Jason Derulo Dreams for His Son

The singer and songwriter's focus is squarely on the legacy he's building for his toddler namesake.

Singer, songwriter, and TikTok sensation Jason Derulo considers everything he does to be legacy-building. The hit-making star, who is the parent of a vibrant one-year-old boy, believes in being a lifelong dreamer and transforming those aspirations into plans.

“[My life] is definitely a dream of mine,” Derulo told Kindred by Parents in an interview. “But I will say I've kind of extended the dream and went off on a tangent. I'm doing a lot of other things that I never thought that I would be doing. But it's a lot of fun after you knock one dream out of the park, you know, gotta keep adding to the plate. Life is short. So it's fun. I've been keeping it interesting.”

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As a parent, he encourages his namesake to dream big and will someday advise him to begin mapping out the road to those very hopes. His one simple piece of advice: make a plan.

“The word dream, I think puts us in a mindset of wishing,” Derulo said. “And I think that's a bad place to be in. You need to make it a plan so that you can have a guide and take steps to work towards a plan as opposed to dreaming of something that you're hoping will fall into your lap.”

While you’re never too old to dream, sometimes age clouds the process. Derulo cautions parents to ensure that their little dreamers always dare to think the impossible is actually likely.

“Even if a dream is farfetched, never let [your children] believe that you think it's farfetched,” he said. “The more that we are able to feed our children's dreams, the more likely they're gonna happen. If my mom continuously told me that my dream was crazy, I don't know that I would be where I am today. But she just never led me to believe that my dream was too big or too crazy.”

While he always had big hopes for himself, co-owning a beverage line wasn’t exactly on his list.

“Anytime something kind of speaks to me in that way, I wanna know if there's any room on the ownership side,” he said. “That's just where my head space is now. I'm acquiring a lot of different things that speak to me. And yeah, it's all about equity nowadays. For me, it's not about the short term but my doing long-term partnerships that I think can take over the world in some way or another. I think all the work that I do is legacy building both for myself and my family, but also as a Black man.”

Enter TREO, a plant-powered beverage that comes in five flavors, founded by Bob Golden, son of Snapple co-founder Hyman Golden. The beverage, which Derulo co-owns, is a mix of birch water and organic fruit juices that contains a minimal amount of sugar, net carbs and calories. It’s health-conscious and kid-friendly, which Derulo is pretty excited about since he’s got a young son to consider.

“Being a father now, I think it's incredible that I can give my son fruit juice that's not packed with a bunch of chemicals and useless sugar but something that's healthy but also still tastes good,” he said. “‘Cause when something doesn't taste good, he definitely will give you that face.”

On the contrary, when the younger Derulo likes something, he sings.

“He's kind of like me—he'll start singing and dancing, and it, it's the whole thing,” Derulo said.

But more than building a legacy for his son while allowing him a fruit juice treat, Derulo’s TREO venture is also about opening doors for others.

“I'm hoping that I can just continue to open more doors for other people,” he said. “I mean, just creating more jobs, more opportunities in this crazy time that we're in. I mean, people just need income. They need the means to get by. So I'm hoping that I can create that for a lot of people.”