The week before classes resumed this fall, Elon University sophomore Chann Little was back-to-school shopping and spending time with family like everybody else. The only difference between Little’s end-of-summer routine and every other Elon students’ is that his outings were being documented by an award-winning MTV crew. Little is the star of an upcoming “True Life” episode.
Chann is an overachieving sophomore who juggles multiple jobs, has received several awards and maintains a near-perfect GPA. He even won a car for charitable deeds. What’s behind Chann’s success? His mother.
The topic of Chann’s episode will be, “True Life: I Have a Pushy Parent.”
The popular MTV show provides, according to the show’s webpage, “a window into the struggles, hopes and dreams of young people” by featuring the stories of real individuals and their “true lives.” With thousands of viewers all across the country, the opportunity to be featured on the show is rare.
When Little saw the “Pushy Parent” banner over the episode’s casting call, he immediately pictured his mother.
“Basically, if you have a parent that pushes you to be successful and lives vicariously through you and your grades to make sure you’re gaining the marks and staying on top, then you’re qualified for the episode,” Little said. “So I immediately sent them an email describing my story and my relationship with my mother.”
After producers responded enthusiastically, Chann and his mother, Tonya Little, went through an extensive interview process. They were approved.
One of Chann’s friends, sophomore Daniela Sostaita, said her immediate reaction was excitement.
“Being on such a popular show is a big deal,” she said. “Because I know him well, it’s weird to think that everyone else is going to see his life the way I do as one of his close friends.”
Chann’s mother, featured alongside her son, said she was initially hesitant about the casting decision.
“After prayer and consulting with the producers, it seemed like a great opportunity,” she said.
Though the title of the episode includes the word “pushy,” Chann said the producers emphasized they would paint Tonya in a positive light.
“They were not trying to portray her in [a way] that would hurt her image. They said they would not cast her as an over-controlling parent that is a dictator over [her] child’s life, but as a caring parent who wants the best for her child,” Chann said. “After we saw what kind of people [the True Life crew] were, we really trusted them.”
The filming began a week before Elon reopened for classes and involved crew members visiting the Little residence for 10 hours a day.
“For that one week, they filmed me hanging out with friends, attending family functions, dinners and even shopping for school,” Chann said. “It was complicated at times because we had to get approval to film from people every time we went somewhere.”
One of the major obstacles Chann faced was having to schedule out his days in advance to ensure that the crew was getting good film.
“It was challenging to constantly stay busy. They didn’t want to film you just [laying] around and staying on your phone, so I had to schedule out my days and give them a list of the places I intended to visit beforehand,” he said. “Sometimes, when we wouldn’t get approval from the places I listed, I would have to change my plans.”
Chann stressed he had to inform the crew of the activities he planned to engage in, conversations were never staged nor scripted purely for filming purposes.
“If we had a conversation and they didn’t catch it, they’d ask us to redo it, or they would also ask us to stand in a certain position for camera angles. But apart from that, the conversations were genuine, actual words said by me, my mom and my family members,” Chann said.
Because of his constant interaction with family members, Chann added the journey strengthened their relationships.
“Usually, whenever I’m home I’m just getting rested and preparing for another school year. But because this time I was constantly interacting with people around me, I became a lot closer to my mother,” he said. “The things we talked about were not necessarily conversations we had before or have on a daily basis, but it was nice having them and it forced us to put away all the distrac,tions and deal with everything going on in our relationships and ourselves.”
Chann said he hopes the episode will give young people the confidence to talk to their parents about their life plans, and that their parents will be able to respect their goals.
“I would rather have a parent who is excessively involved and cares about me than a parent that isolates [herself] from my achievements and doesn’t care about anything I do. If my mom didn’t ask me questions about my decisions, then I don’t know where I would be today,” Chann said.
Tonya added Elon students and young people in general could learn from the relationship she shares with her son.
“A parent that pushes their child to accomplish their dreams is a good thing. I want him to be his very best, so I am going to push him to his fullest potential,” she said. “I love my boy, and now the world gets to see it.”
Filming will proceed when Chann returns home for Fall Break. With the show potentially airing in February, Chann is excited to share part of his life with the nation and hopes the episode will be well-received.
“I just want people to know that some reality TV is good, and they really care about presenting the true stories of people,” he said. “That’s why the show is called ‘True Life.’ There’s nothing fake about it. It’s genuinely my life just summed up in an episode.”