Katherine Ryan Quotes

As a teen-ager I was constantly trying to please people, which I guess is true of all adolescents.

When I was growing up, man, I didn't know myself. I was striving for respect. Trying to be cool for the girls. I wasn't the biggest dude and I'm a nice guy.

I have a lot of friends who say that one of the freedoms of being older is you don't care what other people think, which I don't think is right. You care what other people think, but if you're comfortable in your own skin, that doesn't bother you.

I related to 'Sierra' in the fact that I tend to come off as pretty confident in who I am, but definitely in high school I had a lot of insecurity and was unsure if I should be changing myself to fit in more.

I believed my story would be helpful to young women my daughter's age, who are still in the process of forming themselves as women, and in need of encouragement to remain true to themselves.

People's perceptions of me have nothing to do with reality. I'm basically just your average dork.

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

Everything you think about yourself, everything you believe about yourself, is because you learned it.

Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.

I simply did not want my face to be my talent.

I've got my feet firmly on the ground, I can't see life changing too much. I reckon more girls will talk to me at college and more people will look at me, but they know me for who I am.

My first three years of high school, I wasn't that cool.

How you define yourself is a major issue for young people and adults alike.

Our biggest struggle as human beings is to project ourselves as something that society has deemed admirable or likable instead of being honest.

Every one of us is a perfect human being, deformed by the family, the society and the culture.

If I don't measure up as an American writer, at least leave me to my delusion.

I think everyone to a certain degree wants to be accepted.

You don't have to be the cool party guy, getting everyone's attention.

I don't want to be taller; I want to be myself.

I don't know if I owned a toothbrush until I was 19, maybe. I didn't come from stock that placed any importance on the toothbrush. But a couple of girls I met changed that. And I would do anything to get a girl to pay attention to me long enough that I could feel good about myself.

So much of politics is about people's relationships with themselves. You do better if you make people feel secure in who they are.

Earlier, I would never focus on how I looked because I thought I was just 'OK.' So my focus was on being well-read, good in studies, school captain. My personality depended on what I read, not on some magical genetic thing.

If I'm not comfortable in my own skin or confident in who I am, then I'm going to pick parts based on how people are going to view them, not based on what I find challenging or entertaining.

You have to be really comfortable in your skin. You have to start with being in love with you are, with who you've become.

I really just want to change the way women think about themselves.