Young Palisadian Beckett Wilmott Bucks Trend

By MAGNOLIA LAFLEUR | Reporter

In the last few years, the number of teenagers who work while attending school has been on the decline, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. While one-third of teenagers between the ages of 16 and 19 hold jobs, 1.9 million teens lost their jobs due to the COVID-19 shutdown in 2020.

Even with the decline in youth employment, Beckett Wilmott, a freshmen at Palisades Charter High School, is bucking the trends by deciding to get a job at the local yogurt shop, Toppings.

“It was all Beckett’s idea,” his father, Vaun Wilmott, told the Palisadian-Post. “He approached us and said he wanted to get a job. He made his own resume and submitted it around and then did all the footwork to get his permit. There was no pressure or push from us but we’re really proud of his innate work ethic.”

Born in Los Angeles and raised in Pacific Palisades, Beckett is the eldest of two and has attended Palisades Montessori School, Palisades Charter Elementary and Willows Community School, where his younger brother Hoyt, now attends.

While he has a busy schedule—attending school, playing basketball and most recently  picking up tennis—Beckett still makes room to work.

He said he chose Toppings due to its proximity to his home and because it is a shop he frequented during his childhood. Beckett has worked there for the last three months as he found it important to gain experience while developing a strong work ethic.

“I wanted to learn about working in a job early so that it would prepare me for the real world. Because school is like a bubble, a safety net. I wanted to expand outside that,” Beckett shared with the Post. “I enjoy being in a working atmosphere and dealing with the customers. I like seeing the inside of a business. I have a new perspective on all the problems that service workers and business owners have to deal with. Details matter.”

An entrepreneurial spirit, Beckett shared that he is already working on his own business ideas, one that involves “dropshipping, where [he] focuses on party supplies” and another “around NFTs.”

Enjoying the independence of being in highschool—with his favorite class being Italian, taught by his “amazing teacher” Mr. Giannone—Beckett’s proactive nature urged him to also welcome in an exchange student from Italy, who he now gets to go home and do his homework with.

“We have a 17-year-old exchange student … from Northern Italy who is attending Pali as a junior,” his mother Nicole Clemens shared. “It was Beckett who found him and instigated the situation when his Italian teacher mentioned there was a kid in need of a home for the semester. It’s been so awesome having him here. Beckett has loved having an older brother, showing him California, sharing cultures and learning to speak better Italian.”

Described as “incredibly smart and driven, but also empathetic” by both of his parents, Beckett had such a desire to make a difference and step up during the COVID-19 pandemic that he approached his parents about helping around the house to help minimize their load.

Never shying away from a challenge, Beckett has been playing basketball since he was younger, which he said has aided him in developing discipline and a can-do attitude.

“I’ve been playing my whole life and still love it,” he said. “I played basketball for years at the Rec Center and with Humble but during the pandemic, I switched to tennis and was training really hard in hopes of making the team at Pali. Unfortunately, I injured my knee badly before the holidays while doing a crossover in basketball and had to have surgery so I have been sidelined. I will go back to tennis though because I was having fun playing tournaments.”

Beckett’s belief that “whatever you want or whatever you feel you can achieve, go for it,” has propelled him to a road less-traveled whereby—at such a young age—his hard work in the classroom, on the court and at Toppings, has him making friends with different types of people, and has helped shape him to become a leader in whatever activity he engages.

“First and foremost, we want him to enjoy his first year in high school,” his parents shared. “You only get to do it once … but his growth as an individual is most important to us and work has taught him many new things: time management, structure and responsibility. Watching him go to football games and dances has been really rewarding. We’re so proud of him”