Adina Porter Quotes

I've always been proud of my body, my Jewish nose and all of that. Hollywood's Hollywood, but that's not going to change.

My hair was curly, and everyone else's was straight or in micro braids. I didn't have a lot of money, so I shopped at thrift stores. And I'm petite - I never looked shapely. I remember thinking, 'Will I ever have that stereotypical round, full butt that people think most black women have? I had to find another way to feel good about myself.

Quite many people have ugly hands, and I thought I should not feel ashamed about it.

I'm not pretty. The truth is I didn't think I could be a model at all. I was looking at some of the guys on the walls at Irene Marie and I thought to myself 'Jesus Christ. I can't do this. I don't look anything like these guys'.

I contend that every woman has the right to feel beautiful, no matter how scrambled her features, or how indifferent her features.

From as far back as I can remember, I was always insecure about my looks, whether it was my flat chest, my skinny legs, or how to cope with my body as it changed. With hindsight, I can see I was different. I was given a body that worked for photographic modelling and a photogenic face.

I had to fight like hell to convince people I was beautiful in my own Polish half-breed way.

What I think is exciting is that, to a certain extent, there is a revolution happening where black women are owning their own beauty, despite the standard of beauty that in the past has not had space for it.

When you're a model, you learn how to make the most of your assets - in my case, the smallish behind that is the legacy of my half-Japanese heritage.

Just because you don't look a certain way doesn't mean you're unfit.

I just worried about my weight. Worried about my appearance and thought I wan't pretty enough to be a pop star. It was very very strange.

Being a Middle Eastern girl in America with a name no one could pronounce was not easy, so I turned to make-up and cosmetics as a way to deal with my insecurities, thus creating my long-term relationship with beauty.

As a young girl who was not confident in myself, I think I would tell girls of all ages that there is no one type of beauty, and looking towards one standard is the most unhealthy thing in the world.

I truly love my hair but my skin colour was something I couldn't get my head around.

Black women, dark skin women are the original beautiful people to me.

I was in Italy on vacation, and I saw my reflection in a mirror. I saw how unique my skin was and why people stop me on the street to ask about it. I started falling in love with it.

To some, I'm too curvy. To others, I'm too tall, too busty, too loud, and, now, too small - too much, but at the same time not enough.

Having those positive friends around can really make a difference in how you view yourself. It's helped me realize that there's no such thing as having a perfect body, and just because I'm not shaped the same way as another girl is, it doesn't mean I'm not pretty. It just means that no two girls are alike.

I'm insecure about everything, because... I'm never going to look in the mirror and see this blond, blue-eyed girl. That is my idea of what I'd like to look like.

Not everybody is Cindy Crawford.

I did an episode on my talk show on cellulite, and I brought seven women into a dressing room at Nordstrom's in L.A., and we all sat and talked about our cellulite.

Black women don't have the same body image problems as white women. They are proud of their bodies.

I think Charlize Theron is just as good when she is looking really pretty in a movie as when she gains 10 pounds and puts on a nose. I applaud her - good for her that she doesn't care. But she's just as good, whether she's pretty or not.

I've never wanted to look like models on the cover of magazines. I represent the majority of women and I'm very proud of that.

Not everybody is some kind of media model.