When I got to be about 16,17 I got into a beauty pageant and I was allowed to start playing around with makeup.

My mother helped me identify myself the way the world would identify me. Bloodlines didn't matter as much as how I would be perceived.

I'm just going to live my life and be who I am.

As a woman, when you embrace where you are in life, then I think the struggle [life] isn't so hard. If you're 42 and still think you're an ingenue, then you've got a problem.

Self-esteem comes from who you have in your life. How you were raised. What you struggled with as a child.

Having a baby takes so much from you. It's the most glorious thing you'll ever do, but the aftermath is not so glorious!

If you're of multiple races, you have a different challenge, a unique challenge of embracing all of who you are but still finding a way to identify yourself and I think that's often hard for us to do.