Sarah Dessen Quotes

We like that when girls look at us, they don't see perfect little blond-haired, blue-eyed Barbie dolls.

We have to stop this stereotype that for girls it's about being in pink and horse riding. We need to teach kids to think outside the box, to dare girls to be different.

I think they should have a Barbie with a buzz cut.

Fashion hasn't changed enough yet. There's too much a stereotype of beauty.

To me, being a woman in 2016 is allowing myself to contain multitudes. Looking at who's given the space to do so and why.

I'm definitely more attracted to chaos than to order. The point is, I find the female roles out there very cliche. If we are limited to being only lovers or mothers, we are limiting ourselves.

There's such a stereotype about men and women. Obviously, people think men are faster and stronger and all these other things, and I don't want people to get sucked into that anymore. I want them to realize that the women are out here and doing just as awesome things. They can be just as great, too.

I don't try and write strong female characters or strong male characters, I just try and write, hopefully, strong characters and sometimes they happen to be female.

I'm pleased to be a part of a 'new breed' of models who perhaps don't exactly fit the status quo.

I am constantly struggling to show people that there is more to me than my appearance. You do have to try and overcome those hurdles. Female actresses need to be given the chance to be more than how they look.

It's not often you get female characters who don't fit into a box.

If you are a woman and an actor, it does not mean that you have to contain or limit yourself to just being that.

I feel like 'Power Rangers' as just a franchise and as a message in itself is taking down the barrier of putting a certain look to a certain thing, right?

I think that all men and women both, particularly women, hold back on parts of ourselves because they don't fit into the traditional workplace model.

Even when I go out to the ring, yes, I am the big, bad heater monster, but I'm out there showing young girls that I can still be athletic just because I'm a big, bad heater. I can still go out there and cut promos like the other pretty girls and wear my hair down and put makeup on and do everything that they say that you can't.

I just wanted to kind of break down those gender stereotypes and just say everyone's equal, everyone's their own person, everyone's their own individual.

My mum is a rock star, and I idolise her. She was born in a conservative Muslim family, where the girls were not educated much, and she was required to wear a burkha. She felt repressed but dreamt of driving her own car, walking around in jeans and wearing sunglasses, and she did.

There are certain images attached to an Indian woman - a mother, daughter, homemaker... there are certain parts of it that I really like, and I love having that identity also, but I feel women shouldn't be limited to that.

We're told that to be successful girls, we have to be small and quiet. Yet to be successful humans, we have to become big and have a voice. There's an inherent contradiction.

I'm not against embracing my femininity, but I've never bought into the idea that you have to wear a dress to do that.

You don't have to be just one thing. I think that applies to women in front of and behind the camera.

People are deeply interested in rewriting the established narratives and challenging what we see as the norm in every way. We want to see a new definition of beauty and sexy. We want to see different people look vulnerable and show strength and redefine what it means to be strong.

I want these to be names that young girls and boys and kids of all genders grow up knowing. It shouldn't just be when you take a feminist class in college, if you happen to do that. I hope this is fun and engaging for folks to watch.

I never felt I could give up my life of freedom to become a man's housekeeper. When I was young, if a girl married poverty, she became a drudge; if she married wealth, she became a doll. Had I married at twenty-one, I would have been either a drudge or a doll for fifty-five years. Think of it!

These days we don’t have to fit into something other people think we are. We’ve leveled the playing field, life is inclusive. I’m a mom, sex detective, wife, fearless, gentle — we can now, with grace, be all of what we are.