I hope one day it's not revolutionary just to be yourself, but I think that the work that's being done around identity and personhood is so important.I feel inspired by people around me who are part of this movement as well: Hari Nef and Rowan Blanchard and Willow Smith and these kids who are really not going to listen to anyone. "I'm just going to say whatever I feel. I'm going to be myself. And if you don't like it, then, you can go screw yourself."
Amandla StenbergWhen you are a marginalized person or a woman of color and/or someone who's a part of the LGBTQ community, your acts become politicized, just by being yourself. Because we're not completely accepting of all different kinds of human beings. By being myself, I'm doing something political.
Amandla StenbergThe state of the world terrifies me. It feels more powerful personally to fight it through larger actions as opposed to trying to fight the Trump administration itself. It's sort of self-preservation for my mental health. If I spend too much of my energy and my brain on Trump, I'd lose my mind.
Amandla StenbergI think 'The Hunger Games' has a really powerful message about survival, and sacrificing for the ones you love. It's almost like a warning for us to not lose touch of our humanity. We live in a world in which we watch other's misfortunes for entertainment.
Amandla StenbergI think one of the core ideas in America has always been conversation and being able to question our systems of government, and being able to dictate our own communities and how we want this country to work. And I feel like we're losing part of that because of the way that even our current political campaign is centered more around celebrity than anything else, and so we're kind of losing conversation. We're still having conversations, but they seem to be more about like Donald Trump's hair and like memes of his face more than anything else.
Amandla StenbergI'd say my relation to being a woman is, I mean being a woman is whatever you want because the concept of gender is not really real, you know? And so for me it's about being comfortable in myself. It's about allowing myself to express who I am in any way that I want to, whether that be through my clothing, the way I present myself to the world, whether that be through like my gender identity and my pronouns. It's just really about allowing yourself to really be expressive and creative.
Amandla Stenberg