Sarfati. That's my real last name. I don't use it a lot because I got 'Lea So-fatty,' 'Lea So-farty' at school.

In life, when you are faced with an unfortunate circumstance, there’s no book, there’s no guide, there’s no right answer on how to get to the other side. You just sort of wake up one day and you have two paths in front of you, one where you go up and one where you can fall, and choosing the path to rise is most certainly not the easy path but it’s the brave one.

I'm a really big animal lover.

It's just really important I think for fashion to be affordable, because everyone should have the opportunity to wear cute things and be happy and comfortable in what they are wearing. That's definitely how I like to shop and how I like to think about clothes and fashion.

Talent doesn't appear over night. It takes a lot of work and honing your craft, but also don't give up because people may say you're not good enough. I had so many teachers in high school and college saying "You're not going to make it. You're not. You can't." Luckily I had enough people around me who said I could.

I remember watching Barbra Streisand and seeing Jennifer Grey in 'Dirty Dancing' - these were people who acted like me and looked like me. Now it's great that everyone on 'Glee' is so unique and people can relate to us and look up to us.

I love to cook so much. I like to cook everything. I really like to eat my food.