I try to consider people's perspectives and not just my own.

When I was younger, my feet would hurt a lot, but you build up calluses and strength and you don't feel as much pain there.

I've gotten nothing but warmth from the Black community and positive feedback.

I haven’t come from the typical path or background of someone who would make it to this level as a ballerina. When it came to my childhood-growing up in a single-parent home, often struggling financially-my mother definitely instilled in me and my siblings this strength, this will, to just continue to survive and succeed.

A lot of people think, "Oh I'm going to eat whatever I want and then go to the gym." And I've definitely been one of those people and it just doesn't give me the results that I need to have the physique of a ballerina.

I do think that it's a responsibility when there are so few of us as African Americans to kind of get to that place of success in a positive light. We should take a stance and stand for something and use that platform for positivity.

There are muscles that we have in our feet that most human beings don't even know that we have. The strength that we have is so detailed.