Helen McCrory Quotes

Teenagers are more willing to experiment, and they'll find a way to wear something if they like it.

Things have changed a lot since the earth was cooling and I was a teenage girl, but the basics of teenage bedrooms have remained the same. Every girl wants a place that they are proud to call their own and where they can express their own individuality.

When I was fourteen, I was one of those kids who wore all black because it matched everything. Seriously.

Kids don't want to dye their whole head another color; that's what their mothers do.

When I was fourteen and first started going out, I always wanted to be the opposite of everyone else. So I would go to the club in a polo T-shirt and pants and sneakers and a hat on backward, just so I would not be dressed like other girls.

I was like little-miss wannabe punk-rocker; I would go home and secretly listen to Pink, and dance around, like, 'Ugh, she understands me so well!'

It's very hard to describe your own style. And I'm young, so I'm still experimenting. But I think it's quite British and very much about individuality.

When you're younger, it's all about conformity and being easily influenced - especially in terms of fashion. You just follow the trends. Whatever is hot at the moment, you want to get it. You basically just want to be doing what everyone else is doing. But as you get older, those things aren't as important.

My mother was not happy with the Afros that my friends and I emerged with - there's that crack in the book of 'Why, if a fly landed in there, he'd break his little wings trying to get out.' I was not pure dashiki, though - I was a combination of African dresses, miniskirts, tank tops, shawls, ethnic-looking earrings, sandals.

Ever since I was a kid, I had the urge of expressing myself in any way. Like many kids, you want try on different clothes, different looks. I was kinda punky for a while: I had makeup under my eyes. Then I started wearing more baggy stuff.

I just wanted to do the things that all normal teenagers wanted to do. So I did become quite rebellious.

When I was 16, I started to spend a lot of time in Soho and downtown New York and noticed everyone's style and the eclectic things people would wear. And that's when I started to experiment with things like my lipstick and mixing different kinds of pieces and, of course, my hair color.

As an adolescent I saw the Specials at the Glass House in Pomona, and that was life changing. I dressed the part - except not well, because it was a thrift suit. I looked more like David Byrne than a rudeboy; I still have a hard time finding suits that fit me. But I had my braces and I had my Docs. It was unbelievable.

Now where I come from We don't let society Tell us how it's supposed to be Our clothes, our hair We don't care It's all about being there Everybody's going Uptown That's where I wanna be Uptown Set your mind free.

Look at a picture of me before I was 15. I am a boy. I wore my brother's clothes, dude!

I'm sure there are people who say like, "I was wearing weird emo eyeliner," but there's something pretty embarrassing about the jazz phase.

He knew her now. She was the weird girl in the class above him, who dyed her hair pink and always wore a lot of pentragrams and crystals. Right now she was also wearing giant chandelier earings and a violent pink T-Shirt that bore the words ROMEO AND JULIET WOULDN'T HAVE LASTED.

People say to me, 'Do you dye your hair?' and I say, 'Well, does f**king Siouxsie Sioux? Does Bowie?'. Of course I'm going to have a decent haircut. It's one of the first things I learnt to do - get a few songs together and get your hairstyle right.

I'm hugely inspired by the '60s and the '70s. I just love the music of that time and the overall freedom of that era. I love that the idea of clashing didn't really exist. You could mix prints on prints, you could mix fabrics and colors - and it was more about the way you felt than about the label and trends. That's something that I've always gravitated towards.

You can wear your hair long or wear a beard because you want to show that you are interested in thought, in psychological endeavors rather than appearance.

For me, growing up in hip-hop culture, it's all about having the next style, the new fashion, the new way to express yourself, the fly new beat. I can't sit still; I have no nostalgia. I don't have to have nostalgia.

I was definitely scared of fashion growing up just because I didn't want people to think I was gay. But now that I'm out, I feel like it's such a personal journey for me that I'm going on every single day where I feel more and more confident and comfortable to wear the clothes that I want to wear, and to have the interest that I have, and to paint my nails if I want to.

We had individuality. We did as we pleased. We stayed up late. We dressed the way we wanted. I used to whiz down Sunset Boulevard in my open Kissel, with several red chow dogs to match my hair. Today, they're sensible and end up with better health. But we had more fun.

When I was 13, I kind of got into the punk scene. I realized it was easier to wear a pair of combat boots and jeans and a beat-up T-shirt. I think of it as a uniform: Ya know, if you're a Maytag man, you put on your bow tie. I still have T-shirts from when I was that age.

Although I'm known for my long, colorful locs, I still don't take my hair too seriously. I experiment a lot, dyeing it and constantly switching styles to grab attention. My hair is one of my best accessories and changing it helps express who I am.