I wasn't born with a silver spoon in my mouth; I came from really humble beginnings - the projects of New York City - and I worked my way to get to where I am.

I have an odd fetish with nails. I was always doing beauty blogs about nails, and it would be on Fridays called Fridays Fingertip Fetish. It became so popular that a nail polish company approached me, and Fingertip Fetish was born.

Don't ever give up. Believe in yourself or no one else will. My personal saying is: 'I'd rather die knowing that I tried to do what I love.'

If you decide you want to change your life around, it doesn't matter where you came from, what you did, if you were incarcerated or you are from the projects, if you are an uppity kid who came from a really wealthy family - and all of them do drugs and are into that life - it doesn't matter; come as you are, and God does his work.

Being Latina to me is living your life like it's a big old fiesta!

I try to encourage young people to follow their dreams. Even if you're born in an urban community it's always something available to you whether it be a dance class or whether you do really good in school and you can get a scholarship. So if you just put your mind to it and if you educate people enough and they know that they can find resources to help them get to where they need to go then that's really important.

The best thing a man can do on a first date is be a friend. I think that's the biggest mistake men make on the first date. Just get to know me. Be my friend. Just kick it with me as if I was hanging with a homeboy. It shouldn't be this awkward situation. It should be that we're there, having a great time.