By Christiana Dillard

Yous Ndiaye has a powerful story to share, and he tells it through his popular lifestyle brand, Somebody Gotta Do It. The communication studies junior at Klein College of Media and Communication not only concentrates on entrepreneurship as his major track, but also maintains a self-starter attitude in his personal life. Somebody Gotta Do It started out as a saying and has transformed into a clothing line, a media platform, a motivational speaking outlet and much more, and Ndiaye’s mission to elevate members of his community means that he has not stopped working yet.

Ndiaye was born in New York, but spent some of his formative childhood years living between Senegal and the Gambia in West Africa. When he returned to the United States at nine years old, he was relentlessly bullied, leading him to act out and create trouble for others. At 18 years old, he was sent back to Africa as a punishment and spent over a year giving himself an informal education and reflecting on his life.

Coming back to the United States and having to complete high school at an older age than his peers motivated him to hustle harder. When he completed his accelerated program to graduate, he decided to go to community college. 

“Because of the gap I had, I needed a little more preparation. I wasn’t ready for [a larger] college; I had to be honest with myself, especially where I was at in life,” he says. “I just needed more tools and more information and just a little more help.”

At the same time, he started formulating Somebody Gotta Do It. It began as a phrase he always shared on social media, but others soon caught on and quoted him online. Ndiaye conceptualized taking the idea further by putting the saying on T-shirts, but his friends challenged him to think bigger. 

This encouragement led him to where he is today. In 2018, he started as a transfer student at Temple University. Since then, he has hosted merchandise pop-up shops on campus that have sold out in just a few hours.

“I just want Temple students to feel like I’m here and I’m going to make sure that I look out for students,” he says.

Ndiaye has appeared in local media, regularly puts on fashion shows, and has even awarded scholarships to students in need of funding for their education.

“Imagine if somebody could say somebody in [their] neighborhood put them back in school,” he says. “The little I have I want to give back because my brand is Somebody Gotta Do It. So I always say, why not you? If you don’t do it somebody else is gonna do it for you. So I always try to empower people: it’s a call to action.”

The latest Somebody Gotta Do It project is SGDI Talks, an online talk show that discusses controversial social issues with guests who have lived those experiences firsthand and can offer unique perspectives. 

To learn more about Ndiaye (@yous2thismoney), Somebody Gotta Do It (@_somebodygottadoit), and the brand’s talk show (@sgditalks), check out the accounts on Instagram. The fall release merchandise pop-up shop for Somebody Gotta Do It will be held at the Howard Gittis Student Center on Thursday, Nov. 7 from 12:00 p.m. - 6:00 p.m.