By Makayla Corbin, Montgomery Catholic Preparatory School
TomorrowTODAY staff writer
During opening ceremonies Friday, Feb. 27, delegates at the 2026 Alabama Youth Legislature heard from Youth Leg alumni Liz Huntley, a litigation attorney at Lightfoot, Franklin & White LLC in Birmingham, co-founder of the Hope Institute, and defender of families throughout Alabama and the United States. In her speech, Huntley repeatedly emphasized: character. She shared her personal story with the delegates, a story of immense hardship, through which she learned both the power of hope, which she accredited to her faith in God, and the power of character.
Huntley stressed greatness can be achieved, no matter a person’s status, history or profile. She spoke on the necessity of building a strong character in four areas: moral character, civic character, performance character and intellectual character. She shared the benefits of clinging to core values, applying individual talents to a larger community, being the best version of yourself not just for the sake of accolades, and developing an intellectual capacity through critical thinking.
To make sense of these somewhat lofty concepts, Huntley supplemented her speech with some down-to-earth advice, to which delegates were incredibly receptive. She advised delegates to find careers in which they would say to themselves, “I can’t believe someone’s paying me to do this!” She challenged delegates to imagine themselves as brands and hand-pick role models to comprise their “board of trustees.” She assured the high school audience that hard times would come, as they did for her, but that a strong foundation of character can let the sun shine through the darkest storms.
“You are enough,” she told the youth delegates. “It’s not about your family. It’s not about your money, It’s not about the resources you have. You can accomplish anything that you set out to accomplish in your life. I’m living proof of that.” Huntley recounts rising from her circumstances, in a 2015 memoir entitled, “More Than A Bird.”
“For those of you who are blessed to have good family support, good resources, good schools, all the types of things that you need to be successful. If you can’t be successful, shame on you. That is a “you” problem. You have no excuse. At the end of the day, we all live in a country where opportunity is available for all, if you will seize it.”
Photo by Zoë Langley, Bayside Academy, Daphne