Laila Ali Quotes

I was technically a Valley Girl, even though I absolutely dreaded being called that. I really hated the idea that I was a Valley Girl.

It took me a couple years to get over the stereotype I was letting myself get caught up on, being a football player trying to start a career in music.

Just because I look sexy on the cover of Rolling Stone doesn't mean I'm naughty.

I decided that I would defy expectations, be it those put on me by society, race, socioeconomic status, or my father.

In India, sports as a career has its own set of obstacles, be it from parents or society, but Harjeet, despite circumstances, and without any support decided to fight and lived his dream of being a remarkable player.

At first, I felt like I was put into this box because I played hockey. I thought that I was viewed a certain way, and I shouldn't wear certain clothes. Finally, I stepped aside and said, 'That's someone else's creation of me. I can be feminine and be strong.'

I am not what a girl dreams of.

There's no way in hell I'm supposed to be on television or be a broadcaster of any regard. But I have defied those odds because I believe in this: I am damn sure not going to let somebody else define who I am.

I often make a joke of my parents, because I come from a Nigerian background and there's a stereotype in the Nigerian community that all of us are going to be doctors and lawyers, and that's just how it is. But upon reflection, my parents were always really supportive of me doing music.

I remember growing up and feeling all the time not pretty enough, too rude, too loud, taking too much space because precisely I wanted to maybe be bossy and loud and unapologetic and not really smooth all the time, and those were not really qualities that were valued for me.

When people see me, I might come across as just eye candy.

Even though I wear glasses, I'm not just a mousy person who stays in my room - even though I do sometimes stay in my room and read.

I think girls especially get so caught up in thinking like, 'Oh I have to be prim or proper or fun and sunshiny' when, like, you can be literally anything. You can be mannish; you can do whatever, and it's acceptable.

America thinks if you're fat, you're stupid. That's great. I want them to keep thinking that. Let them keep on thinking that because the truth is, the expectations are blown away even more when you realize what I'm saying and doing.

I don't feel like a very feminine woman sometimes. I feel manly. When I was in my twenties I would say I was a masculine girl and now I realise the whole idea of femaleness is a construct. I'm a boyish girl, who talks over people and I do a boyish job.

Girls and boys also face the societal pressure to get married which I find wrong.

I didn't want to be a sex symbol. That was perhaps my mistake, but you can't really change who you are.

Women often don't want to be typecast as the girl that's sad.

For me, I feel like I don't see myself as all that different from other humans as a woman, but I'm surprised by how frequently I'm asked to see myself differently.

We're all diminished and restricted by sweeping statements defining boy and girl, our expectations and disappointments with ourselves, the way we look, what we enjoy, and the choices we make.

Who can't relate to a story of a dreamer who, against all odds, is going to make something of himself that is completely unexpected?

I don't aspire to be a sex icon, I don't know why anyone would. It's an uncomfortable position to put yourself in... it's something that we all haven't really made our minds up about, and that's why we find it all so interesting.

I am a five-foot six-inch, dark, ordinary-looking man. People didn't imagine that I would make it.

I am a well-spoken, educated person, and I'm also an extremely accomplished athlete. For me, it's disrespect and a slap in the face when people say I broke a mold as champion or I don't fit as champion.

The label 'wife of the prime minister' is like a giant signboard pointing at my head from a Monty Python sketch. But I am not Mrs. Prime Minister. I'm a human being.