Jenny Zhang Quotes

If you stop trying to restrict yourself by defining yourself and love in other people's terms, it's the most liberating thing.

You shouldn't feel you have to label yourself for someone else to understand you. You should be able to feel what you want to feel and that's okay.

Every bit of me is devoted to love and art. And I aspire to try to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger. I just felt like a freak. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm trying to liberate them, I want to free them of their fears and make them feel that they can make their own space in the world.

The truth sets you free. It's a very liberating thing, when you say this is who I am warts and all and then you can just get on with life. It's amazing.

What's the greater risk? Letting go of what people think - or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

I don't want to have to hide from the world anymore.

You are ugly when you love her, you are beautiful and fresh, vital and free, modern and poetic when you don't... you are more beautiful as an orphan than as your mother's son.

I want to tell everyone that no matter what's keeping them from being their authentic self to hold on to the hope that there will be an end to that road. There will be a life where they can live their true self.

I don't live in a prism, and I'm not afraid of anything. I haven't built any walls around myself.

Give people permission to be who they are and they will love, thank, and respect you forever.

I think people should feel encouraged to be themselves.

It's not like my old self - I'm not in character anymore, I'm me. I'm not hiding behind that anymore.

So many people go through life, and they never deal with their own issues, no matter what the issues are - ours happen to be gender identity. But, how many people go through life and just waste an entire life 'cause they'd never deal with themselves to be who they are.

Personally, coming out was one of the most important things I've ever done, lifting from my shoulders the millstone of lies that I hadn't even realized I was carrying.

There's something liberating about not pretending. Dare to embarrass yourself. Risk.

I want to continue to be me and share with people.

Style is joyful if you allow yourself to have joy.

When who you are naturally is not only considered a sin, but you're reviled for being that human being and you don't have any control over it, there are lots of issues that come into play. And it takes a lot of presence, determination, courage and space to figure out how to land in that truth regardless of what anyone around you thinks about it.

Writing this record let me recapture who I am. It is summed up in the title Be Not Nobody. You need to feel comfortable in your skin and do whatever you need to do for yourself, to heal or to grow.

I feel a kind of permission and freedom in my work that I might not allow myself in my real life.

There's no better time than now to be who you are.

Hiding, secrets, and not being able to be yourself is one of the worst things ever for a person. It gives you low self-esteem. You never get to reach that peak in your life. You should always be able to be yourself and be proud of yourself.

Before I knew it, I was singing, 'I'm so tired of being alone,' and that's Al right there. From then, my attitude was, 'Let Otis be Otis and James be James. I'm not going to emulate them anymore.'

I truly believe that the privilege of a lifetime is being who you are.

If I hold back any part of me, I suppress that much energy and potential. The question I want to ask myself now is not what behavior is good or bad, but in what ways would I express myself with greater energy if I didn't hold back.