No matter how cutting-edge Hollywood may seem, it is still delayed in how it views people: If producers do not perceive me as an Iranian girl, then I cannot play an Iranian girl. If you aren't perceived as a full black girl, then it makes it more difficult to play a black girl on TV.

Week-by-week you grow with your character and it's an interesting challenge.

So much of my work is as Yara, not as a character. If you're attacking my work as a philanthropist or activist, you're attacking Yara. But because of "Black-ish" and this national audience we have, I get to have a larger or louder voice.

I really love hip hop. My cousin Nas came out with an album Life Is Good, and I love that album, but I also love Maroon 5.

Intergenerational support is crucial. I feel like generations give up on each other. If you're Gen Z, you're like, "Gen X is never gonna get it." If you're Gen X, you're like, "Those Millennials are such idiots."

I'm lucky; my parents have never said to me, "You're a kid, so you just don't know." They say, "How can we discuss the world and learn from these events together?"

I try to use social media as a tool for good. Fortunately I can say that social media has treated me pretty well. I've been exempt from a lot of the mean comments. Of course it happens now and then. It's funny because let's say a rude or off-putting comment comes in, rather than ignore it, I'll talk to that person and there are so many times I've gotten apologies, like "I totally understand, I'm with you."