Jacqueline Woodson Quotes

On some level, we as human beings can be who we want to be.

During 'Hawthorne', I was constantly trying not to be too outrageous and keep it serious. This has been so refreshing for me because it's such a good outlet for the inner me to just be. That's the whole point of 'Glee' anyways - to just be who you are and that's enough. I really feel that way on set.

In 1980, shortly before my 11th birthday, I wrote my first essay in English.

We have been educated into believing someone else's concept of the deity, and someone else's standard of beauty. You have the right to practice any religion and politics in a way that best suits your freedom, your dignity, and your understanding. And once you do that, you don't apologize.

Every bit of me is devoted to love and art. And I aspire to try to be a teacher to my young fans who feel just like I felt when I was younger. I just felt like a freak. I guess what I'm trying to say is I'm trying to liberate them, I want to free them of their fears and make them feel that they can make their own space in the world.

My beauty icons are women whose images are self-created.

When I learnt to write I became my own master, I became very strong, and that strength is with me to this very day.

Most people remember being 4 objectively, as if they're seeing a movie of a 4-year-old. But me, if you ask me to think about when I'm 4, I can feel myself being 4, and I am there, looking out through my 4-year-old eyes.

Part of what I want to do is sort of reclaim my story - it belongs to me and to my children, who have to live with whoever their mother is.

The real story is that I am very free, that I've managed to be who I wanted to be without compromising.

When I was as little as four years old, my mom would give me a pen and paper and tell me to write a story to keep me busy.

One creates oneself.

I have a name, I have to take advantage of it.

For me, embracing my own power is about embracing my right to be an individual.

I've always found that the most powerful way to create change is to be myself and not be afraid to express who I am.

Deciding to not attach ourselves to something that doesn't appropriately represent us is extremely powerful.

I think I have femininity, I have masculinity, but I get to use all of Jeffrey, and that's very powerful. And this is what I always thought when I went down in my little basement in San Francisco, where I grew up, and daydreamed about being an actor: It felt like this. This is what it felt like.

When I was a 12-year-old middle-schooler in Richmond, Virginia, my local newspaper published an op-ed that I wrote all by myself.

When I came into this industry, I was never afraid to be myself.

My hair is purple, and unicorns mean a lot to me. They're unique, rare, majestic, and beautiful, and I think those are some things that I embody. I wasn't always confident, and so once I gained my confidence, I was like, 'I'm a unicorn, and I don't care what anybody says.' My fans are unicorns, too. I like to call them my 'unicorn nation.'

I think it's a different kind of activism. Like, women shouldn't have to step into men's roles to be empowered. They should be able to step into themselves. So that's what I try to bring, that we shouldn't be thinking of it as menswear or womenswear; it should be clothing for people.

Now, actually, I can prove the people that I'm an individual; I just don't have to be a Bella Twin to make a name for myself here. I can be Nikki Bella, Fearless Nikki, and I've really enjoyed that.

I belong to a teachers' family and writing was my expression.

I can't let anybody tell me what I'm going to be.

You're not going to scare me into being somebody I don't want to be.