Harry Potter continues to inspire generations – including Jack Harlow

The holiday season is here and holiday classics like Harry Potter are on repeat. It makes it the perfect time to fangirl over the trailer for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts special that was just released. Or maybe you’re more of a fan of the books. If so, you can relate to Jack Harlow! He spoke out about the effect the books had on his life at the recent Variety Hitmaker of Tomorrow awards.

Jack Harlow and Harry Potter

While accepting his award, Harlow described his experience of taking part in a competitive reading program when he was in second grade. The program awarded students for successfully passing quizzes based on challenging books. “The bigger more challenging the book, the more points you earned,” Harlow said in his speech. “I read every book I could find. I read all the Harry Potter books. Boy, those Harry Potter books are worth some points.” Harlow ended up winning first place in the competition.

Because of his success in the competition as a kid, he got the confidence to start writing rap lyrics that would ultimately lead to his road to becoming a successful rapper.  While Harry Potter is not the only book series he remembers reading from a young age, he accredited it as one of the books that led his writing career and overall music career.

He added in his speech:

"“I just want to be clear, as a kid I was a little more of an introvert. Or at least I allowed myself to be an introvert. I wasn’t silent, I had friends, but I was much more comfortable just observing and enjoying my own thoughts. I think if you took a picture of me on this stage and showed that kid, he’d be pretty blown away. But to be honest, all the ingredients were there. It was a competition and it brought out the competitor in me, which is a big part of the genre I’m in. All that reading is what made me the writer I am now, and I’m pretty sure it’s what’s going to make me the Hitmaker of Tomorrow. So thank you so much, I really appreciate y’all.”"

Watch the entire speech below:

Do you also have a connection to the Harry Potter book series? Do you prefer the movies? Sound off below in the comments. We would love to know!