Quotes from Yara Shahidi

Personally, I love denim... denim pants, a shirt, denim jacket - I'm good.

Never jeopardize who you are for a role. Now, I'm not saying you should never change for a role, because the fun of being different characters is adapting different nuances and different parts of the character, but never jeopardize your moral compass or anything like that to have a role.

There are two conflicting philosophies that I love: "Everything happens for a reason," as well as "you can change everything that you have control over."

I've always loved watches. It's been the one thing that I've asked for, whether it was every Christmas or a birthday.

I am all about comfort and whatever comes along with comfort. I wear a lot of sweats. But I'm also very preppy naturally.

Fashion is one of those places in which, when you're wearing something that feels like a representation of you, it does create, in a matter of speaking, a space for you to exist. Even if it's just in a two-inch radius of where you are. It's a walking, personalized area in which you can live.

I have the support of my parents and my teachers. They made it very possible for me to go to a school that is open and supportive of me being gone at times and pursuing acting. But school always comes first for me.

'First Family' on the CW is about the president and his family living in the White House.

I was in Minnesota, where I was born, and I did print ads and commercials. And that was always cool 'cause when you're little, you can only work two hours a day, and it changes.

On a personal level, I think dressing is such a form of expression, and when you do events, it's important to feel as though you are authentically yourself.

At Harvard, I got to meet and have dinner with Jamaica Kincaid. Just to have conversations with professors was absolutely amazing.

When you're a part of any protected class, whether it is being a woman, a person of color, a part of the LGBTQ community, or an immigrant, we're expected to get everything right and be the embodiment of perfection when it is not expected of other people.

There have been moments when I was on a modeling job, and it was the most fantastic thing in the world. And there have been moments where I've realized, 'Okay, I'm ten years old, and I've spent the past six hours outside in the rain.' It taught me how to be specific about what kinds of projects I wanted to do and what kind of work I wanted to do.

When you are in the public eye as a person of color, you are given very little room to mess up.

When we moved to L.A., I started going out for more commercials, and then one day they emailed me a movie script. The first thing I said was, 'No way. I love commercials.'

If you look at the history of art and fashion, it's always been political. It's always been pushing boundaries.

I feel comfortable putting my political stances out there without feeling as though I am filling some sort of quota. I don't have a wokeness quota for the day.

My mama is African American and from Wisconsin. My baba was born in Iran. My parents have stressed the idea of creating your own path, and creating your own identity is part of that. That's why embracing these two cultures is important to me.

Personally, getting into college was a big deal because I realized it's probably one of the only things I've fully planned. The rest of my life has been, for the most part, a nice little happy accident. I'm glad that it happened this way, but it's nonetheless unintentional.

Maintaining a sense of your personality grounds you in your space. I try and just make what I wear a reflection of how I feel at that moment, at that particular place in time.

I go on and off home-school and regular school, but the kids don't treat me any differently because they've all known me forever.

I've always struggled with Hollywood feeling trivial. Red carpets aren't worth it.

Being homeschooled for half of my life allowed me to choose my own curriculum and find things I really enjoy, and that's kind of inspired me. I've always been intrigued in or interested in the topics I've been covering.

I like to be in control of my body. Also, I love getting into character and exploring a different aspect of who I am.