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"I come from a family of cheerleaders. My older cousins cheered and took me to watch a practice when I was 4 years old. I knew it was definitely something I wanted to do, so I started taking tumbling and fell in love with the sport. I'm 15 now, and I've been a cheerleader for about 11 years.\n\nWhat I do is all-star cheerleading\u2014it's not cheering for your high school's football and basketball teams, which is more laid back. All-star cheerleading is where we compete against other teams from around the world with a jam-packed two-and-a-half-minute routine.\n\nI'm on the Wildcats, an international level 5 coed team at Cheer Athletics in Plano, Texas. It's the largest all-star cheer gym in the world, and it's won the most national and world championship titles. You need to have advanced tumbling skills to make the Wildcats cut: at least a round-off back handspring full and a standing full, bounding passes, things like that. I'm a flyer, which requires a lot of flexibility and confidence in the air. You have to have a lot of body control and awareness to know what you're doing. I don't get scared\u2014I just go for it. I really trust my teammates.\n\n\n\nWhen I was about 11 years old, I got Facebook. Around that time there started to be a lot of interest in my all-girl team, the Panthers, because we won Worlds that year. A lot of people on the Panthers started getting Facebook requests from fans. Then we all downloaded Instagram and Twitter, and I started getting lots of followers after Worlds the following year. I would just post pictures with my friends on the team doing baskets and stunting and tumbling, and people would Like them! I honestly don't know how I got so many followers. I didn't ask for shoutouts or do anything, but I have 372,000 on Instagram now. It just kind of happened.\n\nTalking about the sport and interacting with people who love it as much as I do on social media motivates me to be a better athlete. Social media is also definitely a big reason cheerleaders are being noticed now. Every time you go to Instagram and refresh the popular page, there's a different video of someone doing a standing full or a basket.\n\n\n\nI personally don't use the term \"cheerlebrity,\" which is what the internet calls us. In my opinion, cheerleaders aren't celebrities! We're athletes who are recognized for hard work and dedication to the sport. And yes, cheer is definitely a sport. We put in so many hours of physical training, killing our bodies to do what we love. I've definitely come across people who don't agree, but that's because they've never seen it. I tell them to come to a practice and watch the tumbling and the stunting and then tell me cheerleading isn't a sport.\n\nWe practice about four times a week, all year 'round. From May through the summer we work really hard on our skills. In August we start putting together the routine we'll compete with. The season starts in November, and once it begins, we improve the routine to make it more difficult with each competition. I've won NCA National Championships five times since I've been at Cheer Athletics, and I've won Worlds three times. Believe it or not, all of the teams are really close. We never get catty with each other, but it's definitely competitive.\n\n\n\nI used to cheer for my high school too, but I stopped this year because I really wanted to focus more on all-star cheerleading, particularly since I drive an hour and a half each way to and from practice. I get all my homework done on the rides, and I've made straight As since kindergarten. I've definitely had to prioritize and make sacrifices though. I had to give up track last year because of the competition schedule, and I don't get to hang out with my school friends as much as I'd like to. I do want to cheer in college, though I'm not sure where yet. I'm only a sophomore!\n\nThe most rewarding thing about cheerleading is being able to do what I love and accomplish the goals I set for myself. The people on my team are an important part, too! I love being able to come to the gym and feel such positive energy every time I walk in. It's also just really fun. It's my passion!"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.teenvogue.com/story/carly-manning-cheerleading>