Sometime in my second year at Brown [University], I took an acting class. And the lightbulb went off for me. I fell in love with it. I realized that everything I was afraid of about myself, all my fears, could be used in that world.

And it [acting] was exciting to me. And scary.

I never heard my mom say, "Not now, I'm busy." But I did have extraordinary experiences that I'm very aware were extraordinary. I mean, I traveled Europe before I was 12 years old, had been to the White House numerous times. Andy Warhol photographed me; Michael Jackson called our house.

We all, as women, need to continue to change our gaze from how we are seen to how we are seeing.

Why am I beating my hair up? Because I want it to look like something that it isn't? These are questions that I've been pondering my whole life.

I was cast in a movie [originally] called Mr. Spreckman's Boat, starring Marcia Gay Harden and Jennifer Connelly. I felt like an "actress." Both of them have won Oscars - maybe that means I might one day.

I'm trying to find my own version of what makes me feel beautiful.