St. Aug's basketball player inspires through writing, speaking

RALEIGH, N.C. (WTVD) -- Bre'cha Byrd was recruited as a star athlete out of Virginia to come and play basketball for the Saint Augustine's Falcons. Spend 10 minutes talking to her though, and you'll realize her mission is far bigger than just sports.

"When I was in middle school, my friend, he basically named my purpose and he said, 'Bre'cha you live to inspire,' and I said 'oh my gosh, yes,'" she recalled.

Byrd just radiates happiness and it's infectious, too. When she smiles, you smile right along with her.

"When people ask me 'Bre'cha -- what do you want to be when you grow up?' I always say I want to help people," she said.

To that end, the St. Aug's freshman basketball player wrote and published a book: "Self love ... LOVESELF." It's 33 pages of encouragement and motivation meant to build up the self esteem of emotionally vulnerable young women.

"We all go through the journey of finding yourself and finding what we're passionate about and learning about ourselves, and sometimes that process can be hard," she said. "So, I wanted to do something specifically for girls that can help them on the journey to self love, and I just want girls to know that they have worth and that they're important and their worth isn't based on what other people think."

The book has led to another side venture -- motivational speaking.

"One of the things that I say is 'make it epic.' You know, while you're here on earth we have to make it epic," she explained. "So then, I decided to break up the letters in the word epic. E: evolve P: persevere I: inspire C: complete. And so in life, you want to grow, you want to evolve, you want to change for the better."

Byrd, who fell in love with St. Aug's on her recruiting visit, has yet to bounce a ball for the Falcons. She's excited to have an impact on the court certainly, but for now, she's happy to be affecting lives outside of sports.

"It's a blessing to be a blessing," she said. "You can make a positive difference. So just being a helping hand being that person of positivity and love. That's what the world needs more of."