Quotes About Empowerment

I've read some things where people are like, 'Beyonce wants to be white' because she has blonde highlights in her hair, but it's ridiculous. You know, she is who she is, and she's a very proud black woman. I know people with natural hair that are the least black inside; you know, it doesn't matter.

My hair is purple, and unicorns mean a lot to me. They're unique, rare, majestic, and beautiful, and I think those are some things that I embody. I wasn't always confident, and so once I gained my confidence, I was like, 'I'm a unicorn, and I don't care what anybody says.' My fans are unicorns, too. I like to call them my 'unicorn nation.'

If some things don't make me feel good, I stop them. How simple, yet so hard to do.

When it comes to creativity, or my artistry, when it comes to how I wear my hair and what I'm dressing like, some things I'm going to fight for; and it's really about picking the battles, but usually I'm not backing down.

You're not going to scare me into being somebody I don't want to be.

But I think it's intoxicating when somebody is so unapologetically who they are.

I don't want to be in somebody else's movie, and then they make all the money. I've gotten offers to do the movies, but I won't sell myself short and be in somebody else's movie, like 'Boyz N the Hood.' I don't think I woulda done that.

There are quite enough sheep already - be a shepherd: be somebody who's bold and who leads.

Somebody must show that the Afro-American race is more sinned against than sinning, and it seems to have fallen upon me to do so.

I came to the realization that I can also satisfy my creative side by giving somebody else a chance. I don't have to be in front of the camera for every project.

I'm an activist. I'm a proud activist. So I want to be someone who is pro-black and pro-Africa and still be somebody that has positive influence.

You can't ever put yourself in a position where someone is requiring you to inhabit somebody else's energy. You have to own your thing, or own it with very fiber of your being.

Keep a diary, and someday it'll keep you.

Education is about women and girls. It is important for girls to go to school because they will become their children's first teachers someday.

I will continue to find ways to help poor people find a job, get a job, and learn someday to own the job.

You know, it shouldn't just be about women as heroic figures overcoming things, it just needs to be about women in general getting the opportunity to play a multitude of roles, telling a multitude of stories - just to express human experience from a woman's perspective. I hope, someday, we can get to that point. I'm all about representation.

From my experience, I think that every actor has to make sure that they're in charge of their own career somehow or other.

I respect women like Gloria Steinem who paved the way. But when you say 'feminist' now, there is a message that if you are sexy and you acknowledge that part of your personality publicly, then it's somehow an affront to women. And I reject that.

My generation fought very hard for feminism, and we fought very hard to not be labeled as you had to have a husband or you had to be in a relationship, or you were somehow not a cool chick.

Half the population of the entire world is women, and people are somehow shocked that this entire half is as capable as the other half.

By not having to live up to people's expectations, I was somehow free.

Before, Indian people had been so defeated, they were always looking for outsiders, for the government, to somehow come in and fix things. But now, they seem to realize that they're the only ones who can save themselves.

I would like to somehow make the community I live in a better place to live.

There's this idea that if you take your clothes off, somehow you must have loose morals.