‘It’s just kind of surreal’: 12-year-old graduates high school

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WCTV/Gray News) - Twelve-year-old E’leese Shelton graduated high school on Thursday.

E’leese’s mom, Danrell Shelton, told WCTV she knew her daughter was special when she was 2.

“I got her a LeapFrog tablet, and we didn’t know that she was self-taught until it was telling her to do the letters, uppercase, lowercase letters, and we didn’t realize that she knew all of it,” Danrell Shelton said. “I did not teach her any of it. She just had the LeapFrog and she knew it.”

Danrell Shelton said E’leese learned to read when she was 3 and started doing math when she was 4.

Now, at age 12, she is a high school graduate.

“It’s just kind of surreal,” E’leese said. “I believe it’s mostly because of my support system, like my friends, my mom, my church community.”

E’leese said academic success runs in the family. Her brother E’ven Shelton graduated high school when he was 16. He is about 10 years older than E’leese but said the two have always been competitive.

“She told him that she was going to outdo him,” their father Fred Shelton said. “So she stuck to her word.”

E’ven Shelton was happy to see his sister surpass him.

“The best thing that you could hope for somebody that you love is for them to do something better than you,” he said. “That’s just what we hope for the next generation.”

E’leese plans to attend Tallahassee Community College and then transfer to Florida State University.

E’leese said she wants to become a pediatrician. After college, she hopes to start medical school when she is 16 or 17.

“I feel excited to go on and embrace that journey,” she said.

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