Maya Boyce on College, Charity, and Keeping Cameron's Legacy Alive

Charity runs in Maya Boyce’s family. You might go so far as to say it’s in her blood: Her mother, Libby, works with Los Angeles’s homeless community; her paternal grandmother was a civil rights activist; and her brother, the late actor Cameron Boyce, was deeply involved with a number of causes, including gun violence prevention. “My parents taught me to be giving,” Maya tells Teen Vogue, “recognizing our privilege and using it for good.”

Those efforts started from an early age. When she was a child, Maya recalls, she visited some of the shelters where her mother worked. “They'll have holiday parties, and we used to go and hang out with the kids,” she says. “And I was their age, so we would just all play together. And my brother would take pictures.”

That upbringing may be where Maya got her quiet ferocity. At 19, she is a freshman in college, studying theater in Boston. But as she navigates the uneasy waters of early adulthood, she's fighting for so much outside of herself too.

Cameron — known for numerous roles, including the Disney Channel’s Jessie, the Descendants franchise, and the movie Grown Ups — died in 2019, at 20 years old, of sudden unexpected death in epilepsy, or SUDEP. On July 15, 2019 — nine days after he passed — Maya and her parents created the Cameron Boyce Foundation to continue his work and honor his legacy, with the goal of raising money and awareness about epilepsy and SUDEP, as well as continuing other charitable initiatives Cameron had been involved in.

"It sort of became a family passion project to try and keep his legacy alive.”

Because Cameron was an empath with an especially charitable streak, Maya says continuing his legacy through the family’s charity is a sort of catharsis — a tribute to her brother, but also a way to channel her own passions and upbringing. She specifically references their work with Inner City Arts and the Actors Fund, causes aligned with the needs of the kids she used to play with and the entertainment career she’s looking to pursue. While she’s incredibly humble, it’s clear she’s invested in and determined to better whatever cause she champions.

“[The Cameron Boyce Foundation] was basically borne out of us trying to figure out how to continue his work. He was really passionate, and it felt weird that [after his death] all of those goals were just going to end — beyond artistically, his goals of helping people and using his voice for change,” Maya says. “I don't think any of us could stand for that just stopping. So it sort of became a family passion project to try and keep his legacy alive.”

But this work isn't the only thread Maya carries. Currently studying contemporary theater, she's at a crucial point in life, coming into her own and determining what actually fits her — not just following a scripted course.

“I’m going to see if I want to finish college; that's a question I need to ask myself. I really enjoy it, but I still want to make sure that I'm doing what's right for me,” Maya says. As she says this, she's in the depths of finals, doing a lot of “reading and writing and researching.” She describes day-to-day life as “a lot of trying to keep up with myself.”

“I want to act when I get out of college, which has always been my plan," she continues. "And Cameron was always very, very excited for me to find my own identity, because we became creative around the same time, and we sort of came up with the ideas to act on our own.”

She’s looking to possibly act in a horror movie or return to the stage — Maya recently portrayed Maggie in Arthur Miller’s After the Fall, in a production put on by her group of friends. And her friends seem to be instrumental in her overall positivity.

“I've cultivated a really incredible community of people who just make me feel so inspired and motivated. All of my friends are making things, are starting to get jobs, are just being creative and wonderful," Maya says. "And it's just so nice to see the people who I'm close to be successful in the things that they want to do, and hopefully have an impact on the fields that they're going in. Even though most of my friends are going into creative fields, the ones who aren't are also kicking butt, taking names, and it's just really, really — it's motivating for me.”

Another motivator for Maya is in her charity work: Wielding Peace is a photography-based project that encourages kids to express their most intense emotions by channeling them into creativity, with the hopes that art can help them process their feelings in a constructive way.

The Wielding Peace project was Cameron's idea, at “the height of the mass shootings, when that was the thing that really dominated the news cycle,” says Maya, who was buoyed by the project's results. “Wielding Peace became a photo series of kids holding artistic tools and such — you know, paintbrushes, cameras, trombones, whatever it is that a kid is passionate about — and wielding it like a weapon,” she explains. “[It’s] saying, ‘This is my tool. I don't need to use violence or hurtful words. I can be creative and channel that energy into something positive.’”

“With all the kids sending in their photos, wielding peace, it's just very inspiring to see these kids commit to something by publicly saying, ‘This is not okay,’” Maya adds. “Hearing kids say that, it makes me feel very hopeful for the future.”

But it can be difficult to stay motivated in the cause when gun violence is a nationwide epidemic. According to Everytown, 38,826 people die by gun violence in the United States each year, which is more than 100 people fatally shot each day.

“What keeps me positive, and what keeps my whole family motivated, is this new generation of kids who are trying to change the direction of [gun violence].”

But there’s a certain power young people have to urge change. “What keeps me positive, and what keeps my whole family motivated, is this new generation of kids who are trying to change the direction of [gun violence],” Maya says, while discussing young activists such as X González and other outspoken survivors of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018.

Now that the foundation has accomplished a number of Cameron’s initiatives, such as Wielding Peace and his work with the Thirst Project, it has been positioned to focus primarily on epilepsy research and awareness. “When he died, not many people knew he had epilepsy. We had known he had seizures, but epilepsy wasn’t really a conversation, and we’d never heard of SUDEP," Maya says.

"No one gave us any insight into the extent of what seizures could mean,” she continues. “It's not a well-known affliction. People don't really know how epilepsy works — at least, the common person doesn't really understand epilepsy, and doctors don't fully understand it.” She adds that she has a number of friends who have had seizures before and worries they could also be affected and may be unaware.

“It's way more common than people think, and yet there was very little research being done on it,” Maya says. “It was very confusing and hurtful for us. When we were looking into answers, there were not that many.”

The CDC says studies suggest there are about 1.16 cases of SUDEP for every 1,000 people with epilepsy (but doesn't say that the estimates vary), and offers a fairly brief list of options for risk reduction (there are no methods for outright prevention, as potential triggers can differ from person to person and are fairly indeterminate overall). In the wake of this less-detectable and less-known affliction, the Cameron Boyce Foundation has taken a number of steps to increase awareness and research.

“I want to act when I get out of college, which has always been my plan."

As Maya decides what's next for her, it's clear to those around her that — whatever she does — she will remain a powerhouse. Kasey Kitchen, a foundation board member and Cameron’s former publicist, emphasizes that Maya is “a huge light and a tremendous driving force behind the heart of the foundation,” and that her “voice is very intertwined in the guidance of [her parents’] choices.”

“Cameron was so, so proud of her,” Kitchen says. “He was quoted so many times talking about how strong she is and how fierce she is. And I think since his passing, it's even more evident.”

*A quote in this story was updated to more accurately represent the Boyce family's understanding of Cameron's condition.

Credits
Photographer: Drew Escriva
Photo Assistant: Ali Paydar
Stylist: Savannah White
Hair Stylist: Candice Birns
Makeup Artist: Sophie Haig
Production: Michelle Ritorto
Art Director: Emily Zirimis
Fashion Director: Tahirah Hairston
Visual Editor: Louisiana Gelpi

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Originally Appeared on Teen Vogue