Martellus Bennett Quotes

Whether at work, at home or in public, we have been trained to believe that who we are at the core of our being is often unacceptable. As a result, we work diligently to live up to - and sometimes down to - what others have made us out to be, whether or not it is an accurate reflection of who we are.

I always tried to hide the fact that I was an athlete. I just wanted to be normal.

I can't say that I ever abided nerd stereotypes: I was never alone or felt outcast.

We're all just trying to fit in and find ourselves, particularly when we're growing up.

Middle school was probably my hardest time. I was trying to fit in for so long, until about junior year of high school when I realized that trying to fit into this one image of perfection was never going to make me happy.

When I was younger, the pressure was just being cool. I never thought of myself as a cool guy. I always thought of myself as more of the goofy guy.

I would have liked to be a nerd. I didn't even make it to that.

As a teenage girl myself, I've gone through times in my life where I've felt insecure about who I am and have tried so hard to fit in with everyone else.

I've worked so hard to eliminate the inner geek from my life. I suddenly realize I have no patience for those people who still have their geeks showing. Now I see why being 'normal' has been so important to me.

Adolescence is when girls experience social pressure to put aside their authentic selves and to display only a small portion of their gifts.

I always wanted to be the pretty girl, but I thought I wasn't. When I started acting and getting pretty girl roles, I felt like I was just pretending, and nobody saw I was just this big nerd.

I don't know if I'm 'normal.'

It definitely wasn't cool in junior high, when everyone else is trying out for cheerleading, to have a life consumed by ballet.

I always thought I wasn't cool enough in school, I was in the 'nerd' crew. I actually enjoyed studying.

Kids feel like they have to puff up or shrink. These reclusive qualities begin to develop because you feel that who you are is going to either be accepted or rejected by your family and friends.

I was trying to be someone for the first part of high school. I was kind of this nerdy kid who didn't want to be a nerd anymore. Even talking about it, I'm embarrassed. I'm like, 'Ugh, why did you care what people thought?'

Sometimes, people only change what they look like for the acceptance of other people, and that's where you start going wrong.

I understand that if someone's going to make me his idea of cool, I can't control that.

People before the public live an imagined life in the thought of others, and flourish or feel faint as their self outside themselves grows bright or dwindles in that mirror.

Looking good has never been the most important thing to me. Maybe it's because I'm more conventionally, um, acceptable, so it's not an issue for me. I don't know.

If you get trapped in the idea that what is most important is what image of yourself you're giving to the world, you're on a dangerous path.

I think a lot of young girls go through that period in their life of finding who they are, and at that point, looking good matters the most.

Sometimes when I go out on the road, I feel almost embarrassed or dismayed because I can't be the image of what kids want me to be. So I just try to be myself, and usually that works out OK.

I wanted to be like my friends. I hung out with girls who had blue eyes and blond hair and I thought, 'I want to look like them!'

If you're already somebody who's feeling different, you'll do everything in your power to fix it because children will do everything in their power to fit in and assimilate.