In episode five of Netflix’s Cheer, athlete Morgan Simianer clutches her upper body in pain. After being thrown, dropped, catapulted, then caught, her ribs flare up. Off the mat, she tries to collect herself, privately confiding in a teammate of her plans to go to the emergency room between practices. Less than a minute later, though, Simianer is flipping her tense limbs through the air again. “If Monica says full-out, I’m going full-out,” she says.

Simianer’s effort and preternatural devotion stand out even more starkly against the background of her upbringing; she credits her drive and resulting success to the trials of her childhood. After being abandoned by her biological parents at an early age, Simianer raised herself in a trailer until being taken into the care and custody of her grandparents in 2014. In 2017, Simianer’s grandfather brought her down to Texas to try out for Navarro College’s elite competitive cheer team, where she would eventually meet coach Monica Aldama for the first time.

Simianer spoke with Vogue after helping Navarro secure its 14th national championship at the Daytona Beach finals about her ambition, intense athleticism, success, and whether there might be another season of Cheer. The 22-year-old is thoughtful and thankful, allowing for exhales and moments of self-reflection between her succinct sentences, and insistent about the normalcy of her life, even after the sweeping popularity of the hit series.

Can you speak about your relationship to athleticism and how it’s evolved?

I’ve played sports my whole life. Before competitive cheerleading, I played basketball, ran cross-country and track. I think my childhood has made me even more appreciative of all these recent opportunities. I didn’t have a family like this growing up, so athleticism has given me so much. The people I cheer with are my brothers and sisters. I love them with so much of myself. I will have these people in my life forever.

I feel like social media nowadays has made young people self-conscious and insecure about their bodies, but when I am with my cheer family, I feel like I can get through anything.

How do you celebrate your accomplishments?