That you will feel the validation of your external beauty but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside. There is no shade in that beauty.

As human beings, what makes us able to empathize with people is a connection that is not necessarily understood mentally.

Even in my dreams of being an actor, my dream was not in the celebrity. My dream was in the work that I wanted to do.

When I was in the second grade, one of my teachers said, "Where are you going to find a husband? How are you going to find someone darker than you?" I was mortified. I remember seeing a commercial where a woman goes for an interview and doesn't get the job. Then she puts a cream on her face to lighten her skin, and she gets the job! This is the message: that dark skin is unacceptable. I definitely wasn't hearing this from my immediate family - my mother never said anything to that effect - but the voices from the television are usually much louder than the voices of your parents.

It's great to have something to dress up for. You know, I spent three years in slacks at drama school, so now I like putting a dress on.

I realized that beauty was not a thing that I could acquire or consume, it was something that I just had to be.

I grew up watching foreign programs - American, English, Mexican, and very little Kenyan. 'The Color Purple' was the first time I saw people who looked like me.