Kyle Abraham Quotes

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

I was going to middle school in Berkley, and I did not fit in at all. Like a lot of kids, I found theater to be a good place for me.

I've tried to avoid labels, but they always find you.

I was made fun of a lot in high school because of the way I sound and the way I was.

For me, the teen years were all about searching for a place for myself, wondering why I seemed so different than everyone else, wondering especially why no one could look past the surface and figure out who I really was underneath.

I hate labels.

As a kid, I spent a lot of my mental energy hiding who I was and attempting to fit in.

I don't want to have any category stamped on my face.

Color don't mean anything. People gonna try to put you in a place one way or the other.

I think growing up, people want to put you in a box and label you quite often, just because it's kind of easier, I guess.

These days I find myself wanting to avoid being pigeon-holed, ghettoized, held in a different category than other authors. And when people ask me if I'm a black writer, or just a writer who happens to be black, I tend to say that it's either a dumb question or a question which happens to be dumb.

I think a lot of young girls go through that period in their life of finding who they are, and at that point, looking good matters the most.

Wherever I go, people ask: 'What is she? What is she?' There has always been an agenda - they're excluding me or including me in something with that question. It is the first thing agents in Los Angeles ask me. And then I'd hear: 'You're not black enough, you're too black, you're Italian - no, you're Spanish.'

When you're 13, you're still trying to figure out your style.

I was the first South Asian female to do comedy videos on YouTube. But at the same time, all races face their barriers, and I've learned through YouTube, if it's not race, it will be sexism, if it's not sexism, it will be homophobia. It will always be something, and all voices should be heard.

I hate it when people call me a teen queen.

When I first started, all the media I ever got was, 'Hey! There's this Indian girl. And even though she is Indian, she gets views and stuff.'

I became stereotyped.

Labels are for filing. Labels are for clothing. Labels are not for people.

Labels are for cans, not people.

I had a white senator call me a rag head, and I had an African-American legislator call me a conservative with a tan.

Teenagers are asking, 'Who am I?' and 'How do I fit in?' in every aspect of their lives, and the best YA romances appreciate that there is more to a teen's life than finding love.

Stereotypes happen. I try not to embrace them or avoid them.

There was no reason to label us as anti-Semitic.

Middle school was probably my hardest time. I was trying to fit in for so long, until about junior year of high school when I realized that trying to fit into this one image of perfection was never going to make me happy.