Quotes About Empowerment

People think pageant girls are snotty, cutthroat, self-absorbed. Everybody that I meet in the industry is so kind, giving, and they are some of the most amazing women.

I'm probably not going to shed all the pageant girl, because that's who I am. If you don't like it, that's too damn bad.

As a woman of color and curve model, I never imagined when I started modeling that I would be featured in the pages of 'Sports Illustrated.'

When I was growing up, 'Ebony Magazine' was a must read in our household. In those pages I found our news, our stories, and my pride.

I paid my own bills even when I was married and my husband could have easily paid them.

We want to say to everyone: New Jersey's a place where gender does not play a role in how much you get paid.

I get to do what I want. And I get paid millions of dollars to do it.

I think there's just an inherent burden of being alive and being a woman. No man would ever admit that, but I think women know it, which is: You know more than men, you know more than most people you're dealing with every day, and you know that's it up to you to make things move forward, and you get paid half as much, but you just do it.

If you live your life as a hostage to everybody else's decision, you either have to live a very narrow life, or you have to spend a lot of time in pain.

In the country of pain we are each alone.

I think it's really cool to embrace the pain of something that may have hurt you and be able to express it through music.

Comparison is painful. Don't be cowed by other people's pretty pictures. When you feel unimpressive, or irrelevant, that has nothing to do with what you're actually capable of.

Coming out was painful, but life got so much better for me.

I felt that if I shared the lessons that I learned - both the good ones and the bad ones - that I might make the climb a little less painful for other women.

For five years of my life, I was just getting by - every day was painful. I couldn't wear heels, I couldn't run, and I could only walk for, like, 20 minutes. That's not living.

If your kids want to paint their bedrooms, as a favor to me, let 'em do it.

One of the reasons I paint black people is because I am a black person.

For some people, makeup is their war paint; that's putting their best foot forward. Others feel better with no makeup. It's so personal - who are we to judge?

There's so much power in the idea of becoming monstrous. I think we see that in the way some women and girls choose to adorn themselves now. They don't care about being pretty or palatable. They paint their lips black, dye their hair green, file their nails into claws.

I just think it's really great to see athletes painted in a picture that you don't usually get to see us in.

For me, self-esteem-building and confidence-building is the foundation for anything that we do, whether you want to be a writer, a painter, or a entrepreneur.

I have always been a fan of Salvador Dali, but Amrita Sher-Gil, who was an Indian-Hungarian painter, is another favourite. She was painting Indian women, and, growing up here, I'd never seen anyone paint Indian women, so that was really incredible to see a painting of someone who looks like you. I think that has a lot of impact on you.

Painting is about the world that we live in. Black men live in the world. My choice is to include them.

There's not a woman in this world that can beat me if we put on a pair of gloves and we fight. I've accomplished so much.