Jamila Woods Quotes

One of the great needs of Negro children is to have books about themselves and their lives that can help them be proud.

I feel like it's important for young African-American girls - and all people - to read books that tell our stories and watch movies that tell our stories and do the research on our own, too, because sometimes that's not being told, and we're not being seen and shown.

I feel like we need to make new superheroes, African-American superheroes, that people would accept.

And I'm so thankful that I've been allowed to show another side of Trish.

I don't want to be known as the black model. I want to be recognized as Chanel Iman, a personality.

I don't have to be an imitation of a white woman that Hollywood sort of hoped I'd become. I'm me, and I'm like nobody else.

I've always felt a bit of an outsider. It used to worry me that, in terms of TV, I did not look like 'the girlfriend' or 'the daughter'. That pushed me to write my own stuff, as I thought no one else was going to write me a lead in the sitcom.

A lot of my students are Asian-American, and it has been thrilling to watch them break through the stereotypes into something alive and surprising.

It's important for youth, black youths particularly, to be able to fill in the blanks of themselves so they can know completely who they are, but also all the country to understand what this means: what the civil rights movement does to us as people. It is part of the journey that we must be on in order to become fully evolved human beings.

I want women and girls of African descent and of color to be able to not have to keep searching for stories about themselves.

Make a choice: continue living your life feeling muddled in this abyss of self-misunderstanding, or you find your identity independent of it. You push for colour-blind casting; you draw your own box. You introduce yourself as who you are, not what colour your parents happen to be.

There are some stories I want to tell that I think it'd be cool to see an African-American dude do.

I've spent my whole career trying to stay out of any box that anyone could put me in. 'I'm going to do a play now.' 'Now I'll do a musical.' That was my instinct. So I don't feel boxed in. But 'African-American woman' is part of my identity. I don't want to relinquish that - especially as a mother, helping my daughter find her identity.

I grew up looking for myself onscreen and never could find myself. And I believe that I am supposed to be Toula to show people that it's O.K. to be different.

I never saw a little African-American girl saving the world. So to be able to be that for not only myself but girls who look like me is really important and inspiring. Unfortunately, we don't see ourselves saving the world a lot, and if we do see any type of superhero, that person usually has superpowers.

It's important, as a young person of color, to see yourself reflected in the media.

'Essence' is political. I grew up on the magazine, looking at the covers. Seeing ourselves on the cover is political.

I am African-American, and I am a proud African-American. I just don't like to put myself in a box and say, 'I'm an African-American actress.' I am an American actress, and I can do any kind of role.

I'm interested in Native American and African American stories, and LGBTQ stories and stories of persons of mixed heritage. These are the stories I want to see onscreen and on the pages.

I didn't have a hero playing in sports that looked like me.

When I looked at 'Dear White People,' you have four African-American students who are all very different and who are trying to figure out who they are. They're dealing with identity issues and crises. That is exciting to me, to see African-American young people on a page, on a screen, who are so diverse and whose stories are all so different.

I am so passionate about representation because, growing up, I didn't see myself, and now people can say, 'I see myself there.' We're all trying to find where we are.

For all teenagers, the Internet offers a periscope to the outside world, but it's particularly important for students who are unable to find themselves represented and understood in their immediate surroundings.

I just didn't see any toys that looked like me when I was a kid.

Growing up in Iowa, there weren't many people who looked like me. And then when I moved out to L.A., every guy in comedy looked like me.