be eighth grader teamed up with Scholastic for this deeply personal, powerful project based on a poem Hern wrote.

He knows how to command a room, even if it's on his tippy toes.

In 2023, Hern got a personal invitation from Hochul, serving as poet laureate to recite an original work at her inauguration.

The Harlem activist is leaving his mark, addressing a wide variety of complex societal issues tied to race, police brutality and crime in the Black community. He's doing it all as he writes as a Black male child wanting to live and not afraid to die. The common theme: equality.

"Honestly, we just have to keep emphasizing it, cause eventually, hopefully people will listen and start realizing what has been done in the past is not right," Hern said.

His biggest cheerleader is his grandmother Jacqueline.

"We walk down the street and people are like, 'I know him,'" she said.

Jacqueline helped raise Hern.

The two brainstorm and collaborate. Hern cherishes her pearls of wisdom.

"The things that I didn't do or couldn't do or what I saw growing up in the south, I want him to be aware of those things and not to worry about those things," Hern's grandmother said. "This is a changed world right now, and me telling you what I did and how I did it, I don't want you to go through those struggles."

As for what's next for Hern - he plans to write a second book in the next year, or as he told Eyewitness News... "wherever the road takes him."

You can buy a copy of Hern's book online.