AMANDLA STENBERG

Within months after reading the novel 'The Hunger Games,' I went from telling my mom that I could see myself as this character to actually getting the role. My mother reminds me that if I could manifest such an important role just because I wanted it so much, all of my dreams are possible.

I love all kinds of art. I mean, I love sketching and acting and music.

I think 'The Hunger Games' has a really powerful message about survival, and sacrificing for the ones you love. It's almost like a warning for us to not lose touch of our humanity. We live in a world in which we watch other's misfortunes for entertainment.

'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' by Betty Smith is one of my favorites. Even though it doesn't have any monsters or crazy fantasy in it, it's such a raw story, and I can really relate to the characters. I think it's a beautiful story.

I've read the 'Mortal Instruments' series; I was obsessed with those.

I come from a very musical family. My dad taught me to play guitar. I play violin and drums as well. Violin, I started in elementary school. Drums actually came when I was in a program called 'Rock Star,' which was really awesome. We were doing a song by the Ramones, so I thought, 'Why not play the drums?'

My mom reminds me that all things are possible.

As a fan of the books, I feel fortunate to be part of 'The Hunger Games' family. It was an amazing experience; I am proud of the film and my performance. I want to thank all of my fans and the entire 'Hunger Games' community for their support and loyalty.

You don't have to force your career to happen all at once.

Everyone experiences different parts of themselves at different times, these different parts of themselves that come out in different settings.

I don't think of myself as statically a girl.

I know when I used to chemically straighten mine, I did it because I wasn't comfortable with my natural hair. I thought it was too poofy, too kinky. So for me, personally, when I started wearing it natural, it felt like I was blossoming because I was letting go of all the dead hair and all the parts of me that had rejected my natural state.

My sexuality's very fluid, and my gender is very fluid.

Me talking about political issues on a social platform was kind of an accident. It's something that's a part of my everyday - it's super central to who I am as a person.

I don't think gender even exists.

I hope people online understand that the celebrity culture we've created is not really real. So when they're speaking to and about me, I'm a person, so I'm going to make mistakes. It's inevitable because I'm human.

I'm really passionate about representation in film. I feel like the world is dominated by such a small group of human beings. There are so many different kinds of people that aren't represented, that don't have characters who look like them.

I think something that's really important to me is trying to do what I can from my position of power that comes with having a social media platform to dismantle certain systems that I think are really gross and harmful.

I often find myself in situations where I am the token black person. It can feel like this enormous weight.

There's so much power in allegory, to form ideas and learn lessons that you can actually take and apply to real life. I think that's why I originally really loved fantasy and reading.

I'm lucky because the most dangerous thing that could happen to me is that someone will say something mean on a computer screen miles away, and so I feel like if that's all that I'm facing, then why would I not use my platform to talk about things?

One of the most challenging things for me to do was to walk away from 'Black Panther.'

It's so important to create roles and characters and projects that feature black people in a way that's not specifically targeted towards the niche market, which is, like, a black movie is created, and it's produced and pitched so that only black people will watch it.

Growing up, I was always super into fantasy and 'The Lord of the Rings' and 'Game of Thrones' and all of that, but I could never find black characters whom I really liked.

I'm just someone who cannot fake it. I can only do something with my full heart invested or just not do it at all.