It's so reassuring to have a woman heroine who triumphs with more than just what she has on the outside who has more to offer the world than just a pretty picture.

You'll never see me at the launch of the new PlayStation or some club. For me, the fun stuff is being able to get my mom tickets to 'Dancing With the Stars' - she loves Mario Lopez.

What's so kind of beautiful about the whole thing was that everything that made me not right for all of those hundreds of commercial auditions that I went on and no one ever wanted me for is what made me perfectly right for 'Real Women Have Curves'.

The name America has definitely grown on me. I wish there was a big patriotic story behind it, but the truth is that my grandfather was a librarian who knew all sorts of random facts.

Am I Latin? Am I American? What the hell am I? I love my culture and I'm very proud of my culture

What’s hard about being on the other side of the world is that sometimes the problem feels so big that changing one life doesn’t feel like enough. But it is.

I was an open, smiley and gregarious child. I could make friends in 30 seconds wherever I went.