Natasha Cloud, 27, a Cardinal O’Hara High graduate, would be the only Washington Mystics player addressing the media after the game June 14. She read a statement on behalf of the team on gun violence, writes Ava Wallace for the Washington Post.

Cloud’s public action culminated  a long journey and a level of comfort in her own skin.

Cloud grew up in a privileged white family in suburban Philadelphia but discovered around age 12 she had a black biological father.

Her family never treated her differently, and for years she didn’t quite realize she was black.

She found basketball and started thinking of herself as a black woman.

Cloud played college basketball at Saint Joseph’s and found her place in her junior year when the family house burned down. Her team consoled her and the men’s team collected money for her family.

It was the Mystics and the WNBA that helped Cloud feel comfortable in her own skin, and to speak out when she felt passionate about an issue.

When she discovered June 13  a school near the Mystics’ home court was hit with bullets, she took to Instagram and initiated the media blackout.

Read more about Natasha Cloud here.

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