Asanti Scott is a name you may want to remember. The talented 19-year-old is a songwriter and musician who was “blessed to be born with sickle cell anemia.” She doesn’t let her condition stop her from writing songs and recording them in her new recording studio, courtesy of Make-A-Wish® Mississippi.

“My parents knew I had sickle cell before I was born,” says Asanti. “Neither of them has it, but they both carry the trait.” For most of her life Asanti has spent time in and out of hospitals. “I was born in San Francisco, and I spent a lot of time in the hospital there as a child. I would do my own little talk shows while I was in the hospital, and I played guitar. I also participated in game shows held at the hospital. I was friends with other kids who had sickle cell anemia, as well as with kids who had cancer. I saw people from Make-A-Wish® visit some of those kids, so I knew they granted wishes.”

Asanti moved back and forth from San Francisco to Jayess, Mississippi a couple of times during her childhood. “We moved to Mississippi for the first time when I was in the fourth grade, and the second time when I was a junior in high school.” She graduated from Lawrence County High School and now attends Southwest Mississippi Community College, where she is studying biology. “I want to go on to get my bachelor’s degree in biology and do a fellowship in hematology. I am hoping to ultimately be a pediatric surgeon.” Because she has been around doctors from such a young age, she has joked with them since she was two years old that she can do their jobs better than they can. “I still think I can!”