There is an energy in New York that is like nowhere else I've been, and I feel free there, and that is inspiring.

I live in Brooklyn, New York. It is a melting pot of cultures and people. I walk down the street, and there is art on the buildings and people congregating who have been neighbors for years and events and music and freedom.

The weight loss has been a secondary change to the mental changes I have made. Weight loss does not fix problems; how you view yourself does.

Sometimes, as a young artist, I was looking for validation to know I was good enough, and that's what the initial audition gave me. It made me feel like I was doing something right, even if it is a scary or unstable path.

We are so hard on ourselves, it is unbelievable sometimes. The things we say to ourselves or think about when we look in the mirror are so cruel. We have to look at the power we do have and use it to overcome that voice of insecurity.

Women come in all shapes and sizes, and we are what we want to be, not the label that is placed on us.

I can be capable of anything if I allow myself to be. I really realized what an obstacle I was being in my own life.